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Assembly fluid or lubriplate?

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heliguy

heliguy

Jedi Hopeful
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Ran into some extra cash so now have all the rings, bearings, gaskets, seals etc for my TR250 engine refresh. Block cleaned, honed, new freeze plugs ( do they still call them that?) and im ready to assemble. Its been awhile since I have built an engine, and in the "old days" it seemed to me that lubriplate was the lube of choise to smear on all bearing surfaces, especially if the engine was not to run for say 6 months or so................... I have others tell me to use assembly lube, and the stuff i have seen is almost like honey, sticky, gooey, and not much lubricating quality to it. So, do i stick with tried and true lubriplate or maybe there are different grades of assembly lubricant that i have not seen?

cheers,

Mitch
 
I use Redline Assembly lube. Comes in a small jar and is a red colored gel. For the cam, a specific lube like Crane or Kent cam lube will hold onto the surfaces well.
 
I used assembly lube during the last rebuild I did and had no problems. A few of my friends used Vaseline instead of assembly lube or LubriPlate. They used WAY too much and they managed to partially block the oil filter. Fortunately for them, they found the problem while cranking with the plugs out and stopped after they failed to see the oil pressure come up.

I'd never thought about using LubriPlate as an assembly lube. We used it all the time when I worked designing/building textile equipment.
 
I saw some bad results with Lubriplate back in the 60's-70's. I'd stick with the Redline or modern engine assembly lubricants.

Back then we used GM OES by the gallon and even STP for initial assemblies, but the Lubriplate will burn off rather quickly from what I've seen.

Doug is right. Vaseline is BADDD news.
 
If you cant find assembly lube locally just use STP oil treatment. That stuff will stick around until it is needed. In any case, before you start up the engine, you are going to prime the oil pump so oil will get to where it needs to be in any case.
 
Permatex UltraSlick assembly lube on gears and bearing journals. Cam lube on the lobes. Engine oil everywhere else.
 
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