Hey Guys..
I have a fresh build on my numbers matching 440. It has a flat tappet cam installed by the builder, and I have a break in question. Some say to crank it over with plugs removed to get oil flowing prior to starting. I have read other articles that say you want the car to start immediately, so prime carb and set to fast idle. I don't want to ruin this cam, so asking you for advice. I would like to fire it off in the next day or so...I am just finishing up the plumbing and wiring now..I have dumped in Joe Gibbs Break In Oil.
Thanks!
Dave in Colorado

I pull the dist and run the oil pump with my primer shaft before I start them to get oil flowing everywhere. I also add a bottle of the zinc additive. Ron

You want it ti start as fast as possible although I never do one without priming first.

Just my 2-cents, but I've never lost a flat tappet cam......

Run the pump with a drill on a priming rod while you rotate the crank a few times by hand (need a buddy for this). Make sure you've got pressure at the guage, and you're getting oil to all rockers. Should be able to button it up at that point, and start it. As soon as you get it running, get the idle up around 2k, and let it run there for a few minutes. watch the temp guage. If it runs past normal operating temp, back some timing out, or fatten it up a little and see where that gets you in regards to temp. IMO: Carb should be jetted OTB for this process.

New motors smell funny! good luck.

Joe Gibbs stuff is good. And yes prime the carb and the engine as Ron described. Turn the mixture screws all the way in and then back them out 1.25, I like to turn the idle screw up before starting the engine. Have your timing light already hooked up, run the rpms up to about 2200 and set the timing at about 34ish. After break in you can set your actual advance and idle mixture screws.

Go with a break in oil formulated for flat tappet cams. After break in, go with a specially formulated oil for flat tappet cams as well. Additives may work 99 percent of the time. But there can be conflicts when mixing additives and oils, and a few are not compatible. I avoid it when I can.
The main thing is to make sure those lifters rotate when you turn the motor over before firing. Did your engine builder check? If they don't rotate a little, that MUST be corrected. They don't need to move much at all, but they have to turn to live. Mark all lifters a 12 oclock with a felt tip, and turn the motor over a couple of revolutions. It is simple to fix one that doesn't rotate, just remove the lifter that is not rotating, put some 500 grit sand paper in the palm of your hand and rotate the base of the lifter against it till the shine goes away. Clean, and reinstall. Recheck, and fire the motor.

Spring pressure?

Single or double springs? If double I pull the inner springs if pressure over the nose is 330# or more.

I always break in with straight water, no coolant.

And, as mentioned, I always mark the lifters with a Sharpie to make they rotate before I button it up.

I also use EDM lifters whenever possible.

All good input above, I myself do not like to crank the motor on the starter ever before the first start. I don't know what BB specs are but with small blocks you can find the points on your balancer to hit the cam bearing oil holes if not running a grooved camshaft.

When people say it should fire right away they mean right away. Even if your timing is out with the carb primed in a perfect world 3-4 seconds and then it fires up is not a unrealistic goal.

But at times crap happens, and ive a 30 second rule of combined cranking time before the intake would be pulled for more lube on the lifters.

Just running the lash pre fire can wipe a good bit of lube off the cam so think of how many rotations can come from 30 seconds of cranking.

I say light it off after priming carb let it run at 2200RPM for at least 20 minutes then go drive it after cool down to cold and oil check drive it 25 miles vary the speed. If the cam is going to wipe it will weather you prime it or not, I never see how all the drama of a engine startup makes any difference in the results. I coat my cam with wheel bearing grease tappets with atf and 30 weight oil mixed 50-50 I feel it will blow or go. Do you really think the assembly line guy baby the engines just built? I have been to the plants and those guys are hard on cars / trucks just built. Just change the oil after a 100 miles or so use it in your mower if you don't see metal and if you do guess what your **** By the way I have done this a pile of times and never had a real problem period

Do you really think the assembly line guy baby the engines just built?

Id have to say no for various reasons. One is the guys who built the solid cam performance motors are long retired or dead.

Ive actually never wiped a cam but did have a junk core start to flake off, but when its another guys motor/money one cant fly on luck alone. A wiped cam means a full teardown on the builders dime which many try to avoid.

Not saying your way is wrong but what would many say if there builder jacked a cam lobe and went on to say all he used was grease and trans fluid, it wouldn't fly.

It is a bit odd as when I was young a cam swap always went off without a hitch with little thought of a lobe coming off but things have proven themselves to be different these days. Sorta like running the old oem valve seats, some dodged it, some didn't.

Well I can say that I have wiped out a few solid lifter cams in my 45 years of building big block mopars. So there, I said it, I learned from my mistakes from not looking for lifter rotation, not pre -priming the engine, not having the timing set right on so the engine would fire right off, not pre-priming the carb with gas, not removing the inner springs to reduce pressure on the cam, not having the battery fully charged and there's probably a few more items. I know now that when I turn the key the engine will fire up so fast it's almost scary.

A customers point of view!

Stock engines rarely had more than 100lb seat pressure. That IMHO counts for a lot, and is probably the reason the engines ran without cam breakin, or at the most, a couple of minutes.

R.

When a car comes off the line the driver gets it out of there and
either heads for the parking area(which can be a couple of miles)
or it heads to the rail yard and in most cases it goes right onto
the rail car.. all in all they beat on them for about 10 minutes or
a bit more

Maybe I typed that wrong or azz backwards, but it was from a builders point of view as well, I do 4-5 a winter for various applications and I know if I wipe a cam or they do I need to make sure I did everything I could to prevent it because if it happens, at the end of the day it sucks for everyone.

But for some reason it seemed that maybe around the 60k mark a lot of the mopars I had bought used were ready for a new cam. That's when we all thought if a car had turned over the 100k mark it was junk and really for the most part the front ends/motors,trans were all needing attention by then.

Very true Mr P but ive seen some crazy stuff from dealerships. Back when the semi fast grand national buicks were in a friend from the detail shop used to swing by my work and take me for a test thrash and when I had my 86 gn I was looking for a 5.0 lx and told the salesman if it could hang with the Buick id buy it and we spent an hour on the interstate while he tried to sell the car but it fell short, only to find out a fella in our street race group bought the same car a week later. But I never could tell him his lx was pre thrashed.

Sorry to go off topic.

I assemble my own junk so its on me if it breaks. But they never have I know my luck will run out but who cares just another thing for me to do on list that grows. I'm convinced the cams are made of inferior quality steel. Yet I have used 3 different comp cams with excellent results breaking them in the way I stated

I seem to remember reading about engines being test fired with propane while still on the line. Maybe Chrysler didn't do that?

There's a thread from about a year ago where cam cores were discussed in depth. They come from one or two specialized companies that make them out of cast iron, not steel.
They're cast and surface hardened before they go to the cam grinder.

R.