Wiped cam on break-in

[Anthony 71 Paisley]

Had a reputable shop put together a 360 for me ( I was impatient). They talked me out of the roller cam . I have heard nothing but horror stories from people putting in flat tappet cams and wiping them out. Now I'm a statistic. They assembled intake to pan , installed the distributor and primed the oiling system (.they even sent video). Not sure what lube they used but they said it was break in oil. All I had to do was dress it /install it and fire it up. We filled the bowl with fuel and as soon as we got it going brought it up to right about 2k rpm ( reading off a digital timing light ) for the 1st 10 min it sounded pretty good , then we started to hear some lifter chatter nothing too bad. After about 15- 20 min of breaking in it was laboring when we let off the throttle , we didnt want to stop the break in process but it backfired and stalled ... pulled valve covers and had #3 exhaust rod out of the lifter... lifter was like a plunger when we pushed down on it with a rag. . It was to hot to do any more surgery and I was too angry so the next day I pulled the intake and saw the damage. Smoked cam and # 1 intake pushrod was wedged on the corner of the lifter ( still don't know if I kissed the valve)

My questions are this .
What did we do wrong .
I do kinda feel like I should have shut it down earlier .
Should the shop cover anything ? If so what ?
When it does get gone through to what extent ? I know there is /was metal everywhere..

The shop got total about 8k or so ( I still dont have a receipt) to build this engine and it's nothing too special. But although I think there is room for them to cover it , I know alot of people have issues on break in & break in is out of their control.

 

[commando1]

I'm betting it was a Comp Cam.

 

[rkrochen]

That sucks. Hopefully the rebuilder stands up for his work. Did you buy the parts and supply him?

 

[Anthony 71 Paisley]

Uhhuh fingers crossed.The only thing I didnt buy through him was carb /intake/plugs and wires. Everything else was through his shop.

 

[Anthony 71 Paisley]

Yep comp cam and lifters

 

[rkrochen]

What I can’t understand now is years ago we changed a lot of cams (remember the sbc’s with soft cams) and rebuilt many engines. I never had a cam wipe out so why is it such a problem now especially considering we have all these high tech break in oils now. I always precleaned the cam and coated in a heavy type of oil additive then don’t touch the lobes. My personal opinion is the quality of the parts aren’t up to snuff.

 

[C Body Bob]

If it’s a big cam did you use break in springs or at least remove the inners coils from the dual spring. Pain in the azz but worth it. Also Comp offers a coating that helps with break in. It’s not just Comp. I’m hearing this from a lot of cams company’s. The EPA oils these days are terrible

 

[Joseph James]

Sorry to hear about that. $8k and it’s nothing special? Yowza. I paid $2700 plus shipping to S & J Engines for a reman 383 stock. I’m at 2k miles daily driving with no problems. When I changed the oil I used a Valvoline product for “classic cars “ and still dumped a bottle of Lucas ZDDP additive in. The oil sent by the builder was Joe Gibbs racing oil.

I don’t see what else you can do except clean the engine out and start over. Members here probably can recommend a quality camshaft that won’t wipe out.

 

[traintech55]

Years ago engine oil had a high content of an additive called ZZP. (if I remember the letters). It is almost non-existent in today's oils. You can get the additive from the parts store. If you have the old oil cans look to see if the additive in in there. If you bought all the internal parts from the shop, and the oil, then they should stand behind the repair.

 

[Anthony 71 Paisley]

Years ago engine oil had a high content of an additive called ZZP. (if I remember the letters). It is almost non-existent in today's oils. You can get the additive from the parts store. If you have the old oil cans look to see if the additive in in there. If you bought all the internal parts from the shop, and the oil, then they should stand behind the repair.

They used their choice of break in oil & primed it. I just dressed it , put plugs and wires and installed it. Then tried to break it in..

 

[commando1]

You guy's can talk all you want about proper break-in procedure and what to use.
You're flapping your lips.
It's because it is a Comp Cam.

 

[Anthony 71 Paisley]

Sorry to hear about that. $8k and it’s nothing special? Yowza. I paid $2700 plus shipping to S & J Engines for a reman 383 stock. I’m at 2k miles daily driving with no problems. When I changed the oil I used a Valvoline product for “classic cars “ and still dumped a bottle of Lucas ZDDP additive in. The oil sent by the builder was Joe Gibbs racing oil.

I don’t see what else you can do except clean the engine out and start over. Members here probably can recommend a quality camshaft that won’t wipe out.

It's a long story but yes it's a cast head w stainless valves , 10.3:1 .30 over 360 . The shop was figuring somewhere in the 450 range. Nothing too special but yeah I think a little more than 8k went into it. ..
I feel as though it should be torn down and gone through but I dont have the $ to have the shop do it if they dont cover it and I dont have the energy to deal with it... I would rather just buy a craigslist motor at that point and sell the car

 

[Anthony 71 Paisley]

You guy's can talk all you want about proper break-in procedure and what to use.
You're flapping your lips.
It's because it is a Comp Cam.

...

Your not the 1st person who's said that... I'm believing it. I wanted to run a lunati roller the shop swore comp flat tappet was perfect and said not to worry it wouldn't be an issue.

 

[CanCritter]

If it’s a big cam did you use break in springs or at least remove the inners coils from the dual spring

x2

 

[Anthony 71 Paisley]

Nah single spring . 474 lift I think.. That was a concern asked about as well. It didnt require dual springs

 

[stubs300]

I see so many fails here I don't know where to start? Good Luck

 

[Joseph James]

It's a long story but yes it's a cast head w stainless valves , 10.3:1 .30 over 360 . The shop was figuring somewhere in the 450 range. Nothing too special but yeah I think a little more than 8k went into it. ..
I feel as though it should be torn down and gone through but I dont have the $ to have the shop do it if they dont cover it and I dont have the energy to deal with it... I would rather just buy a craigslist motor at that point and sell the car

I understand. I got pretty demoralized about my Fury a time or two. You may feel differently after you sleep on it. Either way, I hope this works out for you.

 

[twostick]

I will bet the rent the lifter on the flat lobe was not spinning ever. The FIRST thing you do after you button up the valve train on a flat tappet is turn the engine over and see if ALL the lifters spin and by spin I mean they should turn like they are all geared to the camshaft. If any don't turn or aren't consistent with the others, you need to remove them and check the lifter bore and the lifter itself to see why.

More times than not it's the lifter itself that is the problem, not the cam but the root cause of the failure is just taking parts out of a box, slamming them in and firing it up.

Kevin

 

[C Body Bob]

I will bet the rent the lifter on the flat lobe was not spinning ever. The FIRST thing you do after you button up the valve train on a flat tappet is turn the engine over and see if ALL the lifters spin and by spin I mean they should turn like they are all geared to the camshaft. If any don't turn or aren't consistent with the others, you need to remove them and check the lifter bore and the lifter itself to see why.

More times than not it's the lifter itself that is the problem, not the cam but the root cause of the failure is just taking parts out of a box, slamming them in and firing it up.

Kevin

True, lifter clearance is rarely looked at.

 

[Joseph James]

I will bet the rent the lifter on the flat lobe was not spinning ever. The FIRST thing you do after you button up the valve train on a flat tappet is turn the engine over and see if ALL the lifters spin and by spin I mean they should turn like they are all geared to the camshaft. If any don't turn or aren't consistent with the others, you need to remove them and check the lifter bore and the lifter itself to see why.

More times than not it's the lifter itself that is the problem, not the cam but the root cause of the failure is just taking parts out of a box, slamming them in and firing it up.

Kevin

I didn’t understand the sharpie marker marks on my pushrods until later. Apparently, the marks are used to make sure everything turns. I always thought pushrods just went up and down.

At 4:15