We are still a while away from first fire of the rebuilt engine,,,,,,we are still cleaning and painting stuff, checking fit etc....waiting for the damper and distributor parts so we can install those, then stick the engine in.......

But my son (his car) brings up a great question that has me wondering now....

During this rebuild we are doing a super six conversion.

We acquired a nice looking BBD from a forum member and he said it was last run on his car a year ago,....it had been professionaly rebuilt 2 years prior and he said it ran on his engine splendidly.

Our car was a 1 bbl....and was running fine as far as carb etc. though the carb has been sitting in a box now as it came off the car for like 6-8 weeks.

The QUESTION I have is --- I know that for starting a brand new engine you are supposed to fire it and immediately lock it at 1500-2k rpms....no prolonged cranking etc.

So that said, are we better off to install the old 1 bbl for the first start or the "new" 2 bbl setup?

I DO NOT want to trash the cam. Though I hate to do the inatke/exhaust swap twice.

Probably overthinking but like I said, I dont want to flatten the cam from the get go trying to get the engine to start.....

What would y'all do?

You are very much overthinking. There is no need to treat the engine as though it were a delicate hothouse flower. Exactly none of our engines got any of these precisely-prescribed procedures ("Oh, be careful not to crank it too long, oh, make sure to get it to 1500 rpm immediately" etc) when they were first started in their original cars...with lousy 1960s-'80s engine oil. They got started and the cars got driven off the end of the assembly line and to the staging area. They got started and driven onto the truck or train car. They got started and driven off the truck or train car and into the dealer staging area. They got started and driven into the service bay for inspection (and cleanup of the factory's sloppy quality control). They got started and driven onto the showroom floor or lot. They got started and test driven by car shoppers. They got started and driven away by the eventual buyer.

As long as you applied appropriate assembly lube to the cam lobes, and as long as you use appropriate engine oil—some people are still stuck in the 1960s and think it's a good idea to use 30-weight or other inappropriately high-viscosity oils—you're not going to hurt the cam or other parts of the engine.

And there's no reason to be scared of extended cranking time.

Go ahead and assemble and install it the way you're going to configure it (2bbl, etc).

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Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I would recommend to fill as much of the oil pumps passages with oil and then maybe pour 1/2 to 3/4 quart into the filter before you spin it on.

It might be messy but it will get oil to the mains quicker. Crank unitl oil light goes out... then connect coil wire.

I am sure dan is correct.. those engines were pobably just fired up at the factory as quick as possible.


Greg

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If you want to prime the oil pump, remove its cover and pack the space between the gear and the rotor with vaseline. You can if you want, but there's no need to make a mess trying to pre-fill a filter that's going to immediately be turned upside down (SPLOSH!) to install; if you want, you can carefully pour some oil down the central fitting on the oil pump (where the filter screws on) before installing the filter.

If you want to fill up the oil passages before the engine fires, remove the spark plugs and disable the ignition, then crank the engine until about 5 seconds beyond the oil light going off. Removing the plugs greatly speeds cranking and doesn't pull raw fuel into the cylinders to wash the oil off the cylinder walls.

Appropriate oil for first start: 5W-20.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

If your running a mild cam with close to stock Spring pressures there's not a huge amount to worry about as far as wiping lobes go,but good practices are always worth following. I usually take out one or two rocker shaft bolts and fill the shaft cavity with oil and it slowly runs down and fills the gallery down to the cam bearing,theory is this allows a much faster supply of oil to the top end on start up. Even with oil pressure it takes some time for this area to fill up and supply oil to the necessary components. But as Dan says,these things are nice to do not must do's. I've seen a slant with a spun cam bearing which starved oil to the top end and it ran like that. I'd always suggest getting oil pressure up before a start,prime carb with fuel,refit plugs and start her up and give it a good run at about 2000rpm. If the 2bbl carb is trusted I'd go with that. Don't be stressed if you need to shut it down for any issues,just start it and give it some rpm after the re start. Varying rpm is also a good practice,helps oil supply. I'd also fill the oil galleries as much as possible prior to cranking for oil pressure,the quicker you get oil the better. Don't go all loose on your lash settings either,allow the lifters to utilise the lash ramps on the lobes...if I get much over say 130 on the seat and over 350 at the nose with dual springs it's time to be careful and use outer springs only for run in....slants? Relax! Mopar lifters are quite large in diameter which is a good thing,slow lobes like the slant is also good for long life,light springs are again kind to lobes....so don't worry,enjoy your newly rebuilt tower of power! Another trick I do is mark all pushrods with a marker pen ,all in the same spot,that way after the run in its easier to tell if they have been rotating correctly ,but you can just visually check if you run it during final lash settings.