How should I drive/treat my car after a rebuild and how long until the first oil change? And how long does it take to fully break in a LT1?

I also plan to put 10W-30 Mobil 1 Full Synthetic in with a Tough Guard Fram Oil Filter (# TG30), is this a good oil and filter to use from the first oil change on?

 

Stay away from Fram filters. AC-Delco, Wix (NAPA Gold) are good and easily available.

 

FRAM sucks huh? What about Bosch, STP, or anything else Autozone sells?

 

AZ sells some ok stuff. Bosch and STP aren't some of them, though.

 

Get an Ac Delco filter from the zone. I have also heard to use conventional oil during break in and for the first couple thousand miles or so.

 

Ok, so how should I treat my engine for the first miles to the first oil change and how long does it take to be broken in?

 

keep it below 3500 rpms for 150 miles, no full throttle for 500 miles. Change oil at 500 miles. Start synthetic oil (if you are switching to it) after 2,000 miles, and change oil at 3,000 mile intervals.

 

There are varying ideas about break-in. Some say not babying it at all seats the rings better.

 

Was the engine run immediately after the build was completed, and the oil and filter changed almost immediately? Good way to start. Will the engine be run on an engine dyno after completion? Run it for an hour, varying the load and rpm. Change oil and filter again, check for leaks, then do whatever you want to it. As noted, do not use synthetic oil for startup or breakin. With my stroker, after the first hour on the engine dyno, we started tuning it, with pulls ranging to 762HP on nitrous. No sense babying anything.

 

Well, let me clarify what I mean by rebuild. When I got the car, it started knocking. So I took it to my mechanic and he took motor apart to find out the problem. It ended up being that a cam bearing messed up and caused the oil pressure to drop. So while he had the block apart, he took it to a machine shop to get the cylinders checked out. The machine shop said the cylinders were .040" overbored. He said the crank and pistons were practically new and the heads had been recently rebuilt. He put oversized cam bearings in. He replaced the crank bearings and head bolts and some bolts to hold the crank down. That clarifies what I mean with rebuilt. So would it be the same to break this in compared to a complete rebuild?

 

Since it truly was not rebuilt (cylinders not honed) there really is no issue. The rings are seated now. If they were not seated, I would say get on it hard with WOT runs for a good many miles.

The only thing to say now is change the oil after 20 minutes and then again soon after. Everyone has an opinion but mine is to do 20 minute, 100 mile, 500 mile and then 1500 mile oil changes before synthetic.

 

With the new information, there is nothing to break-in. It would have been better if you had mentioned all this from the beginning.

 

Sorry about the misinformation. So there's nothing to really break in? The bearings don't get shaved a little or anything?

 

WHat are oversized cam bearings?

 

Oversize cam bearings have a larger OD and a stock ID. They are used to repair damage to the block if a cam bearing spins and removes material. Simply installing a stock bearing will not work because the hole in the block is larger after the bearing spins. The machine shop line bores all the cam bearings to a larger diameter, usually like .010. Then the new bearings are installed.