First fire of engine, first FIRE in engine bay

[mechted]

I'm putting a 350 into the blazer: new flat tappet cam, new lifters. Got it started, got her up 2200 rpm and was running pretty good for about 4 minutes when I had to shutdown because #6 spark plug wire/boot was on fire. Put out the fire (always keep an extinguisher handy btw!) and it basically ruined the spark plug boot. The wire had vibrated free of its holder, and was in direct contact with the headers. Checked some of the others and #3 wire was probably about a minute from going up also. So, I need to fix the wires, plus add some heat shield boots to stop the headers from lighting off the wires again. That's fairly straight forward.

My question is: how bad is the aborted break in cycle for the cam/lifters? Is there something else I should do before I start it again? Probably going to sit until next weekend before I can try again.

Also: This is my first engine rebuild, and I'm just happy it started.

 

[tRustyK5]

I haven't had a successful cam break in...ever. Seems there is always something, engine starts overheating, forgot to tighten oil pan bolts and it's puking oil, and a few other really smart things.

I do seem to get 5-10 minutes and after fixing issues and doing the whole thing again everything seems to work fine.

 

[Stomis]

Just restart the process. Dont forget (and no Im not kidding) once the cam break in is over the best way to seat the rings is to take it out and beat the balls off it for a few miles. Hard acceleration and load is very good for seating rings. Its been scientifically proven the age old baby it for the first 500 miles thing is completely untrue.

 

[diesel4me]

I'm betting 98 out of 100 cam break in's get "interrupted" for one reason or another,few engines ever fire up instantly after just being re-assembled,and will run the required 15+ minutes at various RPM's without something giving trouble,like in your case,the plug wires--fortunately it doesn't always mean a lobe will get scuffed or a lifter wiped...

I know a friend of mine has bad luck installing new cams,he does all the reccomended things like use the pre-lube on the lobes,use a drill on a modified distributor to get oil pressure up before even turning it over,and he's become an expert at setting the valve lash,he can put the valve covers on,fire it up,get it to run the proper length of time,and a week later,the cam has a flat lobe or two...

For awhile he blamed the cam manufacturer for poor lobe hardening,then he found out they took most of the zinc out of motor oils ,which flat tappet cams need to live,but switching to diesel rated oil has only made a few of the cam swaps "live" more than a few thousand miles..he's put 3 cams in a customers '68 Chevelle 327,first one was an Edelbrock,that lasted 1500 miles before a lobe died and it started clicking,the next one was a "Wolverine" brand,that one made it 5000 miles and 2 oil changes,then lost a lobe...

The one he put in most recently was a Sealed Power one,and its gone about 8000 miles,so far,so good...only thing different he did this time was dump a can of "Motor Medic" on the cam & lifters before he put the intake back on it,and used 15W-40 Rotella T oil...

 

[Russell]

Ditto what the other guys said. Your engine won't mind it one bit. Just start the process over once you've got things fixed and it'll be fine.

I also agree with the break in process of driving it just as you intend to later on. If that means high RPMS and hard loads so be it.

 

[ryoken]

yup, just refire it... I like to vary my rpm's from about 1700 to 2200.....


hehe, you should see how we treat new long blocks in the boats...

 

[mechted]

ok, good to hear that, thanks for the knowledge

 

[rjfguitar]

I actually made it through a complete cam break in for 20m un interrupted on the first start with my 406 from like 14 years ago. It's called a precheck list before start up....

Guess what.... it eventually blew up anyway...

You're fine. Fire that sumbitch back up and run it another 10-15 minutes.

 

[ryoken]

can't remember the last flat tappet break-in I had to cut short in a boat.. like ya said, checklist, it's my job..

but boy, newer roller motors? pffffft, I fire em up, let em run up to temp and take em out and spin full throttle blasts....

 

[brans87]

I did that to my civic DD when had to rebuild it for previous owner abusing it. I rebuilt and cracked up let run 20 mins then ran through all 5 gears with it hit 5k every gear and yes still drive the sh*t out of the car unless my little girls in there. Nope not fast but yup 1.6 vtech and good on gas.
Point rape it from beginning and have no worries.

 

[ryoken]

rollers yes, flat tappet, nada...