well my motor is almost finished. im wondering how everyone breaks in a brand new motor? what motor oil to start with(weight ,non syn, syn) , what filter ? when to do the first change? how hard to get on the motor, how many miles . pretty much exactly how you would break it in.

i plan to run either royal purple or mobil 1 5w -30 syn for the long run

 

rotella 15w-40 petroleum for break in, run easy for 50miles, change oil/filter rotella 15w-40 petroleum again, beat the **** out of it, change oil/filter @ 500miles, use whatever oil you want.

 

I heard so many mixed ideas on forums, so I gave up on asking this questions and went to a solid source.

http://www.gmhightechperformance.com..._engine_build/

There is a great deal of useful info there, after you weed through the advertisements of course.

-Lurius

 

I just asked Rick from synergy motorsports. He is doing my build, he didn't explain it to me in too much detail but he said he sets the rev limiter low for the first 1000 miles with an oil change at 500 and 1000 miles and than you switch to synthetics at 3000 miles, what he didn't say is what he does to it before he gives it to you.
Mark

 

That is pretty much what I do.

Just to add, even though it has been covered, a diesel oil has more zinc in it which much of it has been removed in the gasoline oils due to helping emissions. The sniffer doesn't like the burnt zinc. Roller cams, roller lifters and better allowys in the blocks have allowed the oils to be scalled down on zinc. Flat tappet cam engines need better lubrication due to the high pressure and friction points on the lobes. It is common now a days for flat tappet cams to whipe lobes and the oils are the main reason. GM ESO additive adds back zinc as well as many "tradition" old-school additives. Gasoline oils have a Sx rating on the seal on the back of the bottle and diesel oils have a Cx designation.
Synthetic oils are recommended only beyond 3k miles by most of the oil companies. I know that some vehicles come from the factory with synthetic but their hone finish and tollerances on the bore are more controlled and precise to accomodate. Not that you can't copy that in the aftermarket but it is just safe to run conventional oils for the first few thousand.

Also, racing oils and Motorcycle oils have a higher concentration of Zinc as well.

 

for mine. im running 20-50 drained the first oil at 2 minutes [damm O ring] have 20-50 in there again. going to run it for 100 miles drain the oil again. then at 500 then probably 1200

as for breakin havent figured that out yet either

if you ring the hell out of it...you get most power but not them ost life
if you baby it you get longer life but not as much power

so dont know some say drive it as you would drive it so the rings seat how they need tobe

 

When i built my 360 for my blazer I let it run at 2k rpm for 30 minutes to break in the cam. Changed the oil. Did regular driving for 500 miles, changed again. and then gave it hell and changed at 3k. Its a GenI with a stock crank and Hypereutectic pistons and I've gotten it up over 6k rpm without any problems other than blowing out the pan gasket. And later the tranny.

 

I ran Rotella T 15W-40. Babied it around town for the first 100 miles, changed the oil/filter. Put another 400 or so on it, driving normal getting on it every now and then. Changed the oil/filter. Put another 500 on it and then I changed to Royal Purple 10W-30 and have been running that the last 2000-2500 miles. The motor feels alot stronger. I didn't get on it until about 250 miles into the break-in. I was gonna wait until 1000 miles, but I couldn't contain myself....

 

On my new 402 I ran cheap oil till it got to operating temp just to clean it out. Then changed the filter and put in straight 30 weight oil and ran it for about half hour. THen changed the oil and filter the next day and beat the crap out of it. I took it to the track with 130 miles on it.

 

Break it in the way your going to drive it..