Over the next week I hope to get this car finally running. Its a fresh motor.

Whats the recommended way to break it in? I have heard everything from Run it hard from day 1; take it in steps of 1000rpm every 250 miles, to not above 3000 rpm for the first 2000 miles, etc etc....
Whats the opinion here? I would like to be able to run it harder as soon as possible, but I dont want to hurt the engine in any way.

Oil: I have been told to run dino oil for the first ~3000 miles, then switch to the synthetics I want to run (Mobile 1), this right? Run motor without driving for 30-45 minutes, change oil. Change oil at 500 miles and 3000 miles? More, less....?

Also, the motor has been sitting for a while (~2 years) since it was freshly redone, the shop said to prime the oil and change it before I run it, get any small dirt/grime out, other then that it would be fine. Anything else I should do? The assembly lube they used is still there, the manifold has been sitting ontop, the valve covers off, and under a motor bag.. No visible dirt, I "dusted" the heads and intake valley out and got those basically clean.

Anything else anyone can say?

Thanks in advance
Matt

 

WHY MUST EVERYONE TORCHER ME?!?!? :cry :cry :cry I'm going to miss my 383 :sad:

 

Ok, now that i've calmed down :p: .....


Run it easy for 1k ... do your first oil change after 250 miles .. then after 500 miles .... somewhere after 1k switch to synthetic.

 

Gave up Glock ? :(

I would change the oil and filter in it and put in 30 straight weight. Then prelube it (rent tool from autozone) and run it for about an hour. Do the 1st half an hour in the driveway so you can catch any oil leaks that might develop (learned this the hardway). Then take it out and seat the rings by moderately accelerating in several gears keeping the rpm below 4000.

Drain the oil and change the filter and put in dino multi weight oil. Check the oil for anything unusual like large metal particles. Very very very fine metal should be okay. Sand size metal is a concern. Drive the car for 750 to 1K miles and then put in synthetic if you are going to use that. The rings should seat very quickly. Watch the oil consumption to be sure they have seated. The seating time depends upon how smooth the hone job was on the block. A very smooth honed surface will seat quickly. Keep your foot out of it and under 4K for the dino period. I have seen the PCV valve go bad on several rebuilds. If you are seeing oil consumption after the first few hundred miles, check the hose before the PCV for oil.

Good luck.

 

:D :D :D
under 4k, no problem. Going to have open headers on it untill I can get to the shop (read $$$) to get the system made, I will have to grab my dads airplane ear covers :D

Thanks for the info so far. So auqa, your saying I shouldnt need to change untill ~750 miles (after the initial change).
The tool you speak of, that the one that you put in the Dist hole and use a drill to prime the system?

Which is the PCV valve?
Hopefully the hone job was smooth, its the shop all the racers go too around here, so I would assume its good :)
Matt

 

The second oil and filteer should stay in for at least 750 miles.

The primer goes into the hole where the distributor normally sits. You'll need a fairly stout drill to turn it. You can actually do some of the priming by spinning it by hand. Fill the filter with oil before you put it on the motor and do the priming. Be sure to put the oil pressure and temp sensors and close any other oil oils before you start. Forgot to do this and had a nice oil fountain for a few seconds. :eek:

The PCV valve will be in one of the valve covers or intake if its an LT1 attached to a 3/8" vacuum hose. The valve is usually metal, and about 3/4 round and slides into a rubber piece. Look on the net for a PCV valve to get an idea of what it looks like. Some have several vacuum lines attached to it. The L98 one should be in a valve cover.

Your hone job probably is pretty smooth. Racing machine shops have figured out that the new rings don't need a rough hone anymore.

 

Simple... race a mustang cobra R at half throttle. When hes 20 lengths behind you... its done :lol:

 

all i can tell you is what im doing to break in mine(builders advice).the first 500 miles i kept it under 3000 rpm's driving it in variable rpm's. i m usind sae 30 valvoline during breakin. after 500 miles i changed the oil. drive it another 1000 miles still doing variable rpm's. at this point you can increase the rpm's to 4000. change the oil again & you definetly can start beating it up . :yesnod: after 5000 miles you can stop using straight 30 weight oil. i was told not to switch to synthetic till 10,000 miles? that will be a long time from now. :yesnod: this is what i was told & am doing. good luck! :cheers:

 

What's the highest RPM that you can take a 383 to? Don't want to go over, of course. I'm thinking about 4500?

 

VetteRacer282,
Have you been turning the engine over while is was sitting? If so then you can go ahead and prime it. While priming make sure to keep valve covers loose so you can check that ALL the rockers are getting oil. If they are not, turn engine over by hand, 2 crankshaft rotations, and continue priming. Keep primong until ALL rockers get oil! If you have not turned engine over while it was sitting, it will not hurt for you to put some oil in the cylinders. Use a squirt can or a lid from qt of gear oil on you qt of oil, and put oil through the sparkplug hole. The oil that the engine shop use on your rings, wether it was a "moly" type lube or oil, will be dried up. Priming your oil system WILL NOT SUPPLY OIL TO YOUR RINGS, and therefore you will be firing up on dry cylinders! I usually use automatic trans fluid for this, but regular dino oil will work. The thinner the better, as it will be able to work around the rings easier. After doing this, install some old plugs, and turn engine over several times, then remove the old plugs, and turn engine over some more. Now proceed with your priming, and you will be on your way to firing up. I've leared this the hard way. I used to race stock cars, and my spare engine sat fresh for some time, 18-19months, and I just primed her then fired her up. It seemed very tight/sluggish, but I thought it was just because my old motor was "broke in" so much! Long story short, valves adjusted, checked for leaks, loaded up, and went racing. Came home with broken motor!! Took it to the shop that does my machining, and the first thing he asked was if I'd been turning it over? NO. Did I put oil in cyl. to lube rings before first start up? NO. Bad move on my part!! As far as break in is concerned, I usually just get it fired up, set valves, set timing, run for 5-10 min. watching oil pressure and water temp. check for leaks. If no leaks and no oil or temp issues, take it for a spin! Run it for a few miles under 4000rpm, load engine a few times in higher gear at lower speeds listening for any detonation or knocks. If all sounds good, and gauges are ok, "let'er eat :cool: ! As for your situation with engine sitting for so long, I'd be more inclined to run it for 15-20 min. in driveway adjusting rpm's from 1500-1700 for first 5 min. then up to 2200-2400 for 1-2 min. and then back down again. Keep this up for the 15-20 min. and keep your eyes on water temp. If it climbs above 230-235, shut it down. Let it cool enough to pull out sparkplugs, and then see how hard it id to turn over by hand. If it is quite hard to turn, put more(remember lite weight 5w30 or so) oil in cylinders, and turn over several times by hand. It sound like work, but it will be worth the work. Change your oil after your first drive, the assembly lube tnds to break dowm bad after just a few months! You will want to get this out asap. Then after this first change, go 500-750 miles and change again. Drain this oil into a clean drain pan, and check for any excessive metallic debris. Most of the debris should look like a metallic dust, that is ok. If any is actually gritty to the feel, take a sample to your engine builder and ask his opinion. Once again, sounds like a hassle, but worth the effort to be safe not sorry. After that you shoul;d be all set to start a regular change schedule. Good luck, and above all.... enjoy :D :cheers: !

 

Eric

That baby sounds TOUGH coming in! DEFINITELY turns heads. If you had a D44 under it, I'd lend you the slicks and we could see what the motor does "HOOKED"

When I got the car back from LPE...I was told I could mash the gas due to them breaking it in. They put in 20W50 oil to start, ran it around and tuned it for a bit, then drained the oil and sent it to me ready to hammer. I Still put an easy 100 miles on it, then I beat the hell out of it :D. It's been fine since. Glad I opted for a good bottom end. Nice piece of mind.

 

jd, i wish they broke in my engine. oh well im almost completly broke in. :cheers:

 

I ran straight 30w dyno oil (the real cheap stuff too) for the first 500 miles (3 oil changes involved) driving it pretty easy. I then changed to 10w30 dino and started hammering it like a nail! After about 3-4K miles, I am still running dino oil but I change it about every 1k miles or less.

 

SloRVette just got his 383, so he would know also. :yesnod:

 

That depends entirely on how it's built. If you use top quality lightweight forged components with top quality bearings you will really only be limited by your valve train. Valve float is your largest enemy. With a good hydraulic roller setup you should be able to push it to 7k or so. If you go solid roller you can push it even higher. Oh course all of this assumes you can get enough air to feed it at such RPM's.

Sure you might not spin the completely forged 383 as fast as you would a completley forged 350, but there is no reason why you can't spin it faster than stock. A friend of mine is building a 396 with a Callies forged crankshaft, oliver forged connecting rods, SRP forged pistons, comp cams pro mag hyd roller lifters, trick flow pushrods, and I think he's using scorpion rockers. All of this with Ferrea valves and tripple valve springs with titanium retainers and locks. He thinks he'll run into valve float around 7400 or so, he's gonna try to spin it to around 7 with this custom ground camshaft.

If he uses shaft mounted rockers and titanium valves ($1600 his cost just for the valves) he could spin it another 200-300 rpm's. If he used a solid roller setup he could run an even stiffer spring and kick the RPM's up close to 8k

It's all in how much money you want to spend.