cam break in oil/additives??

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abodyjoe

abodyjoe

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what is everyone using for oil/additives to breakin flat tappet cams these days? i want to be sure this thing doesn't wipe a cam out during break in..
 
Items in ellispreformancedistribution store on eBay!
been using this stuff for several years now...in race cars and street cars with flat tappets....never had a problem...add it to regular oil for break in and everyday use..

got a new camshaft in a 360 that i will start up tomorrow morning...cam has a paste on it..in the pan i have 10w-30 with the zppd ..
 
I use the Comp Cams break in oil Lelo Dart linked too. Good stuff.
 
Comp Cams, Joe Gibbs, Amsoil, Brad Penn, Lucas, Royal Purple, just to name a few.

Drain it after the initial break in, and replace the filter.
 
70aarcuda said:
Items in ellispreformancedistribution store on eBay!
been using this stuff for several years now...in race cars and street cars with flat tappets....never had a problem...add it to regular oil for break in and everyday use..

got a new camshaft in a 360 that i will start up tomorrow morning...cam has a paste on it..in the pan i have 10w-30 with the zppd ..
Click to expand...
this is exactly what I do. I do have one duster on VR1 10w-30. And I have broke in a cam using Lucas high zinc additive from O'reilly's into normal 10w-30. Never an issue......
 
abodyjoe said:
you guys run just a qt of that or do ya just run 5-6 quarts of that stuff..
Click to expand...

It's not an additive. You run whatever you would normally run for the oil capacity of your engine/oil pan.
 
The last cam I broke in was a Comp Cam custom grind. The instructions said use their break-in oil, so that's what I used- the 10w30 break-in oil linked above. I tossed a small bottle of their break-in additive as well. Break-in went perfect.

Personally, I think it's equally important to have the engine fire quickly without too much cranking. I kept the intake off until the day of fire up to shoot some more assembly lube on the lobes. It seemed to me that the comp cam red assembly lube wasn't sticky enough and ran off the lobes too quickly.
 
Joe, I prefer not to use additives. IF you do, make sure you premix it with the oil before you put it in the engine.
 
mopowers said:
The last cam I broke in was a Comp Cam custom grind. The instructions said use their break-in oil, so that's what I used- the 10w30 break-in oil linked above. I tossed a small bottle of their break-in additive as well. Break-in went perfect.

Personally, I think it's equally important to have the engine fire quickly without too much cranking. I kept the intake off until the day of fire up to shoot some more assembly lube on the lobes. It seemed to me that the comp cam red assembly lube wasn't sticky enough and ran off the lobes too quickly.
Click to expand...

I like the Joe Gibbs assembly lube for that reason, it's more like a thick stringy grease that sticks to everything it touches lol.

I use Brad Penn myself, my current cam has over 20k miles and it's a fast-ramp Lunati Voodoo; I broke in the cam with some conventional Valvoline mixed with a good amount of Lucas break-in additive probably 8 years ago. As long as you have plenty of zinc and phosphorous in there and it fires up quick it will be fine. Also lifter rotation is crucial, if you leave the valve covers off when it's first fired so you can check that all the pushrods are rotating you can catch a 'stuck' lifter early on and save the cam lobe from getting eaten up.
 
Rotella 15w40 and Lucas additive in dads 273 ever since we put Comp cams solid lifters n cam. No issues and 40 psi at idle. 65 highway speed
 
Lucas 10-30 Hot Rod oil and a quart of Comp cams additive for the first start up. Then Lucas Hot Rod 10-30 there after.
 
Joe Gibbs 'Driven' stuff. Worked fine. No additives, has zinc in it already. Comp Cams solid cam.

Use the lube that comes with the cam, slather it on good.

If you have double valve springs, take out the inner springs during break in.
 
I just broke in the cam on my 318 yesterday.
I used Lucas break-in oil. ...went smooth.

They say.."be sure it starts and stays running right away"..... Mine took several tries to start...and died 3 times....no problem at all. Not nearly the panic situation they make it out to be....

Be sure your springs are matched to your cam.
Be very generous with the assembly lube.
High zinc break-in oil like Lucas.

Good luck! Mine went great...yesterday was awesome!

Jeff
 
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