[64speed]

Let’s talk about this phenomenon a minute. As many of you know my block failed and took the roller cam with it but thank god took nothing else with it. I have other things I need to do to “finish the car” so I couldn’t put 1500 in a new setup right now so I went HFT. Butler told me they don’t sell their engines with flat tappet anymore because of too many failures. I then contacted Crower because of my concerns and desire to run the 60919. They stated while failures did occur it was more like 20% and the returns they received were from obvious poor break in most of the time. Wayne Sless SR. Is building my short block this time and he is the crew chief of a few cars here at the Ware Shoals 8th mile track and he says with props break in I have no worries. The 3 sets to make a perfect set was a little of a misnomer. When pushed Wayne said he has a spec range he personally likes to see not that these others were junk. So Wayne is doing all short block assembly, the only thing I am doing is sealing it up and putting accessories on. I hope to be rolling in another 4/5 weeks. Here is my plan I’m gonna cuss and say I have built 3 Chevrolets before so this is the plan I intend to follow. Hook everything up and check for leaks as best I can before starting so we don’t have to shut it down. Fill with Lucas 30w break in, 6 quarts. No additional additives unless you have input. Turn engine over slowly 3 times or so while half inch drill builds pressure..once I have pressure I am going to use the mustard bottle trick for the fuel bowls y’all recommended. Use a hand pump to pull some fuel up to the mechanical pump so it isn’t trying to pull from the tank dry. Drop in distributor with cylinder/balancer on 0* and then trim the rotor back approximately 12 degreaser.. hook up choke, pat accelerator once as always and hit it. When it fires I will alternate between 1800/2500 for 20 minutes with hose standing by to cool down radiator so I don’t have to shut if off. After 20 mins let it cool down, drain oil cut open filter and look for glitter.. if I see none I run another 500 miles of Lucas break in and then if that’s clear then I’m good. Anyone add anything?

[Elarson]

Remove inner springs to reduce the open pressure. Mike successfully broke in the SFT cam in his 421 that way and we're going to do the same with my road race engine.

Eric

[AG]

I put the balancer at 16 degrees BTDC and the distributor rotor on #1 terminal, works well. Start with a known carb and fill the bowl with gas before cranking. Have your timing light hooked up and ready and have your wrench ready to loosen and tighten the distributor bolt. I jack up the front end slightly to make sure all air in the heads come out and initially fill with distilled water. Have another person there to help.

[64speed]

I will have about 5 looky Lou’s standing around

[Half-Inch Stud]

Leave inner Springs (is a reasonable cam-spring combo), do as you posted, yet i prefer to drive the vehicle on a highway, up then back for the 25 minutes for the many reasons of proper cooling, CYL ring loading, clean air, no fouling, and feeling the joy of success.

[64speed]

The springs were spec’d by crower and Butler agreed. Of course I have no way to do that in the car without a tremendous amount of labor. It’s a perfect scenario I agree but it’s just not feasible for me. My surgery is on my stomach and I will be having trouble doing all this as it is let alone 16 springs in car

[chuckies76ta]

I'll just add to post #3, leave the thermostat housing off and watch the cross over while filling with whatever you use for coolant. Keep filling rad a bit and it will raise level in crossover. Reinstall thermostat housing. That way all the air is out from the heads for sure. I'm with AG on the 16 degrees. Make sure to always run an oil with zinc and phosphorus for maximum protection. https://lucasoil.com/products/hot-rods-classic-cars Wishing you success.. Oh and no synthetic oils for awhile. Put some miles on it.

[chiphead]

Find somebody to pull the inner springs 💯 for break in. I'm doing a 2802 in a seasoned engine and I've already left the inners out. Even tho the 2802 and the 68404 spring is a mild combo, I'm still leaving the inners out for the break in.

2000-3000 RPM for 3 rounds of 10-15 minutes each.

[tom s]

run water only until you know everything is good.Tom

[AG]

Originally Posted by chiphead

Find somebody to pull the inner springs 💯 for break in. I'm doing a 2802 in a seasoned engine and I've already left the inners out. Even tho the 2802 and the 68404 spring is a mild combo, I'm still leaving the inners out for the break in.

2000-3000 RPM for 3 rounds of 10-15 minutes each.

You can get an on the head valve spring compressor that screws on the rocker stud and an adapter that screws into the spark plug hole that attaches to an air line to keep the valve against the seat.

[68lemans462]

Originally Posted by AG

You can get an on the head valve spring compressor that screws on the rocker stud and an adapter that screws into the spark plug hole that attaches to an air line to keep the valve against the seat.

Yep... I did this when breaking in my solid flat tappet cam.. So far so good.. This thing gets POUNDED ON every time I take it out and several hundred dragstrip passes since putting it together. Be sure to run high Zinc oil.

[grivera]

Rotating the crank three times is excessive and will scrape off the moly break in paste from cam. Instead, spin oil pump CCW as indicated and look for oil pressure on gauge. What some also look for is oil coming out of the pushrods and then rotate crank to reposition the lifters. This can be accomplished a 1/4 rotation at a time but not three full rotations.

[64speed]

Well after a long talk with the machinist and some measuring because of the hydroboost etc I don’t have enough room to have an in car spring changer. In that my decision has been made. I’m taking my hand out of it totally. Wayne is just gonna build the whole damn engine. Only thing I gotta do is pay another few hundred dollars and he’s gonna finish it out and break it in.

[Stan Weiss]

While to much spring pressure can be a problem. You need to know how much pressure only the outer spring has because to little spring pressure can also be a problem.

This a quote of a post by Mike Jones.

Originally Posted by CamKing post_id=933709 time=1672419774 user_id=5117

Most of the roller failures are from lifters failing, or from customers running way more spring pressure then the cam core and/or lifters can handle.
We also get quite a few that get hit by connecting rods :lol: .

As for flat tappet, we only lose 1 or 2 a year, and that's normally from either the customer making a mistake, or me making a mistake.
Last year, the one flat tappet cam we lost, was because I told the customer to run less then 280# of spring pressure at max lift, for break in.
The customer followed my advice, and put on some springs that were about 170# at max lift, and he broke in the cam for 20 minutes, just like he was told to do. The issue was, he had so little spring pressure, the cam and lifters were never actually "Broke-in". I never thought someone would go to a spring that light, but I never instructed him not to. It was totally my fault, so I sent him a new cam and lifters.
Now I recommend 240-280# at max lift, for break-in.

Stan

[MarkS57]

FWIW, since 2015, I've broken in 4 sets of FTHL's without removing the inner springs. 2 HyLift Johnsons, 1 Lunati set with a VooDoo 703 and an NOS set of TRW lifters from the mid 80's (quietest of the bunch BTW). No failures, Comp Cam break in oil w/ JGR Driven assembly grease & hi zinc oil after break in. Your mileage may vary.

[Richie Hoffman]

I pull the inner springs out of all the flat tappet cam engines I build

[Gach]

Originally Posted by 64speed

Well after a long talk with the machinist and some measuring because of the hydroboost etc I don’t have enough room to have an in car spring changer. In that my decision has been made. I’m taking my hand out of it totally. Wayne is just gonna build the whole damn engine. Only thing I gotta do is pay another few hundred dollars and he’s gonna finish it out and break it in.

Smart move !!

[Half-Inch Stud]

For the record, i have not given a rats care about Zddp or zinc in my oil. If zinc was such a big help, cam & lifter suppliers would have galvanized the wear surfaces. Alot cheaper so sit down and keep quiet about zinc additives being a big help.

Friction is needed to get lifter rotation, however it gets achieved. Parkerizing the cam has been the 1st line of defense. Lifter surface shape for sure, but lifter surface lacks friction. Go figure how to attain good (best) lifter spin.

[Steve C.]

OK, is it just marketing hype ???

"Lucas Zinc Additive protects camshaft lifters and valve train during break-in period of motors. It is excellent for flat tappet camshafts during break-in or as an additive to any motor oil to prevent premature wear. "

And presented for interest.....

Camshaft Break-In Guide - How To Break In That Flat-Tappet Cam

https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/cc...reak-in-guide/

From it... "This led us to pay more attention to the details required to make a flat-tappet camshaft engine live these days, because lubricants are changing faster than Charlie Sheen rants on TMZ.
This story is as much about lubricants and what works and what doesn't as it is about camshafts and lifters."

.

[Skip Fix]

I used 1.33 SBF break in rockers on the dyno for my last HFT. Needed shorter pushrods.