First run!

[Getter-Done]

Andy
I would like to turn this Thread to a (Positive Note )
For you.
I do not call my self a (Professional).
It creates to much Drama












.

[Andy4639]

Originally Posted by Getter-Done

Andy
I would like to turn this Thread to a (Positive Note )
For you.
I do not call my self a (Professional).
It creates to much Drama.

I understand that 100%
I never call myself a professional either!
I have been working on these trucks for over 40 years and still don't know them like I would want to.
It's all good man, we all have our opinion's!

[YoungPup1977]

Looks like a couple of professionals in this thread, one hates red and one is starting his own "timing" forum.

BYE!

[Scott Liggett]

That is always exciting getting the new engine fired up. I am usually also a nervous wreck on my engines, especially when I do the building.

Best of luck on the rest of the build.

[vince1]

I wish I hadn't made the comment on the red. Getting used to it now.

I question the need for this cam break in procedure too. It is beyond me why we should have to do that. Don't the manufacturers harden them at all? It seems with new lifters and a new grind that they should run smoothly against each other and why should they wear? What happens to them during the break in that would make them more durable? Why don't the manufacturers run them in?

After seeing a couple of worn out cams I can understand that we have to use the right oil.

[Scott Liggett]

Originally Posted by vince1

I wish I hadn't made the comment on the red. Getting used to it now.

I question the need for this cam break in procedure too. It is beyond me why we should have to do that. Don't the manufacturers harden them at all? It seems with new lifters and a new grind that they should run smoothly against each other and why should they wear? What happens to them during the break in that would make them more durable? Why don't the manufacturers run them in?

After seeing a couple of worn out cams I can understand that we have to use the right oil.

The reason for breaking in flat tappet camshafts goes back 100 years long before oil companies removed zinc/phosphorus from most over the counter oils.

The flat tappet camshaft is made of ductile iron. The lifters are made of tool steel. Dissimilar metals that are spinning on each other. The lifters sit offset on top of the cam lobe and spins on it. Both the cam lobe and the lifter's bottom are not completely flat to allow this to happen. The break in period of 20-30 minutes between 1800-2200 rpm wears these two different metals together. They become matched. The zinc/phosphorus helps keep those two dissimilar metals from wearing. I have heard the zinc is there to take the wear, so the cam and lifters do not.

Why flat tappet cams go flat can be a lot of reasons. All of which can be avoided. Use proper oils with enough zinc. Not letting the engine idle for a long period of time before breaking in cam. Not breaking in the cam. Not priming the oil before firing the engine. Not using cam shaft lube.

On occasion, even doing all these correct, a lifter or cams fail. They are mechanical items and sometimes mechanical things fail.

[vince1]

I remember taking apart a 65 Ford 352 at 100k miles. The camshaft lobes had tiny cracks running over them but were not worn. It looked like they had some kind of treatment done to them that I had not seen before.

The first I heard of worn camshaft lobes was with GM engines, maybe in the seventies or eighties. At the time the word I heard was that they were cheap camshafts made in Mexico but wherever they were made GM sure seems to have had more than their fair share of them. Too bad because otherwise I know these engines can go well beyond 100k miles.

[Captainfab]

The issue these days with flat tappet cams is not necessarily inferior cams, although those do exist, but it is an issue of the lack of additives in the typical off the shelf oil that provides the wear protection needed with flat tappet cams. Especially upon initial start up and the break in procedure that is supposed to be followed immediately. The OEM's have not installed flat tappet cams in any engine since 1995.

[Ironangel]

Originally Posted by Captainfab

The issue these days with flat tappet cams is not necessarily inferior cams, although those do exist, but it is an issue of the lack of additives in the typical off the shelf oil that provides the wear protection needed with flat tappet cams. Especially upon initial start up and the break in procedure that is supposed to be followed immediately. The OEM's have not installed flat tappet cams in any engine since 1995.

^^^This is gospel truth!^^^ That's not to say that the cam didn't break in properly because there are exceptions to the rule. Those lifters need to spin on those cam lobes on a flat tappet cam and if a good moly cam lube was used on assembly a motor might just luck out and break in properly before all that "molybdenum disulfide" got washed off at a low enough rpm that oil was never splashed up on the cam to wash off all the goody. There are "proper procedures" and then there's everything else the so called experts do...I'm getting ready to start a thread on a 260 HP crate motor I just installed in Old Belle that's been waiting on the stand for 6 years now. Got her purring like a kitten as well as a solid lifer 327 install in a 63 Impala. Both motors got broke in Isky Rev Lube and Lucas 30w break in oil, as per the break in instructions...