The Rotella about five or six years ago stopped having the added Zinc, and as mentioned in this thread (or was it another...) the extra detergents in the diesel oil aren't as good for break in. I used Valvoline VR1 10w-30 to break my engine/cam in. And ran it for 7,000 miles, now I'm using conventional oil. But I don't have a fast ramp cam or high spring pressures.
The single weight SAE 30 Rotella is formulated differently than the multi weight Rotella. As for detergents and all the rest not being good, well I will let the motor make up its own mind and after 8 years its had zero issues. It runs perfect oil pressure.
One of my biggest concerns is the "bag of lifters" It is critical for the lifters to spin freely in their bores. I ship lifters in a box with individual sleeves on them to avoid any nicks during shipment. 16 Lifters in a bag, rattling around in a box being handled by UPS can't be good. The key to successful cam break in is all in the prep work. Before I wash a block for final assembly, I use an old lifter to make sure it moves freely in all of the bores. (Both up and down as well as rotation) I also scrub them liberally with a brush during cleaning. Make sure that you have enough clearance when assembling the heads both retainer to guide as well as coil bind on the spring. The spring pressures Jim gave will work fine. Inspect the lifters to make sure they don't have any nicks or surface imperfections. As PEM said, apply lube liberally to the cam lobes and the bottoms of the lifters only. I like to use either Gibbs assembly grease or ARP moly paste. Use oil on the sides of the lifters and journals of the cam. I use Brad Penn break-in oil on all of my engines. Joe Gibbs has a similar product as does Comp Cams now. When starting the engine the first time, you want a quick, clean start up. Bring the engine up to 2000-2500 RPM immediately and vary it in that range for 20 minutes. Wiping a cam has very little to do with the profile itself. Just like a good paint job, it's all in the details during the prep work. SB
A good trick is to mark a mark on the top of each lifter with a magic marker. Rotate the engine by hand to see if the lifters are rotating in the bores. A lifter that does not rotate in its' bore will fail.
ALL good sound Advise , Thank you Yes the bag of lifters was a concern at the time Again this was back in 2000-2001 era I was working on to many things at 1 time and left it to chance or frogot to look in to it . After running the motor all the hours i did an continuing to hear the noisey valvetrain i bought a new set of LUNATI lifters and never put them in, If i had i would have found this before it got this bad , I am in agreement with your ideas and imputs , true cause may be found but will need to tear down and check heads out if all is good there ! I got some bad parts !! or a bad Breakin , its all a great help to me . and i will put all of you good advise to good use when i rebuild with the hope it wont happen again , if all is done right and nothing over looked.this wont happen next time . It May be some time as i went all out last year to finish the restoration . it was that or sell the project as is , "Wife you know " agreed with me for once to finish it or sell so we finished . Made her happy untill last weekend , Lots of good info in this thread hope it will be usefull to others when they build . Ill have plenty of time to save and figure how to go about it . with no trusting shops around that know Buicks May just send out to be done right And Be done with it,
Man, about to break in mine next weekend. I am hoping, praying, and fingers crossed, because I don't think my wife will care to deal with more money thrown at another rebuild!!! She still can't understand why I couldn;t just leave the 350 in!! Good luck and keep us updated!
This cam was bought on the tail end of when the bad cam cores where being sold. Around 2001 my friend wiped out two, maybe three TA cams in 30 minutes doing start up exactly like you're supposed to and finally went to a roller.
Hundreds i would guess from some if the info on this site, Dam shame All the efort and $ wasted , Some due to human error but the bad cams and lifters not exceptabls .. its a setback for sure , (Lifes full of them ) just keep on keeping on ,we Live and learn some like me the hard way but we go on . JUST A THING
Well , Block cleaned ,heads & springs checked, reassembled and new TA 413 cam and 1405 lifters broken in , All looks good . pushrods rotate , Used Royal Purple Brake in oil single springs for brake in . 1800 - 2800 rpm verying for 25 min, reinstalled the inner springs , Still alittle valve train noise but am told it is mormal with this type of cam , Have adjustable pushrods and still cant get rid of it (Nature of the Beast) after several adjustments . will button up on friday and take for a cruise , come home and change oil , I am going to use the same oil for the first 1000 miles and go to the Vavoline racing oil it has ZDDP in it ! Need to check out CONOCO PHILLIPS saw a post here that they are or have announced a high performance 20w 50 with boosted levels of ZDDP Thanks Every One Dave
Congrats Dave!! What a feeling huh?? Mine runs awesome!! Super strong. I have a little valvetrain noise as well. What ya gonna do. A buick. Not gonna worry about it at this point. Runs strong, oil and filter super duper clean. Good luck
not for nothing, but grabb hold of your harmonic balancer, and see if there's any play!! i wiped a cam a couple of years ago,after doing some front cover /pulley work. come to find out the balancer had started to walk off the front of the crank 1/4 of an inch!!! lots of slop in the keyway as well. naturally this was pulling on the chain, which was also pulling the cam towards the front of the motor! not good when the cam moves back and forth in the block excessively?????? this may not be your problem at all, but easy to check, and worth having a look. GOOD LUCK!!
Thanks Steve The balancer is good and solid , hasnot spun TDC is right were it should be I tell you you SEE the damdest things cause problems , I have been turnning wrenches for over 35 years seen some weird stuff happen
