Break-in on Partial Rebuild (Page 1/2) Notorio OCT 23, 12:03 AM Hi Everyone, So my 88GT has sat for 2 years since the #6 cylinder leak-down issue and low oil pressure issue were found. The past few weeks I've reamed and honed all the cylinders, installed new rings, new rod bearings, and new crank bearings. The cam and cam bearings were left as is because the engine was in the car (and the lifters and lobes looked fine). Reading up on break-in procedures it seems there are two phases to be mindful of: camshaft first, then rings second. Since the cam/lifters are already broken in I was planning on doing the following: 1-use good non-synthetic oil and no additives 2-warm up engine at idle and set timing 3-drive car to put a 'load' on the engine (repeat 'cycles' of modest acceleration up to 4000 rpm or so, then slow down letting the engine do the braking.) 4-change oil and filter Now opinions abound on the forum and YouTube, etc. regarding what kind of 'driving' to do. My situation seems different with the old cam/lifters in there. Please let me know what you think. John p.s. since I assume the gas is full of water now (this happened the last time the car sat for 2 years) I was planning on using the fuel pump to pump out the tank before connecting the fuel lines to the fuel rail, then pour fresh gas into the tank and a bottle of ISO-Heet to handle any residual water. Patrick OCT 23, 12:53 AM quote Originally posted by Notorio: since I assume the gas is full of water now (this happened the last time the car sat for 2 years) I was planning on using the fuel pump to pump out the tank before connecting the fuel lines to the fuel rail, then pour fresh gas into the tank and a bottle of ISO-Heet to handle any residual water. Just make sure to kill the power to the fuel pump as soon as there's any indication that the pump is starting to suck air... as it's the gas that cools the pump while it's running. Don't run it dry. Notorio OCT 23, 11:45 PM quote Originally posted by Patrick: Just make sure to kill the power to the fuel pump as soon as there's any indication that the pump is starting to suck air... as it's the gas that cools the pump while it's running. Don't run it dry. Thanks Patrick!! Notorio OCT 23, 11:46 PM Getting closer to firing the old girl up again eti engineer OCT 24, 10:03 AM quote Originally posted by Notorio: Getting closer to firing the old girl up again Looks like a nice rebuild!! I just had my engine rebuilt and they recommend high zinc oil for break-in, but this could be mainly for the new cam and lifters. They recommend driving it for 500 miles at speeds no more than 60 mph and not sustained for long periods of time. Then change the oil and filter with high zinc again. Then at 1000 miles, do it again. After that, you can use oil as recommended by the manufacturer and drive it regularly. Notorio OCT 27, 09:11 PM Well, I'm waiting for a rebuilt fuel injector to arrive then it's time to finish up. My thought to keep the fuel pump running was to just turn the ignition to 'on' (not start) and that the fuel pump would turn on and stay on because there was no pressure building up while I'm pumping the tank out into a can. But is it really that simple? I'll of course switch off the key when it starts to hit air, as Patrick noted. Patrick OCT 27, 09:29 PM quote Originally posted by Notorio: My thought to keep the fuel pump running was to just turn the ignition to 'on' (not start) and that the fuel pump would turn on and stay on because there was no pressure building up while I'm pumping the tank out into a can. But is it really that simple? No. Connect 12v to the fuel pump terminal of the ALDL port. Notorio OCT 27, 11:02 PM quote Originally posted by Patrick: No. Connect 12v to the fuel pump terminal of the ALDL port. Doh! You are saving me again Patrick. Many thanks!! Notorio OCT 30, 08:55 PM So she's all back together and suffering from the classic 'won't start' syndrome. I'm going to take a break for a few days and then read all the 'car won't start after rebuild' posts that I know are on here. La fiera OCT 31, 12:19 AM Every engine I've built starts at the fist try. Obviously there is something wrong with yours. Epic fail is that people line up the dots like the timing chain on a SBC and then the engine wont start. How did you lined up the timing marks?