Wanna share your recipe?

I start at: there is no such thing as "too" clean, I can make 100 other mistakes, but leaving dirt behind is not one of them. I wipe cylinder walls till I have no residue come out/off on the towel, I used Berryman carb cleaner, a very aggressive solvent (they've reformulated due to laws on VOC's, not sure what I'm gonna use now). A very light coat of WD-40 to prevent oxidation, spray it on, wipe it off.

Used to dunk pistons and rings till I read where you don't want too much oil on the cylinder wall as the rings will ride on the oil film instead of the cylinder wall itself, made sense to me and then I read about Udo Gietl of Butler and Smith fame. Built BMW's for Formula 750 and early Superbike with a 900SS, 2 drops of oil on the skirt for assembly. I was impressed with his results, and as a side note......his favorite engine was a 426 Hemi and he had one in his Ford van.

Everything else that moves gets a liberal coat of assembly lube. Hydraulic lifters get lube on the foot and outside, I do not soak them in a can of oil overnight, they pump up just fine at start up.

I'm with you Toolman, decades ago never went thru involved, ritual behavior for cam/engine break in; it was "break it in how you're gonna drive it" meaning go out and stand on it as hard as you can.