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Break In Oil for a rebuilt engine

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when you put the anitfreeze in I would take the thermostat out to make sure the head is full then put the thermastat in. I rebuilt a volvo engine back in the 80s filled the radiator up started the engine on break in and after about 3 minutes the manifold was cherry red, not knowing what happened I turned the engine off, checked the radiator, it was full, I pulled the thermastat housing off to see if it was stuck and to my surprise there was no antifreeze in the head. since the thermasat stayed closed no antifreeze got to the head,
 
I was taught that a new cam grind should always have new lifter surfaces. When Babe Erson refaced my lifters for me, he put a very slight radius on the bottom and applied a treatment to improve lubrication (phosphating ? Don't recall now.) Total cost was much less than a set of lifters.

Greg Solow (one of the better known TR engine builders) says that he has new lifters 100% tested for hardness and finds at least a few bad ones in every batch, sometimes all of them. For street use he requires at least Rc51, and for racing, Rc56. He said original Leyland lifters were in the range Rc52-Rc55.

A good quality thermostat will have provisions for an air bleed, to avoid exactly the problem Hondo is talking about. This can be as simple as a small notch in the valve seat (which should be turned to the top when the plate is vertical), or some of them actually have a "diddle pin" in a separate hole (the pin blocks water flow but allows air past). If you can't see provisions in your thermostat, either get a different one or drill a small (1/16" - 3/16") hole through the backplate.
 
Don Elliott said:
Check the hardness if you can find someone with a Rockwell hardness machine.
Click to expand...
Or buy them from someone like Greg Solow, that does the hardness checking for you.

Another alternative is the kit BFE sells, with sleeves to use lifters from another engine. I bought one, but haven't tried it yet. According to Ken, those lifters don't need to be tested, and are hard all the way through rather than just on the surface.
 
I just re-read my last message and the hardness for this should read "C" scale and not B like I typed. I think the B scale would be for materials like rubber. Not very hard if the face of the flat tappets are only as hard as rubber, would they.

It has to be at least 10 years ago that Ken G. told me about the batch of soft ones.

Randall's suggestion is excellent. Buy new ones where the hardness is guaranteed - like from Greg.
 
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