Got a little more done on the engine today. Had to go all over town to find: a)the last oil pump drive shaft in Canada and b) an engine break in additive. Finally found the additive, made by CompCams at a specialty parts store. YES - it says $17bucks!! No one at a couple different parts stores even knew of what I wanted! Modern oils have had the Zinc removed, which is needed to protect flat tappet/non roller-rocker cam, which is all older engines. Newer engines have roller rockers, which greatly reduces this metal on metal wear. The Zinc stays put under heat and pressure and prevents cam lobe scuffing and flat spotting. Some guys are using deisel oil in their classic cars, which still has zinc and some are adding zinc. It's especially important on break in of a new or rebuilt flat tappet engine.



Before running up the pump though, I decided to repaint the intake manifold - from silver to blue, to match the engine and retain more of a stock look. So I removed the carb and other ancillary items, masked off the rest and gave 'er a few coats of Chrysler blue, plus some clear to make it show-car shiny!



Then, with a tool I made to mimick the oil pump shaft end, I ran up the pump to circulate the oil and check the pressure. I also re-reamed the pump drive shaft bushing and checked it. Now the new shaft slides in real easy like - just like a shaft should! :evil4:









Within seconds it developed nearly 80lbs, then settled down to around 60 for 30 seconds.



What a relief! Tomorrow I'll get the mill back into it's hole and get it all ready for a fire up on Saturday. What a difference a week makes. Just makes me wish I could go back to the test stand where I failed to get it running for very long. Again, a great learning experience. Soon I can say I'm just a little more like OCG - as soon as I post a video of it running!! Thanks for looking.