My 396 is about done but im probably at least a few weeks away from having all the parts, wiring,exauhst, ect... to be ready to fire it up. Any pre break in suggestions for me when i am ready to start her up? Its a solid cam do i need to pre oil the motor with a rigged distributor?? anything else????

definately prelube the motor, I also like to use a carb that is somewhat dialed in already to aviod too any restarts during the cam breakin. If the carb is new bolt it on a buddy's engine and make the adjustments-float level etc. before you fire it up.

Anthony, I was in the same boat. I elected to not glue the intake down until the night before. That allowed me to pour EOS all over the cam, on the lifters, ( don't for get the distributor gear)then set the lash with the intake off. Drop two lines of rtv fore and aft, let it set for a bit, place intake on, torque down, and let it sit over night. I got the engine back to 10 BTDC while lashing the night before, so I jsut stabbed the distributor in, hooked up #1 wire, put a light on it, energized it, adn then turned the distributor until the timing light fired. Filled the carb bowls with a kid's medicine syringe, and it fired right up.

When I pre-oiled the motor, I follwed advice here nad did it for a few minutes, rotated the engine 90 degrees, a few minutes, rotate, etc.

Also many advise to set your inital valve lash a bit on the tight side, maybe 2 thou tighter than stock. If its a iron head motor, you can set it right at the stock spec and it should shrink down 1-2 as it warms up.

It's nice to have a buddy with you. I did it solo, but its nice to have someone working the throttle and someone under the hood.

GOOD LUCK! graemlins/thumbsup.gif

EDIT: I should have added, for the few weeks the intake was off, plastic sheeting was taped over the heads to keep the cam galley sanitary.