Hey, fellow brickers!

I just picked up my freshly rebuilt (still in pieces haha) b230ft with slightly oversized pistons. After I assemble it, I don't really know how to break in the rings to the bores. I have seen some really elaborate schemes for breaking it in involving a dozen oil changes, and some others that were more like "keep it under redline for a while".

Also, the machine shop mentioned using high-zinc oil, which is a big deal for the older "flat tappet" engines, but I don't think the b230s are. Break-in oil, I imagine, should be a little thinner than normal running oil, but I don't know specifics.

On the topic of oil, I had been running 15w-40 diesel oil for the cost and because it works well in turbocharged engines and their increased blowby. I need to look at the table in the manual, but I believe it lists 15w-40 for weather over 32F.

Cheers!

Lots of interesting thoughts on the science of "break in" in the thread.

I'll simply add my two cents.

A whole lot has changed since the days of my father's last "new car" purchase in 1965. Think about buying a new car (with a brand new engine, transmission, rearend (or more likely, transaxle) today. They are usually started for the first time on the assembly line. When they show up at the dealership, they rarely have more than a mile or two on them. Almost everything shows up with synthetic oil in them from the very beginning. And the average public doesn't have a clue about "break in" -- including the people at the dealerships selling the cars. I've bought a few new ones over the last 25 years - and I can recall one or two that had a line in the owner's manual (which no one bothers with except to figure out how to set the sound system up) about not exceeding 5000 rpm during the first 1000 miles or some such thing. Nothing about constant stops/starts. Nothing about varying engine speed. Nothing about retorquing fasteners. Nothing about oil/filter changes after the first hundred miles. Nothing. About. And the vast majority of these cars go 100k-200k miles (often, many more) usually with less than stellar maintenance by the average owner.

If you read up a bit more about all of this -- with the ability to carefully control the manufacturing and machining processes as well as vastly superior material (metals) control -- those new engines seat their piston rings within a few seconds of start up. Do things get cozier over the next couple of hundred miles? Yup. But "break in" as it was necessary back in the day is a thing of the past with most of today's new engines. In 2016 I installed and started up a brand new crate LS3 V8 in my Volvo. Its crankcase was filled with Mobil 1 synthetic -- from the factory for the FIRST start up. It fired on the first try, settled immediately into a 700 rpm idle and ran like a champ from the very beginning. Has never smoked or burned a drop of oil or leaked. There was zero "break-in" -- I just drove the car. I did prime the oil system -- more on that later.

All of that to say -- have a long talk with the folks that did the machine work on the motor and the folks that supplied your new bits - especially rings, bearings. See what THEY say about break in and go from there. As mentioned before, if you replaced the cam and shim pads - there's sometimes a procedure for having those get to know each other. With old school flat tappet followers it's typically to be sure you get any required lash set correctly - and then holding a steady 2000-2500 rpm from 20 minutes or so at first start up. Having said that - I've changed (or helped change) those follower shims on Volvos, VW's, Jaguar's, etc. and after the valve lash has been set with new shims (usually on just a few valves) you fire the car up and drive it. If you have block/head machine work done, then you'll have to recheck/reset lash anyway and perhaps all the shims will change either because you needed some new ones of a different thickness or because you had to move one to another location.

Of course - hopefully you used the proper assembly lube when putting things together - lots of special stuff often used for cam lobes/followers, thread sealers in certain places, loctite, etc. ALWAYS prime the oil system so all passages are full of oil all the way to the bearings and top end of the engine (including filling up hyd lifters) - and the filter is full. Ideally, have someone with a socket on the crank pulley slowly rotate the motor while you're priming so oil gets everywhere. Then fire it up. Check for oil pressure. Be sure it's controlling temperatures as it should. Then follow the advice of the folks that supplied the parts and did the machining. With quality parts and proper machining - it's likely going to be check for leaks and improper noises, then drive the car. Me -- whether called for or not, I like to do an oil/filter change after the first 100-200 miles. Just to get any assembly debris out of the motor. And I cut the filter open just to be sure there are no surprises there.

Clearly, I had too much time on my hands this morning... Good luck.

Here is what I have read about varying speed during break-in.

Accelerating produces pressure to dry cylinder walls a some, causing friction to wear rings and cylinder walls a bit

Decelerating causes a bit of vacuum to bring oil up the cylinder walls to lubricate and cool them and the rings.

Did the shop give you any advice? They should.

In Europe it is customary to sport an - En Rodage - sticker in the rear window to let followers know that you are not going slow or doing other odd things during your break-in just to irritate them!

Once you have filled the oil pump you should probably spin the oil pump for a couple minutes to push all the air out of the oil galleries and to get oil up to the top end. I believe before you install the T-belt that you can just turn the I shaft alone with a drill motor, in it’s normal direction of rotation, to drive the pump. If you car has the side mounted distro then it may need to be installed in order to complete the connection between I-shaft and oil pump. Others on this forum will know for sure.

I have heard this before and it sounds like a great idea. Do you know what direction the oil pump normally spins? Counter Clockwise? I figure it is usually the shortest path from the crankshaft to the camshaft so that the crank pulls the cam, but I prefer not to assume.

When you stand in front of the car and look at the front end of the engine all three shafts turn clockwise.

Link -- read "description"....follow other poster's counsel regarding not lugging the engine, varying engine speed, etc.

https://www.cascadegerman.com/product/joe-gibbs-break-in-kit/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuNi0yoPr6wIVmbt3Ch3sIQvEEAAYAiAAEgIXn_D_BwE

I believe in doing it the simple way, and it depends to a degree on whether you have a new cam and followers?

1. Use the recommended oil as per the manual
2. Especially if a new cam: start up for the first time, and run engine at a fast idle to harden /bed cam surfaces.
3. For first few hundred miles do not labour the engine, do not over-rev the engine, but vary engine speed. This helps bed everything in.
4. Check head bolts for torque after 100 miles or as recommended in manual.
5. Change oil and filter after around 500 miles.
6. Good to go!!

Ian F.

P.s. others no doubt will have a different view 😊

Thanks for replying.

The cam and tappets are the same used ones that came out of the head. All parts are the same used ones except pistons, rings, and consumables. I did not realize that these are indeed "flat" tappet engines (although the roller tappets look more "flat" to me, ironically).

I swear, I saw one that was like:

Idle to bleed the coolant system. Change oil.
Run 5 minutes between 800 and 1000rpm never steady for more than 2 seconds. Change oil.
Run 10 minutes between 800 and 1200rpm....

It just seemed pretty excessive because it was like 6 oil changes and 2 hours of running time.

I usually don't see any mention of bleeding the coolant, which I always do at idle. How does that factor in?

Tappets/cam followers should go back in their original location if being re-used.
No special requirements for the coolant as far as I know. You could I suppose use water initially and then when you are confident everything is ok, drain and refill with the required antifreeze mixture. Might save wasting antifreeze and also flush out any debris left in there after the rebuild.

Ian F

Model All / Year All ....

In the few engines I've rebuilt, always with others, use a quality mineral engine oil for break in so all fittings seat and seal like piston rings. Change with new filter on a break in schedule. Twice or three times.

We do not re-torque the cylinder head bolts on redblock after so many warm up / cool down cycles? I'll guess not. I forget now. No Bentley to reference as yet to replace it. Haynes appears not to warrant cylinder head bolt check.

Synthetic lubricant, so I've been told and have read, interferes with seating components.

Antifreeze type does matter. Something with silicates so the tin in the heater core lead / tin solders do not lose the tin and then your heater core leaks. You do not want Dexcool.

You do not want antifreeze with phosphorous / sulfur compounds in it as these eat yellow (copper) alloys.

Pentafrost NF, Prestone Green, Zerex, Volvo blue or purple antifreeze. And distilled, demineralized, and or deionized (like that used to cool the nuclear fission plant pile, not the salty version). I use Walmart distilled water at 1$ a gallon jug.

https://www.brickboard.com/FAQ/700-900/Cooling.htm

I disagree with Dexcool in a redblock engine.
https://www.brickboard.com/FAQ/700-900/Fuel_LubricantData.htm
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Kittys are fuzzy and sometimes fluffy! Spokane, WA RULES!

Hey! Long time no see (or something like that). I'm in Portland. I hope the smoke is much better in Spokane than here.

What do you mean by mineral oil?

Yup, no dexcool. I am sticking woth Zerex G-05. I used Volvo (blue I think, in a white bottle) dealership coolant once, and it was not fun replacing the heater core a few weeks later. And I only use distilled water. I have heard of one brand working better with tap water, but that seems rather unlikely.

I asked at the machine shop, and he suggested just plain engine oil for installing the pistons.

I have the factory service manual for the engine. 2 different ones, actually. I will double check what they say about head bolts. I think both bolts and timing belt tension are supposed to be rechecked after 100 or 500 miles, along with an oil change. The engine rebuid manual 30871/1 doesn't mention any kind of rechecks, but it is more of a listing of specifications than a guide.

Cheers

Hi Will,

The Volvo 600 to 1200 mile check up includes an oil change, adjustment of the timing belt and check of valve clearances, but nothing about the head gasket.

I don't know how you would do it if you wanted to because there's no head gasket re-torque spec that I can find.

Peter

Mineral oil. Regular engine oil. Not synthetic engine oil.

I've used assembly lube. Something like a 70W regular motor oil for assembly. Assembly lube has additives, I guess, so the lube remains in place like the cam and crank journals.

Oh no, not ever tap water.

Re-torquing the head bolts may not be a part of Volvo engine rebuild. Now I forget. The remaining print manual I have in the form of Haynes appears not to require headbolt check. I forgot where I put them (have two of the same manuals) to check now.

HHhwhutever the factory service manual says on those topics.

And this is the first time these cylinder head bolts are being reused or you purchased new head bolts? There exist debates on Turbobricks on cylinder head bolt reuse. I guess you can reuse these cylinder head bolts once? Forgetting that also.

Volvo OEM gasket and seal set? IIRC Victor-Reinz is OEM? Yet what few brand names and I forget what is best.

D'oh.

Not in Spokane, Wackyngton anymore for five years next month. Regretting every single moment here in terrible slovenly Saint Louis, MO. At least civilized outdoor temperatures have returned.

cGMP software is a medical device. Agile, very agile, ambiguously agile yet the regulatory Quality Management System is always water fall lifecycle. Where's the training? FDA says no touchy until you complete the training for anything you work with if effective documentation defines it in the company QMS system, like Sparta Systems TrackWise, Arena Systems QMS, or Green Light Guru. Yes, I'm having a tantrum with this last job I had and left.
--
Kittys are fuzzy and sometimes fluffy! Spokane, WA RULES!

Well, that's a bummer than moving to MO hasn't been a great improvement. Agile and Waterfall make me think computer programming.


Head bolts are TTY, like 2 steps up to 48ft-lbs plus 90 degrees (don't quote me). The manual says you can reuse them up to 5 times depending on length/stretch from the yielding. I don't know what the head gasket is off the top of my head. Maybe Ajusa for both gasket and bolts. I figure new head bolts every time would be cheap insurance.

I just call "conventional" oil Dinosaur oil. Mineral oil makes me think synthetic or Johnson and Johnson baby oil... haha