I was just wondering :confused: It has always been suggested to break the cam in at about 2000rpms varying the rpms alittle for approximately 20 minutes. The reason for the rpm is so the oil being flung from the crankshaft will be thrown on the cam for the much needed lubrication during breakin. My question is: since most of the oil being flung(SP? :D ) off the crank is a by product of connecting rod side clearance why don't we just over fill the oil some and let the crank really whip some around? I've overfilled old oil burning engines without any problems other than the rings can't keep up with removing oil from the cylinder walls and it will throw blue smoke until the level is reduced. But once the cam was broke in I'm sure the rings would be ok when the oil level is reduced. Anybody? Could this be a possible simple cure for some of the cam failures everyone has been seeing lately? Bob

Not sure if the foam created would be such a good idea. Plus, a lot of people are now using scrapers and such which can exacerbate the problem. A better solution might be to break in with lighter springs. (At least according to the cam mfgs)

Sounds like a neat idea but I have reservations about it tho.

If the crank starts hitting the oil in the pan the problem is that the oil will have alot of air introduced into the oil by that spinning rotating assembly.Oil normally has additives to reduce " Foaming " or airiation <sp>.... but these additives would be totally overwhelmed by this.

Oil by it'self does a good job of lubricating but oil and air doesnt... The surface tension of oil would be reduced by all the extra air and it would ( total guess here but likely lose some of it's ability to carry a load )..... If the oil in the pan really gets whipped up then what is the oil pump sending through the engine ?

Maybe I'm totally wrong here and I doubt an extra quart would hurt but if you added and extra 3 or 4 quarts it seems like there would be airation as well as leakage problems.

I'm guessing at this as honestly I have never tried it.

i'm thinking of buying those new lifters that have an oiling hole in the bottom that lubes the cam lobes as the engine runs.pretty cool design idea.

I've heard good and bad on those lifters, let us know how they work for you.

Originally posted by baddbob71:
I've heard good and bad on those lifters, let us know how they work for you. What was the "bad" about those lifters?

Thanks.

the oil galley has more than enough oil to supply that cam and lifter set up the question on filling oil high do now do it period the last thing ya need is more oil going up the sides of the pistons getting into the cumbustion chambers creating all kinds of havok

Yeah, I wnat to heqr bad too. Since I could, I deliberately shrunk rod side clearnace to .015" from .025" to keep more oil on them bearings. ( ok, well the machinst did). So I opted for those oil hole solids to get back some of that lubrication.

Now, I still run a stock 67 oil pressure guage, but I didnt really notice any issue at all with low pressure. And I ditched the HV pump to boot.

Dont forget, higher RPMs used during break in are also to make sure the lifters keep spinning in their bores.

Originally posted by 427L88:
So I opted for those oil hole solids to get back some of that lubrication.

Now, I still run a stock 67 oil pressure guage, but I didnt really notice any issue at all with low pressure. And I ditched the HV pump to boot. Gene, I know you have had just as many problems with BBC cam break-in as I have. Do you think the oil hole solids made a difference during break-in?

I just broke in my f.t solid on my 406. I only used outer springs and have the Isky lifters with the oil hole.(Thanks Mike) I don't know how much either of these 2 things had to do with it but it worked out great for me. This along with EOS seems like a good insurance to breaking in a cam.

Cable,

When I decided to go with solid - but pretty mild, FT Lunati cam I also used a set of the oil hole lifters.

It's probably impossible to say if the EDM'd lifters meant the difference between the cam surviving or not, since most folks still use regular lifters with no problems.

I can tell you that they at least offered peice of mind and the break in went fine. The cam has about 1000 miles on it now.

Only issue is that OP dropped by about 10 LBS across the range when up to operating temp. My 396 (408) runs a standard volumn pump with a higher pressure spring. When hot it idles at 750 and I see just over 25 lbs on my calibrated OP gauge.

Dan

http://www.off-road.com/chevy/reviews/bbc_oiler/

BBC cam oiler modification