David L. Lutz

Engine started up for the 1st time after a long rebuild. I couldn't believe it, fired right up and immediatly settled down to a smooth idle with no tapping noise!

Before startup, I did crank the engine over with the starter and primed the oil pump. It primed very easily, actually I had loosened the top oil line at the rad to get the fan shroud back in and forgot to put it back and before I knew it about a quart of oil was in the floor.

After the 1st start up the oil pressure needle pegged to max (5 bar) at idle. After the engine heated up to temp. it settled back down at idle to 3.5 bar or so. I didn't run the engine very long maybe 10 min. and called it a night.

The next day in an effort to complete the fluid fill of the tranny I restarted the engine and again at idle the oil pressure maxed to 5 bar (needle pegged). As the engine warmed up the needle started to settle a little and at operating temp. again 3.5 to 4 bar at idle.

Is this normal? (using 10w-40 Dino)

Items done to engine;

• Rings
• valve job
• rod bearings
• all seals
• etc...

AO

OMG! What have you done!?






















Just kidding.

Sounds perfectly normal to me!

David L. Lutz

OMG! What have you done!?

Thanks alot Andrew, I was stressed for a week before I turned the key. This was my 1st ever engine rebuild and I am still nervous, but all OK so far!

AO

Nothing like a little hazing. Welcome to the club.

wds928

Nice work. I wish I had 3.5 at a warm idle. 149k miles will do that though. Congratulations.

RyanPerrella

EDIT: Dont listen to anything in the next 2 lines

Change your oil to 30 weight non detergent conventional like castrol 30 wt.

all multi weights are detergent oils and you should break the engine in with a non detergent. I would drain the oil, and put in 30 wt.

EDIT: actually this is helpful though

Run for 50 miles. Drain oil

run 500 more miles with 30 wt. drain

run another 1000 miles with non detergent, or at this point make your switch.

I went to Mobil 1 after 500 miles. I went 40 miles, before my first change. Then another 400 to 450ish and then changed to Mobil 1 which is where i'm at now 1200 miles in.

Oh and your oil pressure is good. 3.5 at idle when warm is higher then usual, but that could be oil choice or the fact that you only let the car idle for 10 minutes and it may not be fully warmed.

AO

Agreed about 10 minutes not being fully warm. Coolant might have been, but oil probably wasn't. I think Tony did an experiment and found it took 20 minutes of driving to get it up to full warm.

RKD in OKC

Sure hope you didn't make the same mistake I did as a teen rebuilding my first motor. I used a inlb torque wrench instead of a ftlb and didn't notice until it threw a rod thru the block at 250 miles. Sounds like yours is nice and tight with the refresh.

RyanPerrella

WHAT!

I am surprised you got 250 miles going to 60 in/lbs instead of 60 ft/lbs. (for example)

How did it last one minute? let alone 250 miles?

dr bob

I'm less than on-board with Ryan's suggestion of doing break-in with 30wt non-detergent. If it was a brand new engine with tight factory tolerances, this might be needed. But a rebuild with new rings in used bores means no tight piston clearances. Bearing and rod side clearances were checked with plastigauge/feeler prior to final assembly so no worries there. There's really nothing to "break in". I'd start it the first time on the same type of oil you plan on running in it for the rest of its life. I agree with changing it after a short while, again at 100 miles, 500 miles, then on to your normal intervals. Gets any dust and cat hair out early.

RyanPerrella

One thing i wanted to clarify with my post is that "dino" oil is not break in oil.

Its been common around message boards that you want to break engines in with a conventional or non synthetic oil. Its also been suggested by many in many places to go with non detergent. Not all dino oils are non detergent, I wasnt aware of this before thats why i am now clarifying. Only 30 wt oil is non detergent. 30 wt castrol GTx is a non detergent non synthetic oil for example. Again, this was something i was unaware of a couple years ago and thought i would pass it along.

If Bob says your good on 10-40 stick with it. I trust his opinion.

Mike Frye

David,

Congratulations! My next engine rebuild will be my second one ever (first this century).

Sounds like all is good. Got progress pics of the rebuild by any chance? How about compression check numbers? I'd be interested to see some before vs. after of those.

leperboy

Sounds exactly right. At idle, I'd say you have good oil pressure.

Matt

Mako 928

David
Conrats. on the engine build. It is nerve racking when you first start it up, sounds like you did a great job! As others said you still need to run the car to get to normal operating temp. I got the same readings W/ my recent engine pull and now get a steady 2.5, 3 bar reading at idle.

123quattro

What is the supposed downside of breaking in with a detergent oil? The last engine I built (new everything) was broken in with dino 10W40 and changed on the intervals you suggest. It runs just fine. I switched over to M1 15W50 around 1200 miles. Just curious.

Thanks.