firing up the new motor for the first time!

[bill]

Hello fellas,
I am getting set to fire up my rebuilt motor for the first time on my homemade engine test stand. Any suggestions for initial start up procedures such as initial timing, vacuum routing and proper cam break in would be gladly appreciated. I have a new HEI distributor and a bone stock rebuild. Thanks and wish me luck...LOL!!

 

[megaladon6]

have a couple of fans to point at the engine to cool things off, a fire extinguisher, and prayer beads. :lol: also get a bottle of cam break in lube for some added protection. make sure you have oil pressure first, preferably by using a drill and an adaptor. put the engine at TDC#1 and set the distributor rotor pointed at or the slightest bit before/advanced #1. leave the hold down bolt just lose enough that you can turn the dist by hand but it can't vibrate. if the carb was previously on there you should be ok for now. start the car, do a quick timing adjustment and then rev it to 2000-2500 RPM for about 20min, varying the RPM's every so often within that range. i8f at all possible you want a second person for this, to look for leaks and fire and such.

 

[Doober]

On the distributor, I typically tighten it enough where I can turn it by hand, but not easily. Otherwise it may want to retard itself.

When/if (HIGHLY recommended) you prime the engine, look at all the pushrods/rockers to see if oil comes out. I had some mechanical gauges set up to monitor temp/oil pressure.

Triple check your fluids, the motor should be run 15-20 minutes to ensure break-in. I also set the carb idle screw to about 2000rpm to make sure it didn't drop below that.

Change your oil after break-in, then again after 500 miles or so. I didn't use one when I broke the cam in, but I'm thinking of ordering one of those filter magnets to help keep the extra bits out of the oil system (new bearings y'know...)

I did all this last summer on my motor and didn't have any issues.

 

[bill]

Ok,
Here I am a year later and I finally got it running. Talk about procrastination...lol.
Heres a video of the engine running on my homemade test stand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiHFaiTUSUw

Bill

 

[Phoenyx]

Is that engine stand made out of wood?

 

[megaladon6]

most likely, the reason your fan isn't cooling well is that it's a puller fan and you have it mounted as a pusher. or it's wired wrong and spinning in the wrong direction.
but the engine does sound good! congrats and have fun with it!!.

 

[dan2286]

Sounds good to me. You should be pretty happy with that engine. I have the same year engine in mine. I bought it as a running engine, so it is really greasy and nasty looking. I didn't touch much on it because it ran good and I have limited funds for right now. For a pretty much stock engine that hasn't been rebuilt, it's got plenty of power. It easily does very nice burnouts with my non posi car with crappy tires. Acceleration is pretty good especially compared to a 307. Just from driving mine around a little, it feels like a 16, maybe 15 second car. That is with 2 something gears, so that isn't that bad.

 

[454muscle]

Sounds good, very well done bro. Congrats!

 

[bill]

Is that engine stand made out of wood?

yep...4x4's and a engine storage stand and some square tubing. works pretty good too!
Bill

 

[bill]

most likely, the reason your fan isn't cooling well is that it's a puller fan and you have it mounted as a pusher. or it's wired wrong and spinning in the wrong direction.
but the engine does sound good! congrats and have fun with it!!.

The fan is backwards so it wont be in the way of the water pump. it is pulling air through the core. But I think I need a shroud to help pull air from the whole core rather than just where the fan is located. motor gets pretty hot when it runs for more than 10 minutes or so...about 215. but the fan cools the radiator pretty good, just not fast enough. Probably too small for this size core.

Thanks for the feedback. I will make another video when I get it in the car.

Bill