hey guys,

fairly basic question which people not running this exact setup should still be able to answer.

i am swapping out the old 350 (look for good parts in classifieds soon! ) and putting in a complete 355 4-bolt LE3 (cam and heads) motor.

whats the typical break-in time and oil change interval for a freshly machined and assembled motor such as this one? cam and everything will have 0 miles on them since the fresh machine work/assembly

thanks a lot, this should be an easy answer for most of you...

 

Ya start with Dino oil(20/40 or 10/30) and correct all the problems in the driveway(leaks,idle,etc.) Then take it out for a drive(10/15 miles) keeping it under 3000 but take it to 3000 several times at a pretty good clip and bring it back and check everything and change the oil and cut open the filter to inspect for any metal.
If all is OK drive it some more(100 miles) and see how it does.

THEN DRIVE IT LIKE YA STOLE IT if all is OK.

 

I do a warm up, check to make sure it's running well, good pressure no leaks etc... change the oil and filter. Then start it up the second time and take it for a drive and progressively get on it harder and harder till you are doing WOT pulls. That will seat the rings in the best. I don't ***** foot around in the thing for very long, if you baby it too much the rings will not seal and then it's a freaking pile.

You have a roller cam so there is no need to be easy on it once everything checks out ok.

Bret

 

bret, or others,

any need to change the oil/filter right after those intial WOT pulls?

also, 'dino oil' - is this a brand name? or are you referring to any generic 10/30, etc? i assume its ok to just go straight to synthetic or whatever we prefer to run once it is properly seated and broken in...

thanks

 

NO SYNTHETIC for a couple of thousand miles is the way I do it,but that's just me. I have had rings NOT seat from synthetic.
Change the oil after the first shakedown runs UNDER 3000RPM's. This is so if something goes wrong ya can hear it and are not winding it up and can possibly shut it down before it destroys it self. Ya got NO guarantee if it will or won't on a new engine, don't care who built it. It is a bunch of untested parts put together for your app.

 

i did things the bauer way. 5 pulls on 1/2 throttle to about 60mph going to about 4-4500 rpm, then 5 pulls on 3/4 throttle and then full throttle to 5000 rpm. works great. i have'nt used but maybe a drop of oil on my forged 358 since startup and have logged about 900 miles on it since. By the way, i'm going in for a dyno tune august 4th.... i'm hoping to have about 1200 miles of it by then. is it safe to switch to synthetic the day before i go?

 

What type of rings do you have and synthetic won't show but a small increase at the wheels over dino oil of the proper viscosity.
1200 miles "should" be enough to switch if ya want to and ya are not using any oil know.

 

This is an interesting post for me too because I will be starting up my rebuilt 355 next weekend. My question however is, why would my machinist have told me to go easy on it for the first 500 miles whereas you guys say to get on it to get the rings seated. My machinist explained that for the first 500 miles you have to let everything seat and that you don't want to thrash on it. This guy has been building engines since the 60's, so he knows a thing or too, but could someone possibly give another perspective on this?

 

Ya start with Dino oil(20/40 or 10/30) and correct all the problems in the driveway(leaks,idle,etc.) Then take it out for a drive(10/15 miles) keeping it under 3000 but take it to 3000 several times at a pretty good clip and bring it back and check everything and change the oil and cut open the filter to inspect for any metal.
If all is OK drive it some more(100 miles) and see how it does.

THEN DRIVE IT LIKE YA STOLE IT if all is OK.
__________________

Well,,don't believe I said anything about 500 miles.I also have been building engines since the '60's and sometimes get stuck in a groove of what has worked for so many years and the "new" stuff doesn't get done.
There are many ways of doing this also.


EDIT: Google it and ya will find different ways,but the 2 things most agree on is keep it down below 4000 and change the oil quick and cut open the filter to look for any damage.

 

what is dino oil?? i have no idea what you are talking about. I have been using quakerstate 5-30 since initial startup. i have changed the oil twice already, and i'm about ready for the 3rd. I'd like to switch to royal purple...I've had good luck with it in my other vehicles. To answer your question, i have the diamond rings that come with their forged pistons. just the standard stuff. chromoly top ring, cast second ring. piston to wall is .004" excactly in all cylinders. ring end gap was set correctly by myself.

 

This is pretty much my way as well for a roller cam motor where the camshaft dosn't need a designated breakinn that entails something completely different as with a flat tappet cam shaft(this is part of why some of the older engine builders are still set in there ways doing things more slow on an innitial engine build breakinn period).....In my experience, there's a VERY short window for the rings to properly seat before they glaze, and once they do it's never going to be as good as is could have been.....Joe

 

my mechanic said the same thing?? 500 miles but im not gonna always drive it pussyfooted people usualy say break it in how your gonna drive it lol..... i get my car back soon... and i want all the power i can get out of it got the MSD box w/ 3000 rpm pill in there so it will stop me from going crazy haha

 

Hell most of my builds stop smoking before ya get around the block so anything else I don't feel is warrantied(old school or not)
Yea we still use some flat tappets here in the Heart of Dixie.

 

I have used Royal Purple in race engines and it did a good job so if ya want to change I don't see a reason not to,it's a preference.
Dino oil is REAL oil out of the ground.

 

I always just take it nice and easy for 5-700 mi. No wot or crazy down shifting. 3/4 throttle to 5-5500 RPM is the most I would do.

This gets discussed on the sport bike forums alot. For example, my R6 had a sticker on the face of the tach saying to keep the rpm below 6,000 for 200mi, 8,000 till 500mi, and 10,000 till 800mi (can't remember exactly it's been a while, but you get the idea). The sport bike community seems to be devided down the middle about the break in. Half of the guys break em in the other half rips the sticker of the tach and hits the rev limmiter .

I guess the question is: Why would engineers go through the trouble of recomending a breakin procedure if it wasn't important?

I change the oil after the first 45min to 1 hour of run time, this is mostly at idle untill operating temp, checking for leaks or anything else, and a brief road test. Then I change the oil again after 500 mi. I use dino oil (A.K.A. non-synthetic, A.K.A. mineral oil), because the price of synthetic is much higher. After the inital breakin I switch to synthetic and start making dyno pulls. Remember to keep your oil filters (in order!) and inspect the media for metal shavings. An excessive ammount will indicate a problem.

I guess in the end your personal preferance will prevail, so do what you think is right. If you choose to do the 100 mi breakin please atleast do the community a foavor and do a leakage & compression test after a 15min run and again after 1,000 mi.