I'm planning on starting the motor either today or tomorrow and have a few final questions about start up. Thanks for all the help you guys have been. In case you need them in order to answer the questions, here's the junk in the motor: ported/polished head, enginebuilder valves, milled .100", 340 springs, ARP rob bolts, stock pistons and rods (balanced), Erson .465" 280 deg cam, Offenhauser 4 bbl intake, Edelbrock 500 (primaries facing head), Clifford shorties, double roller chain, block is over .030", HEI conversion, MSB blaster, magnecor wires, HV oil pump. I'll be running premium gas in it as well.

1. How long should I go before changing the oil for the first time? Is it a matter of minutes/hours, or a matter of the first hundred/two hundred miles? Also, can I just change the filter and keep the oil? I would think the filter should retainthe particles and what not.

2. What do you guys recommend for getting oil pressure the engine initially? Prior to installation, I submerged the oil pump in oil and spun it over by hand until it shot oi out the other side. In addidtion to that and putting oil in the case and oil in the filter canister, what else can should I do?

3. How long am I "allowed" to crank the motor before it starts. Ideally it would start up right off the bat, but in the event it doesn't I don't want to crank too long. Should I pour gas down the carb (Edelbrock 500) so the pump doesn't have to fill the lines and the carb first?

4. Any other suggestions you guys have for me?

Thanks,
Stephan

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Stephan Nelle

Its been awhile since I started a rebuilt engine (and that was a 400 big block) but here's what I did.

Remove the plugs so you can spin the engine with the starter. This will get the oil pressure up.

Make sure your timing is set to TDC so it will start and you don't have to futz around with distributer (important on a slant).

Keep the revs up around 2000 for 15-20 minutes to break in the new cam.

I'd go 500 miles before changing the oil and filter.

I'm sure others will chime in....

I packed my oil pump with Vaseline prior to installation, but I guess it's too late for you to do that...

I get 50 psi with a standard oil pump on a new engine. Pull the spark plugs and coil wire and turn it over until you get good pressure. Then reinstall the plugs and coil wire and crank it up.

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vm

Take your time, some tips I use, take them for what their worth. I always turn the engine over slow with the valve cover off to look at the valve train to make sure everything works right. I do this with a socket not the starter. If it looks right then I turn it over without sparkplugs and look again. Ok you can do this for say 15 seconds and build oil preasure. If you have a oil guage about 6 psi might be all you show or the oil light will go out, good. I leave the vavle cover off and put rags over the sparkplug wires and distributor. Then I will crank it over about 15 more seconds to get gas into the carb and check for any fuel leaks. Everything looks good put the sparkplugs in and try to crank it. I doint reconmend pouring fuel down the carb this could just wash new cylinder walls and is dangerous. Timing tdc. when it starts up it may take several times bring it up to about 2000 rpm but do not let it idle it probaly wont anyway. I always bring the engine temp up to normal and run the engine at least 15 minutes I vary the rpm about say 1800 to 2600 rpm at about 1 minute intervals.If Everything then looks and sounds fine I shut it off tell my main tuner Dr Strangelove aka James Longhurst go get us a cool one and we can fine tune . Stay Slanted Ron Parker



It Aint Over Until I Win

What Ron said.....

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

I dunno... maybe I'm WAY outta line here, but WHY PULL THE PLUGS if the COIL IS UNPLUGGED???? Where exactly would spark come from with no coil wire installed?? Removing plugs becomes pointless, don't waste the time.

Just a thought from a Michigan mechanic...

uhhhh... perhaps to relieve compression so the engine can spin quickly? brings oil pressure up faster and takes a LOT of load off the starter.

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I've been calling it as i see it for my entire life and that's not about to change. Take it or leave it.

Without compression, there's less worry of the bearings making metal to metal as the compression pressure won't be squeezing things together.

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

It is a good idea to put a white paint mark near the top of each push rod, so it is easy to see if they are all spinning after start-up. Once the engine fires-up and runs, quickly check to be sure each pushrod (more inportant, the lifter below) is spinning. If one or more do not spin, shut it down ASAP and fix that issue.
Do not run the engine at 1000 - 2000 RPMs for minutes on end to "break-in the cam" if all the lifter are not spinning.

I leave the valve cover off and pour oil over all the rocker arms, valve springs and flow some down the pushrods, right before engine fire up. Sometimes it takes a few minutes for oil to reach the rockerarms so make sure they are all "wet" with oil before the engine runs.
DD