Engine Break In

After a long project it was finally time for the most exiting part: first start and break in. I asked a friend to join me so I could work with the throttle and he could check the timing and make sure everything seemed OK in the engine bay.

We began with the fluids. We filled the cooling system with water and poured some oil in the engine. I'll replace the water with real coolant after seeing that the engine works. Using just water is not an option in Finland and it would corrode all the parts in the engine in a couple of years anyway. We also used some Comp Cams break in oil additive to add some ZZDP. I don't trust todays oils with flat tappet camshafts so I'll be using it after every oil change.

To see that the oiling system worked we decided to pre-oil the engine before starting it. We had a power drill and made a long extension by attaching a few shorter ones together. We taped them together so none of them would drop in the engine. Then we needed a long 1/4 inch socket that would fit over the oil pump shaft.

With the contraption ready, we dropped it in the distributor hole and used the drill to turn the oil pump. But it didn't work. We tried turning it both ways but got nothing. Some nervous moments later my friend realised that I had not filled the oil filter with oil! Without it, the pump was running dry and could not start pulling oil from the pan. After quickly filling the filter, the pump started working normally. I rotated the engine by hand while my friend ran the drill so oil would get everywhere. After only a few seconds oil was flowing out of every pushrod. Phew.

It was time to fire up the engine for the first time. I stepped in the car and turned on the ignition. After some basic checks like turning on the lights so see that we had at least some electricity I turned the engine over. There was no gas in the carb so we didn't expect an immediate startup but after only a few seconds my battery started acting up. I had charged it for six hours before installing it to the car but it ran out of juice almost immediately. Damn.

Luckily I had another battery that we could use. It worked fine even thought it had been unused for the whole winter. The engine did not fire immediately but soon started banging through the exhaust. My friend fiddled with the distributor and then the engine started!

I immediately took the engine to 2000 RPM and kept it there. I made sure oil pressure rose to normal while my friend checked the timing advance. It was about 20 degrees which worked for break in purposes but I would have to measure it at idle later.

What I read from break in instructions, you should keep the engine RPM between 2000 and 2500 for 25 to 30 minutes. Unfortunately after about 7 minutes the engine temperature started to rise too high and I had to turn it off. It was getting late so I decided to let the car cool until next evening.

Before continuing the break in I did some investigation. I pulled the valve covers to make sure all rockers got oil and removed the plugs. They were a bit grey which could mean the engine was running lean. I opened the idle screws a bit and decided to continue as nothing was obviously wrong.

The engine started fine and I took the RPM to 2000. But again after 6 or 7 minutes the temperature rose too high and I had to kill the engine. I assumed that the fan and radiator just was not powerful enough to keep the engine cool without wind. I decided to continue the next day again but this time I added an electrical fan to push air through the radiator.

The fan helped a bit but still the engine ran hot. I started to get a bit worried but did the break in routine in four steps anyway. After them the engine had ran a bit under 30 minutes so it was time to investigate it. I checked the plugs again and they were the same as before. Under the valve covers everything seemed fine too. One of the valves had started ticking during the last break in run so I would have to adjust the valves again. Then it was time to drain the oil and see how it looked.

I let the oil out while still hot and luckily didn't see abnormal amounts of metal in it. I also removed the filter and drained the oil from it. It had a bit more metal flakes but I hoped everything was still OK.

It seemed that the break in succeeded but I would not know for sure before driving 500 to 1000 km. And before that I would need to get my driveshaft shortened. While I was putting the engine back together I had an epiphany. I had forgot to install the PCV valve hose previously! This meant that there was a huge vacuum leak below the carb. That could be the explanation why the engine was running lean and hot. I'd see that on my test drive.

Engine Assembly: Final Details

With the exhaust manifolds installed, all the major parts were attached to the engine. I still had a million small details left though. I started with the fuel pump. To make sure it would not leak, I spread some Hylomar on both sides of the gasket before installing it.

The original fuel pipe from the pump to the carb was in good condition so I just cleaned and used it. Then came the oil pressure sender, carburetor, fuel filter, radiator, hoses, throttle linkage, wiring and spark plugs. I bough new NGK APR6FS plugs which should have the correct heat range for my engine. I also made sure that the plug gaps were all 0,75 mm (0.03 inches).

I had bought a Pertronix Ignitor 1 module and a new coil but decided against installing them yet. I would use the original coil and points in the distributor for the engine break in. I knew they worked so I thought it would be safer that way. I turned the number one piston TDC and dropped the distributor in.

I also decided to install the clutch equalizer bar so I could disconnect the transmission from the engine during break in. It was really dirty so I cleaned and painted it. Its bushings were also really worn so I got a new mounting kit.

Final pieces were the battery and valve covers. Connecting the battery revealed a major malfunction in my new starter relay. Right when the negative lead touched the terminal sparks started flying and the engine turned over. I tested the relay and it was short circuited all the time. Luckily my original relay still worked so I installed it back. Now all that I had to do was pour in the fluids and the engine was ready for its first start!

Exhaust Manifolds

To keep a stock look in the engine bay, I decided to use the original exhaust manifolds. They were restrictive as hell but would suffice for now. At least I had an easy part to upgrade later. Unfortunately the manifolds were really rusty and ugly.

To clean the rust I decided to dip them in acid. But not the strong stuff, just citric acid. I bough some in crystallised form and mixed it with water in about 100g of acid per litre of water. Then I left the manifolds to soak for 24 hours. Almost all of the rust had disappeared and the rest I wire brushed off.

To really make them shine I also decided to paint them. I bough some Tikkurila Termal paint and brushed it on. It was almost like water and small droplets flied everywhere. If using it, protect all surfaces carefully. The results were pretty nice at least.

The paint would only cure completely when heated to about 200 degrees celsius (390 fahrenheit) but running the engine should take care of that. The old bolts were also pretty rusty so I bought new ones. Attaching the manifolds to the engine was pretty simple but I had to shorten one bolt. The shock tower was so close to the passenger side manifold that the long bolt just would not fit.

As I had suspected the transmission support caused problems when attaching the exhaust pipe to the manifold. The pipe contacted the support and would not align with the manifold. In the end I had to create a dent to the pipe to attach them together. I'll probably have to replace the front section of the pipe later so they wont rub against each other.

Engine Assembly: Intake Manifold

With the valve train adjusted, I was ready to drop the intake manifold on the engine. I consulted Monroe again and he suggested that you should add some sealant around the water passages in the heads so I spread a little Hylomar there and around the exhaust crossover ports to keep the gasket in place.

I also had to cut a little corner away from the water passage holes but otherwise the gaskets fit well.

The top side of the gaskets already had sealer around the passages so I did not add any. Next were the front and rear gaskets that are the most common places for leaks. I spread some Hylomar again to seal them properly.

Then I carefully placed the cork gaskets on the sealant and added some more Hylomar on top. After letting it dry for a few minutes, I placed the intake manifold on the engine. I had a few studs in the heads to guide it in the correct place. The bolt holes were a bit tight but they still fit even thought the heads had been lowered a lot. I followed the correct sequence and torqued the bolts in.

Engine Assembly: Valve Train

It would be easier to adjust the valves without the intake manifold so I decided to tackle it next. First I had to find out the correct length for my push rods though. I installed the solid lifters again and placed the 6.800 inch standard length rods on them. To test the rocker contact, I used black marker to color the tops of the valves.

Then I set the valve lash to zero and rotated the engine a few turns.

After loosening the rockers again I could see that the intake valve contact was pretty good but the exhaust valves were a bit off center towards the outboard side. This meant that the rods were too long. I used an adjustable rod to find the correct length which was about 6.73 inches. Rod closest to that length that I could find was Trick Flow 6.750 inches long so I bought eight of them. I did the marker test once more and the results were pretty good

Now I had everything to finalize the valve train installation. After cleaning and spreading some Schneider Cam Lube to the bottom of the lifters, I dropped them in their bores. As all parts were new, their order did not matter. The instructions that came with them also mentioned that they should be installed without filling them with oil so I left them empty.

I dipped the heads of the push rods in assembly lube and dropped them in place. Then all I had to do was adjust the valves and I was done. Monroes book has a good picture how you can adjust all valves in three steps. No need to find TDC for each cylinder so I went with that. I tightened the nut until all slack was taken from the rods and then turned 180 degrees more. This should set the lifter preload correctly.

Engine Assembly: Oil Pan

Time to close up the bottom end. To make sure the oil pan would not leak, I cleaned the surfaces and used Hylomar to glue the cork gaskets in place.

Then I placed the gaskets on the block and lightly screwed the bolts in to make sure everything was positioned correctly.

Then came a long pause in the oil pan installation. I noticed that the drain plug threads were pretty much gone and probably would not hold oil. I searched around for a new pan but only some chromed parts were available quickly. I wanted to retain the original look so I decided to fix the threads. I took the pan to a friend who welded a nut inside it. With that I could screw in a different bolt to use as a plug.

Finally I pushed the rubber end seals in the block, spread some more Hylomar on the gasgets and I was ready to install the pan.

After dropping the pan on the block, I torqued the bolts in many steps. First until they just pulled the pan in and then half a turn at a time so the flange would not bend. After a few rounds the pan was installed.

Engine Assembly: Cylinder Heads

It was time to assemble and install my cylinder heads. I gave them a final clean and got to work. I spread some assembly lube on the valve stems and pushed them in the guides. Then I dug out my spring compressor and installed the retainer and spring. Unfortunately I also found another problem later. The new springs were larger than the old so the original retainers could not be used. I had to take the springs out again and buy larger retainers. After assembling the heads a few times already, it was getting to be a routine...

I also installed new valve seals but used the original rocker arms and nuts. I thought about getting new roller rockers but those are usually so large that the original valve covers can't be used. As I was trying to keep the stock look, I settled for the standard parts.

Before installing the rocker arms, I cleaned them and lightly sanded the tips. Mostly just to get the crud off. Otherwise they seemed to be in good condition.

Then it was time to coat all contact areas with assembly lube and drop the rockers on their studs. Repeat that 16 times and I had two heads ready for installation.

My gasket set included Fel-Pro 1011-2 head gaskets. Their instructions mention that they should be installed as is without painting or doing any other modifications so I just dropped them on my block.

Both gaskets have "FRONT" stamped on one edge so I made sure to position them the correct way.

And then it was time to install the heads. I carefully positioned them on the block until the two dowel pins contacted and steered them down. I gave a light coating of oil for the bolts and screwed them in. To correctly torque them, I followed Monroes book. They must be tightened in correct order and in three steps. Steps are 50 ft-lbs, 60 ft-lbs and finally 70 ft-lbs for the 289 engine. And with that my heads were installed.

Head Aches

After lapping the valves I was ready to assemble the heads. Unfortunately I realised that the intake valves would need 0.1 inches of shims. That's a lot and I wasn't sure if they would stay put. I took the heads and their parts to TuumaCID and found a solution. We measured a bunch of other valve springs and found a set that had the same pressures as my original Comp 942-16 but with 1.800 inch install height. With them I would not need to add any shims.

While we were checking the springs, I also decided to get new rocker arm studs. One was missing and the rest were quite worn anyway so I got a full set. Problems started when I installed them. I removed the old and screwed in the new. At that point I noticed that at least two flanges in the head had cracks in them. The new studs were wider at the top of the threads and opened them up. Great...

Luckily I found help from the same place where the valves and seats had been machined. I removed everything from the heads and drove over to see if they could be fixed. After waiting some hours one of them had been welded. Next we tested the studs again and realized, that the new ones were a lot longer that the old. This actually proved to be a good thing because we could machine the flanges 8 mm lower. By doing that, their walls at least doubled in thickness.

I left the heads to be finalized and after a couple of days they were done. There had been three cracks in both heads and all were welded. Luckily the cracks were in the flanges and not in the combustion chamber. The threads had also been pretty bad and heli-coils had been installed in two holes. The rest had just needed some re-threading. Finally all flanges had been lowered. The results looked really good.

Welded and machined head

Repaired threads

After investigating the new studs, we realized that they were meant to be used with guide plates. The flare in the threads situated the plate correctly. As I did not use them, I needed to place a thick washers on the heads. To make sure no water would leak from the studs, I added some thread sealer and thread locker on them. Hopefully they were finally ready to be used.

Lapping The Valves

Lapping the valves should not be absolutely necessary after a valve job but I did it anyway to see where the valves contacted the seats. The heads had been modified quite extensively so I did not want leave any doubts about the valves fitting them.

Lapping itself is really simple. I bought some lapping compound and a lapping tool that is just a stick with suction cups in each end. The grinding compound had coarse and fine paste and you start with the rough stuff. I spread it on the valve face, pushed the stem in the guide and attached the tool.

I rotated the lapping tool back and forth between my hands while pressing it lightly towards the head. After a few rotations I tapped the valve with its seat a few times to get more paste between them. After doing this I got a nice grey ring on both surfaces. Then I needed to clean the valve and seat and do the same thing with the fine paste. It took a few hours to lap all 16 valves.

All seats were fine but the contact area on the intake valves was quite near the edge. Should be fine but there is no room for any more machining.

Comp Cams Camquest

To get some kind of estimate for the power level in my engine, I toyed with Comp Cams Camquest page. I entered the requested parameters and the app spat this kind of graph for me:

Calculated peak HP was about 260 @ 5000 RPM and peak torque 330 @ 3500 RPM. This was using all the stock parts like carburetor, intake manifold, exhaust manifolds etc.

To get some kind of idea which parts would have the largest effect on the engine, I went through some of the options one by one. Better intake and bigger carb added about 25 HP and 10 ft-lbs but changing the original exhaust manifolds to headers gave a huge 50 HP and 35 ft-lbs boost!

Combining the intake and carb with the headers brought in another 30 HP and 10 ft-lbs. If the Camquest simulation is even close to real life results, I think first item on my upgrade list would be the headers. But for now, I'll go with the stock parts.

Compression Ratio

After selecting my cylinder heads, I could now count the compression ratio my engine would have. There are dozens of calculators in the web but I used the one on Summit page. The needed facts were:

Cylinder bore	4.030 inches
Stroke	2.870 inches
Combustion chamber volume	50.5 cc
Piston volume	8 cc
Piston deck clearance	0.01 inches below deck
Head gasket height	0.039 inches

This gave me a compression ratio of 9,73 : 1. Should work pretty well with my combination of parts.

Valve Spring Tests

First order of head jobs was to find the correct valve springs. For this I had borrowed two test springs and solid lifters so I could measure the installation and open heights. As I would have to bolt the head on the block, I also decided to measure the valve-to-piston clearance. So, two valves went in the head.

For the piston clearance I placed some blu tack in the valve reliefs.

And I was ready to bolt the head to the block. I made sure to follow the correct order for torquing the bolts and then installed the lifters, push rods and original rocker arms. Before adjusting the lash, I rotated the crank until both valves were closed and then tightened the nut until the push rod just started to feel sticky. Time for measurements. Results were:

-	Intake	Exhaust
Installation height	1.80 inches	1.75 inches
Open height	1.33 inches	1.28 inches
Lift	0.47 inches	0.47 inches

Now I was able to find correct valve springs. Not that surprisingly after a phone call to US-Parts, we came to the conclusion that I should buy what Comp Cams suggests for my cam: Comp 942-16. They had the correct pressure and height so I went and bought a set. Their required installation height was 1.7 inches though so I would have to measure every valve and add shims to get it correct.

Finally I removed the head and checked the blu tack.

The valves had hardly even touched it. After cutting both in half, I measured the clearance to be 0.25 inches. No problems there.

Head Games

I got my cylinder heads back from the machinist so time to go through them. First issue with them was deciding which heads to use. I had my engines original pair and the heads from the crap engine that I bough earlier.

The original heads seemed untouched and had never been restored. This probably meant a lot of work like valve guides, valve seats, valves, springs etc. Really expensive and in the end I would just have original heads with small valves and poor flow.

The second pair of heads had been worked on quite extensively. They had bronze valve guides, they had been machined for larger valves, the intake and exhaust runners and bowls were ported, they had screw in studs and they had been lowered a lot. Sounds really good but they were not without issues:

• Even the replaced valve guides were a bit loose. Not as bad as in my original heads but still.
• They had been lowered so much it would raise the compression ratio and might cause problems with the bolt hole alignment in the intake manifold.
• One of the studs was just a normal bolt that was even bent.
• The installed valves were too small! Standard size valves had been put in and they were really deep in the seats. I can't believe someone would have actually run the engine with them.
• Were they just cracked junk heads that had been put together to make the crap engine seem whole?

Comparison of original (top) and ported combustion chambers. Note the way too small exhaust valve.

I showed pictures of both heads in FMOC forum and one member agreed to go through them for fair price. He had tools to machine the valves and seats and experience to inspect the heads. So I delivered them to him and waited.

Some time later I got a call that the heads were done. I drove over and we checked the damage. He had inspected both pairs and suggested that I use the ported heads. They needed new valves and springs but that was small compared to the original heads which needed pretty much everything. He had also acquired used but almost like new valves for me. Their sizes were 1.9 inches for the intake and 1.62 inches for the exhaust. That just left the springs.

Stainless steel Ferrea valves

Comparison of original and new valves

The valves and seats had been machined and surfaces checked for straightness. He had also measured the combustion chamber volume which was about 47 cc. That's 7 cc smaller than original! The heads had really been lowered a lot. This would make my compression ratio pretty high so he ground the chambers back to 50 cc. Hopefully removing material from around the valves also improved flow.

Machined combustion chamber

Ported intake bowl

Chamber with the new valves installed.

Nice amount of room around the open valves

Even with the machining done, I still had a lot to do before dropping the heads on the block. I would need to find the correct springs, measure the valve-to-piston distance, lap the valves, paint the heads and finally assemble them. Oh, and hope that the heads would not be cracked and ruin my day when first starting the engine.

Engine Assembly: Water Pump

I noticed a small problem with my oil pan: the threads were pretty much gone from the drain plug hole. I do not want to risk it opening during driving so I'll have to fix it before installing the pan. Perhaps by welding a nut to the inside of the pan.

I let the pan wait and installed the water pump in stead. It had a small problem too. I had opened the back plate to inspect the insides but it seemed that the gasket there was not included in any of my kits. Neither is it included in my friends "complete engine gasket set" so I had to visit the parts store to get it. Just remember to get it separately if you plan to open the pump...

To seal the back plate to my cast iron pump, I spread some Hylomar on the gasket surface...

...placed the gasget on it and added more Hylomar to the other side...

...and installed the back plate. To make sure it was located correctly and to give the sealer time to dry, I added a bunch of bolts and tightened them to squeeze the gasket in.

After letting the back plate settle, I removed the bolts and installed the rear gasket. It had to only seal the water passages so I added Hylomar around them and set the gasket on it.

Finally I placed the pump on the front cover and located it with the bolts. I used new locking washers on all and torqued them to 15 ft-lbs. Pump installation done!

Engine Assembly: Oil Pump

Final task before closing the bottom end was installing the oil pump. I had a new pump and after checking the old pickup tube, I decided to replace it too. The old one was pretty dirty and I did not want the crud getting loose in my new engine. Weird thing about the new pump was that it included the gasket between the pump and the tube but not the one between the block and pump. None of my other sets included it either but luckily my friends had an extra that I could use.

Before installing the pump, I unbolted its cover to check the inside. Everything seemed to be clean and good for use.

I put the cover back on and started the install. I lubricated the pump drive shaft and dropped it in its hole. Next I placed the correct gasket on the block and bolted the pump in place. Monroe said not to use any sealant in the pump gaskets so I left it out. But I did use a little drop of thread locker in the bolts so they would not come out while driving. I also checked that the drive shaft could not be pulled out of the pump and torqued the bolts to 25 ft-lbs.

Now I could bolt the pickup tube to the pump. The gasket went in first and then I just bolted the tube in place. Again using some thread locker before torquing the bolts to 15 ft-lbs.