Haha!

 

And just so you know, cams that are designed to give lumpy idles just for the sound, but still operate in a streetable range, can set you back by 30+ hp ins ome cases.

 

well that is not good to hear. I went with the same setup in a 351w.

 

Before you blame Edelbrock for anything, what oil did you use for your break-in? Most oils that are commonly available at the local Pep Boys/Autozone/Wal-Mart/etc. do not contain enough of the extreme pressure additives to guarantee safe break-in of flat tappet cams, whether they're hydraulics or solids. These additives are being reduced in the interest of indirect effects on emissions performance, and the few pushrod engines that are still being produced all use hydraulic roller cams (where the need for EP lubrication is not nearly as great). There isn't a doubt in my mind that your cam and liftersdid not have enough EPL protection during that first 15 minutes or so. Everything else simply followed as consequence.

This topic has been discussed several times, both here and elsewhere, and can be found with a little searching (search term: "extreme pressure" ought to work).

My understanding at this time is that Shell Rotella oil, available at least at one of thetruck stop chains if nowhere else, has a higher concentration of these EPLs than is normally consumer-available. I think that there are a couple of other oils (specialty or niche market oils) as well, but I prefer to not make any guesses in this matter.

Further questions - did you use the cam lube on the cam lobes and on the bases of the lifters? Did you prime the oil pump before firing it up? Enough to get oil flow up into the rockers? Rotate the crank a bit so that all oil passages saw flow?


Norm

 

I have a really hard time believing that an oil could cause complete failure in 15mins! I would guess wrong springs would cause similar issues, but more than likely a bad cam.

Just watched the Daytona 500 last night. Loping cams work best at high rpms. Proof is sustained 8300rpm at Daytona. I ordered a 280 duration solid roller cam that will give a little rough idle, but that is what I needed to get my sweet spot in the 3000-5500 range. A cam that makes power under 2500 for me is useless since my engine never sees under that except at idle.

 

I'm not writing off the possibility of a bad cam, but inadequate oil quality with respect to flat tappet cam break-in is a known problem. The lube that you put on the cam only lasts for so long - my understanding is that it tends to get caught in the filter (clogging it instead of protecting the cam, and that being why you should change the oil & filter early). The rest of the time, it's somewhere between partly and mostly the responsibility of the oil to provide the necessary protection. The 15 (or 20 or 30) minutes recommended as break-in by the cam mfrs is not a guarantee that the cam is 100.00% broken in. Just well enough that if you haven't started to shed little bits of metal within that length of time you're most likely going to be OK. Unless the break-in durations have changed, or the procedure more closely specified, it's still based on whatever was adequate back when OTS oil quality was not an issue.


Norm

 

So I have a question regarding this issue.

I am rebuilding my engine and I just installed a cam and used Lucas Oil Stabilizer as my assembly lube.

Should I remove the lifters and coat the lifter bottoms and the cam lobe that is accesible, or should i remove the entire cam, coat it, then coat the lifters?

 

Ok, so the oil seems to be a hot topic. I used pennzoil 10w40 in it when I first started it. I urned the engine over with the starter until I had good oil pressure before I started the engine. Yes, I had coated EVERYTHING very GENEROUSLY with the supplied lube and revved it up to 2000+ rpm for the first 15-20 minutes of it running. I then drove it 5 or so miles before the rockers started rattling. I stopped, pulled the valve covers and re-adjusted the valves and then drove a little more when the pump went out. This tells me that thhe cam went first because why else would the rockers become loose? it was because the cam lobes were getting shorter. Nobody can blame mismatched parts either because I bought the whole setup as a kit directly from jegs. Everything was edelbrock (heads, cam, pushrods, intake, timing chain,... everything). I have heard that rotella 15w-40 is the best thing to break in a cam with, like mentioned above, so I guess I'll go that route next time around. Oh, I did call comp cams today and they recommended PN: CL31-250-4 which has a 284/296 advertised duration and a .541/.544 lift. It is the same one that I have been looking a getting. The tech guy said that it should sound really mean, so I guess thats what Im gonna get!

 

A quick search on "oil stabilizer" did not turn up anything to suggest extreme pressure properties. Only "maintenance of viscosity", and use in well-worn engines or engines that sit idle for extended periods of time seem to be mentioned.

Unless you're running a roller cam of some sort, I strongly doubt that this product will provide enough start-up protection for a cam. IMO, you'd be best off to remove the cam and lifters, remove all traces of this stuff with a clean solvent (I'd likely use acetone, though somebody else may be aware of better alternatives), and start over with the known "good stuff". Cheap enough - maybe a portion of a gasket set and some of your time, but consider it a bullet dodged.


Norm

 

Not good. You want the engine to fire right up when you crank it and go quickly to your break-in rpm range. Used to be you could get away with a rebuild that didn't - sometimes - and as long as the oiling system was fully primed at the time of first crank. With the "old" oil formulations. Those few revolutions with zero oil pressure even at ~100 rpm or so can be deadly, as all you have to do is wipe the lube dry in a few tiny spots to give bad things a place to happen.

Full spring pressure pushing the lifter down on the cam as the lifter rides over the nose is not a good thing. Here you want the cam lobe shape to "toss" a little of the load off the lifters by dropping out from under them - that's at least part of why break-in is a1500 - 2500 rpm thing. I'm not talking valve float levels of lifter load loss, though it's kind of similar on a minor scale. Just a slight reduction in the contact loading between the lifter and the cam lobe.

It's REALLY best to spin the oil pump using an oil pump priming tool or using an old distributor that's had the teeth ground off the gear (so it doesn't try to spin the cam and crack your wrist when you hit the drill trigger).


Norm