new motor break in???

[mlaines]

What is the proper way to break in a new motor? The motor we built is pretty much stock.
Also does anyone know what type of horsepower this motor will have?
Mark IV 454 HO .30 over
speed pro flat top pistons
stock rods, crank (turned 10/10)
The heads are 396 medium chamber cast iron that have been ported and polished with bigger valves
(don't have good details on the heads)
Cam: schnider don't have the specs
weiand action plus intake (8005)
holly 750
I believe the motor will have about 10.5 to 1 compression with the 396 heads
I know I don't have all the details but a ball park would be cool if anyone knows.
Thanks
Mark

[Moneypitt]

What is the proper way to break in a new motor? The motor we built is pretty much stock.
With the exception of cam breakin procedure, a properly assembled engine should be ready to rock and roll once the fluids are confirmed not to be leaking, and the timing is set. If the internal parts and pieces are not right, they never will be, all the "break in" in the world won't change that.......MP

[mlaines]

What are the steps to break in a cam?

[Squirtcha?]

What kind of cam?

[mlaines]

Its a schnider. i don't have the details

[BrendellaJet]

flat tappet? If so, you will get a dozen different responses, Ive successfully broken in and seen others done by revving between 2000 and 2500 for 25 minutes. Change oil and inspect. No glitter in the oil it is ready to rock. You want help during this procedure. Get the revs to 3000 so you can set your timing during the procedure. Ultimately you may need to rev higher than that depending on your ignition setup, but by 3k all timing should be in.
Roller? Get the tuneup set and nail it.

[mlaines]

Brendella,
right on, did you get that money? What about horsepower?

[MudPumper]

I had almost that exact motor in an old boat with a little less compression and it made 485hp. I forget what the cam specs were but it had stock crank and rods, pretty much stock iron heads with speed pro pistons and a 750 DP on an Edlebrock Performer RPM. If you have a decent cam and some head work I bet it makes 500.

[BrendellaJet]

Brendella,
right on, did you get that money? What about horsepower?
Got it, thanks. Sent a PM too.
Post up the cam specs and Lowrider will probably do a desktop dyno for you.:D

[mlaines]

good deal thanks

[minnesota_duane]

I just killed a cam and ruined a new 429 by having my head up my ass!
Go to a gm dealer and get two cans of GM E.O.S. put it in the oil. Use 20 or 30 weight SF or SE oil. Prime the oil pump. Fill the bowls with gas threw the vents, have the timing close enough to fire and run. Have your water hooked up everything perfectly ready to go. Enough fuel, water, firing order right, everything needs to be real close or perfect.
Run it at 2000-3000 rpm for twenty minutes. Don't idle it at all, if you have a problem shut it off fix the problem start it and go back to the 2000-3000 rpm.
Mine wouldn't start I thought it was the Mallory dist that I had never ran before, it wasn't! I was tired and in a hurry kept cranking on it overlooking the obvious (right firing order wrong rotation) Yes I am a dumb ass!
After getting that right it fired and ran but it was too late, by then the lifters and cam had lost the assembly lube from all the cranking. I ran it the 20 minutes varying between 2 and three grand. Shut it down dumped the oil and filter. When I restarted it I heard a rocker start getting loud, I pulled the valve cover and found a loose rocker. I hoped that it was a mistake putting the rockers on but had a feeling it wasn't that kind of a mistake. Took it to the lake wiped it out, had several bad lobes filled the engine full of metal wiped out the crank and all the rods and mains.
I don't need the comments of what I should and shouldn't have done, I know them already. Only reason I am posting this here is so he doesn't have to learn the hard way.

[BrendellaJet]

I just killed a cam and ruined a new 429 by having my head up my ass!
Go to a gm dealer and get two cans of GM E.O.S. put it in the oil. Use 20 or 30 weight SF or SE oil. Prime the oil pump. Fill the bowls with gas threw the vents, have the timing close enough to fire and run. Have your water hooked up everything perfectly ready to go. Enough fuel, water, firing order right, everything needs to be real close or perfect.
Run it at 2000-3000 rpm for twenty minutes. Don't idle it at all, if you have a problem shut it off fix the problem start it and go back to the 2000-3000 rpm.
Mine wouldn't start I thought it was the Mallory dist that I had never ran before, it wasn't! I was tired and in a hurry kept cranking on it overlooking the obvious (right firing order wrong rotation) Yes I am a dumb ass!
After getting that right it fired and ran but it was too late, by then the lifters and cam had lost the assembly lube from all the cranking. I ran it the 20 minutes varying between 2 and three grand. Shut it down dumped the oil and filter. When I restarted it I heard a rocker start getting loud, I pulled the valve cover and found a loose rocker. I hoped that it was a mistake putting the rockers on but had a feeling it wasn't that kind of a mistake. Took it to the lake wiped it out, had several bad lobes filled the engine full of metal wiped out the crank and all the rods and mains.
I don't need the comments of what I should and shouldn't have done, I know them already. Only reason I am posting this here is so he doesn't have to learn the hard way.
Very good advice. You should have read this before you broke your motor in Duane...:) Sounds like you got it all taken care of now.

[Moneypitt]

This is an area that needs to be addressed by the aftermarket suppliers/inovators. As I understand the high revs are to be sure the cam and flat tappets are well oiled with splashed oil from the crank. How about an oil sprinkler in the valley? Really wouldn't be that hard to design/make. Run it off of oil pressure, like a rear gallery plug, into the valley. Leave it in, wouldn't hurt anything to continue to lube the valvetrain. This would eliminate the necessity of reving a new engine for 20 or 30 minutes. Alot of performance engines run an additional oil line into the valve covers to sprinkle the rockers, same deal, but over the cam/lifters............MP

[john]

every 5 mins i go from 2000 to 2500 for 30 mins i have broke in two cams so far and still running and those are comp cam specs too hope that helps
john

[BrendellaJet]

This is an area that needs to be addressed by the aftermarket suppliers/inovators.
It has. Its called a roller cam.

[Moneypitt]

It has. Its called a roller cam.
So true. I haven't had to break in a cam for at least 15 years. Still, there are people that continue to use the flat tappet style and the suggested oiler would do the job. MP

[396_WAYS_TO_SPIT]

I just killed a cam and ruined a new 429 by having my head up my ass!
Go to a gm dealer and get two cans of GM E.O.S. put it in the oil. Use 20 or 30 weight SF or SE oil. Prime the oil pump. Fill the bowls with gas threw the vents, have the timing close enough to fire and run. Have your water hooked up everything perfectly ready to go. Enough fuel, water, firing order right, everything needs to be real close or perfect.
Run it at 2000-3000 rpm for twenty minutes. Don't idle it at all, if you have a problem shut it off fix the problem start it and go back to the 2000-3000 rpm.
Mine wouldn't start I thought it was the Mallory dist that I had never ran before, it wasn't! I was tired and in a hurry kept cranking on it overlooking the obvious (right firing order wrong rotation) Yes I am a dumb ass!
After getting that right it fired and ran but it was too late, by then the lifters and cam had lost the assembly lube from all the cranking. I ran it the 20 minutes varying between 2 and three grand. Shut it down dumped the oil and filter. When I restarted it I heard a rocker start getting loud, I pulled the valve cover and found a loose rocker. I hoped that it was a mistake putting the rockers on but had a feeling it wasn't that kind of a mistake. Took it to the lake wiped it out, had several bad lobes filled the engine full of metal wiped out the crank and all the rods and mains.
I don't need the comments of what I should and shouldn't have done, I know them already. Only reason I am posting this here is so he doesn't have to learn the hard way.
Damn that sucks:( I hate it when I hear stuff like this. All that $$$ down the drain.

[Ralph Brunt]

what i've learned is that the 2 things that kill a cam/lifters is the oil for one and 2 is having to much spring pressure. and i dont see that addressed here. so take out the inner spring and follow the above directions. jmho

[mlaines]

all this info is great

[Jetaholic]

Before I owned a boat, I had worked on many cars. However, the deepest I had ever gotten into an engine was rebuilding just the top end (from the heads up).
When I got my boat I decided I was gonna build a new motor...actually get into the rotating assembly. Boy am I glad I found Hot Boat. I never knew there was an actual "break in" procedure for flat tappet style cams. And I never would've known about it had I not found Hot Boat and all the expert advice I have found on here.
I built a 454...in theory should get about 500HP. Here are the specs:
Mk IV 454 Block (Casting date Jan 29th, 1986)
.030 Overbore
Clevite standard size main, rod and cam bearings
Stock crank & rods
TRW/Speed Pro L2495F .030 dome pistons
Plasma moly rings
Melling M77G Oil Pump
'73-'74 454 Open Chamber Large Oval Port Heads (Casting 353049)
2.19" Intake; 1.88" Exhaust valves
Comp Cams double roller timing chain
Cam Specs -
280 Seat - Seat duration
232 .050 duration
110 Lobe Centers (installed on a 106 centerline/4* advanced)
60* Overlap seat-seat
12* Overlap .050
.323 lobe lift (running a 1.7 rocker ratio, which provides about .549 valve lift)
Intake opens 30* BTDC, closes 70 ABDC
Exhaust opens 70* BBDC, closes 30* ATDC
Open spring pressure on valve springs is about 400lbs. However I had the machine shop leave the inner springs out of the heads for cam break in.
Scorpion roller rockers (rated 800lbs)
Comp Cams magnum push rods (rated 800lbs)
Iskendarian anti pump up lifters
Edelbrock Performer RPM AIr Gap manifold
Holley Marine 750DP Carb
Holley Marine mechanical fuel pump
Powerforce Harmonic Balancer
Scat Flex Plate (SFI Approved)
MSD 6M-2 Marine Ignition box with MSD Ready To Run Marine Distributor
MSD Blaster 2 High Vibration
Bassett Long Collector Headers
I pretty much drowned the engine with assembly lube...especially on the cam. Once I got her all together, we turned the key and she fired right up. We then immediately took it up to 2000 RPMs (ironman44bear was pretty much holding the throttle open on fire up to 2000 RPMs while I screwed the idle speed screw down to hold it there) and just let her run for about 20-25 mins. Every so often during that time we would take it up to 3000 RPMs.
I haven't even tuned it past the initial fire up tune and this motor lights right up....you're not even on the key for 1/2 second...everything is tight and she just wants to run no questions asked. And it was mostly due to all the information I got from all of you guys on here.