Author Topic: break in new flat tappet engine  (Read 3266 times)

Offline hotrodharley

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break in new flat tappet engine
« on: April 20, 2015, 11:54:23 PM »
on my fuel altered engine[540 blown alcohol injected]eng it was a no brainer;;filled up with brad penn 50wt and not worry about break in;;but i'm finishing up on a 454 bbc NA street eng with mild hyd performance cam;;a street and show car;been 4 hours reading about all the different oil and break in oil I'm to use for flat tappet eng..bad thing is most post not dated and one post says fill with diesel oil then next post says no on diesel oil that they removed zinc from them also;;;also they talk about putting this expensive break in oil in then droping it after 30 mints then doing it agin then dropping after 100 miles an so on and so on;;;IS there just a straight up oil that I can put in eng and do my 2000rpm/20 mint cam break in process and then just drive car till time for a normal 3000 mile oil change without all the adding break in stuff and removing after a hour because it turns or looks like water;;also what weight now days should be used?
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Offline dusterdave173

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Re: break in new flat tappet engine
« Reply #1 on: April 21, 2015, 06:00:33 AM »
many new oils with plenty o zinc
we LOVE Brad Penn break in or any brad Penn
The deal on diesel oils are not up to par anymore--they all have cats so they have taken zinc out so forget that
use one of the many oils that say--high zinc / phos   
Gibbs is great but high #$
Valvoline VR-1 race oil from NAPA is up to the challenge
steer away from add in stuff use an oil that is right from get go
I ran the Amsoil hot rod oil in an Engine masters deal with flat tappet and seat 160 open 450 --after tear down the lobes were like new
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Offline Frontenginedragsters

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Re: break in new flat tappet engine
« Reply #2 on: April 30, 2015, 07:12:56 PM »
Hot Rod Harley:
 Sorry for the delay in answering. Busy time of year in the engine business.
Flat tappet camshaft need zinc and phosphorous to lubricate the friction surfaces.
We use Brad Penn racing oil in all our engines have had ZERO problems. To quote their web site:
"Penn Grade 1 High Performance Oils contain high zinc and phosphorous additive concentrations."
With that being said, every thing else needs to be correct to have ZERO problems.
You need to make sure your valve spring pressure is correct and you must watch open pressure.
Flat tappet camshafts [solid or hydraulic] are good with 100-130 or so seat / closed PSI.
Open pressure is multiplied times the rocker ratio.
Watch simple math at work: Lets say your open PSI is 300 lbs. With a S.B.Chevy the stock rocker ratio is 1.5
Multiply 300 x 1.5 and you get 450 lbs on the nose of the cam at full valve lift.
Now look at a B.B.Chevy with a 1.7 ratio rocker arm: Same 300 lbs x 1.7 = 510 lbs.
Same valve springs with the same open PSI at the valve. Big difference at the camshaft.
The reason I bring this up is I see a lot of cams / kits / springs with WAY to much open PSI. [ planned obsolescence ? ]
On a Big Chevy [1.7] and Ford [1.73] I see no need to run much more than 325-340 PSI open at the valve.
The other thing I recommend is much higher break in RPM than most. 3000 or better.
These lifters only get lube from splash and run-off. Higher RPMs means more oil PSI and more oil being thrown up from below.
Flat tappets also spin in the bores as the lobes are ground at an angle. The faster they spin the better.
The cam is only 1/2 speed of the crankshaft. 3000 RPMs is only 1500 camshaft speed.
I'm sure this will open lots of discussion but thats my view.  ;)

Matt
« Last Edit: April 30, 2015, 07:14:37 PM by Frontenginedragsters »
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