My '33 Hotrod is DONE....1/31/2023 update pics at post 515

[tptrsn]

BTW Jim, there are MAAAAAANY different schools of thought on how to break in a new engine. Do you have a preferred method in mind for this one?

[JimLev]

Can't leave it a bare chassis. It's gonna take me another 4+ weeks before I put the body on, going to be doing some east coast travel for 2 weeks starting tomorrow.
Once the body (no doors) is on I'll start cruising the hood a little more.

As far as breaking in the engine goes GM sent me their procedure.
1) The first 30 miles vary RPM, stay under 4K RPM, then change the oil and filter.
2) Then for the next 500 miles don't redline it (6600), vary RPM, then change the oil and filter again.
3) Then your done.

#1 should be easy to do, that won't take long at all.
#2 might be hard to stick to, but I'll try to not go above 6K.
Ive never had a new car that burned oil, so I must be doing something right.

Took 3 neighbor's for a ride today, got 2 miles on the odometer.

[tptrsn]

That's great Jim, so they aren't having you limit the load you're applying, just the RPMs? That actually makes perfect sense to me, and it's a nice easily understandable way to have the masses of non-car-savvy people break in an engine well. Gets them to load the rings well enough to seat them in before glazing occurs, but keeps them from cooking the bejeezus out of the new rings on the extra abrasive fresh hone job. Perfect.

[JimLev]

The only loading they don't want you to do is lug the engine. That AIN'T gonna happen with me being the wheel.
Another thing I notice is the exhaust pipes are super clean, not one spec of carbon at all. Just some water droplets when I first start it up.

The one thing that irks me is I have to dispose of 6 qts of Mobil 1 with only 30 miles on it.

[tptrsn]

Why did you put that in it for break in oil Jim? You crazy? Lol

[geargrinder]

Engine break in these days... I dunno what to think. They used to say don’t use syn cuz it was TOO slippery for good breakin. But I know w euro engines they say traditional break in isn’t really necessary anymore... you’d think the high tech murkun motors would be similar...

[JimLev]

Why did you put that in it for break in oil Jim? You crazy? Lol

DEXOS is what's recommended by GM, and 5w-30 M1 is it's equivalent.

The new Highlander we bought uses syn 0w-20.

[tptrsn]

I usually use SuperTech or its equivalent.




Srsly tho. Although for engines with flat tappets/followers, I use something with a lot of zinc and maybe an extra zinc additive. Not necessary with LSes.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Lol! A “What break in oil thread”..... a subject that usually ends up in stupid arguments over on the two stroke toy airplane forums, haha!

[JimLev]

I usually use SuperTech or its equivalent.

Isn't that the Walmart stuff?? Not putting that stuff in my brandy new LS3.
I did buy M1 at Walmart for $23 for a 5qt jug. Actually bought 6 of them for all 3 cars.

[tptrsn]

Lol! A “What break in oil thread”..... a subject that usually ends up in stupid arguments over on the two stroke toy airplane forums, haha!

It's inevitable! Lol

Isn't that the Walmart stuff?? Not putting that stuff in my brandy new LS3.

Indeed it is Jim! I'm appalled that you know that!

But yeah, for break in oil, it works 100% fine.

[ross1]

The only loading they don't want you to do is lug the engine. That AIN'T gonna happen with me being the wheel.
Another thing I notice is the exhaust pipes are super clean, not one spec of carbon at all. Just some water droplets when I first start it up.

The one thing that irks me is I have to dispose of 6 qts of Mobil 1 with only 30 miles on it.

No beaters in the fleet?
Conventional oil for break in of all my engines, not just for $$ reasons but that super slippy stuff is supposed to retard ring seating.
OOPs, didn't mean to start anything.

[JimLev]

Nope, no beaters any more.
Maybe I can find someone to give it to as opposed to dumping it in the O'Riellys recycle oil tank. Their parking lot usually has a lot of beaters in it. Autozone is next to them too.

The LS3 has a 2 yr 50K mile warranty, I'll follow what GM recommends.

[geargrinder]

that super slippy stuff is supposed to retard ring seating.

Yeah that's wut I sed.

They used to say don’t use syn cuz it was TOO slippery for good breakin. But I know w euro engines they say traditional break in isn’t really necessary anymore... you’d think the high tech murkun motors would be similar...

Re: what to do w/ it... I've used "lightly used" oil like that for lawn mowers / snowblowers etc. etc. Although more often those get the 'leftovers' aka "gee I got 1/2 quart of M1 0-40 here, and 1/2 quart of Rotella 5-40 there... mix 'em all up and toss 'em in the ol' mower!" I will say chucking leftover (new) syn oil like that in my generator and snowblower made them run noticeably more smoothly. They probably came with some dirt-cheap nasty old bulk-oil crap the manufacturer sends to the retailer for installation I'm guessing.

[tptrsn]

Jim,

Not judging here, but I am curious if GM really said specifically to use M1 for break-in, or what their actual instruction parameters were with it?

I personally have a hard time believing that synthetic oil would cause a problem with ring seating as long as sufficient load is applied soon enough after initial startup, and the synthetic oil should be good for everything else about the new engine. Still, I'm curious. Maybe I need to upgrade my break-in oil to SuperTech Synthetic....

[JimLev]

Thad, I just remembered that the engine came full of oil from GM so I really don't know what's in it.
The GM paperwork said after 30 miles to drain it, replace the filter and use GM DEXOS or equivalent with the next text after equivalent in parentheses being Mobil 1.
Recomendation from guys on the Corvette forum say to drive it like you stole it from day 1.

[tptrsn]

Sounds good Jim! Other than it sort of depends on your definition of drive it like you stole it.

I personally like to heat cycle the fresh engine with ramping up the load levels over some short running sessions a couple of times, before I give it a full roadcourse style thrashing. But it could well be that my level of "babying" the new rings is not necessary at all. Definitely I do drive a new engine like I stole it on day one if I'm able to get a couple of heat cycles on it earlier that day and there are no big problems.

GM's process sounds pretty good though, since they are letting you load the rings right from the beginning. With your transmission you won't ever lug the engine unless you tried, so it all sounds perfect. I'm jealous!

[JimLev]

I let it warm up before I take it out in the hood. It's seen 4K every time I've driven it.
Will have to wait until it has a body on it before I can do some (nighttime) thrashing as it still won't be registered.

[RVAE34]

This is awesome, Jim!

[JimLev]

Today I finally got the body sitting on the frame, I love the look. It's only 52" high.
Lots of little things I did took up a lot more time than I expected.
I didn't like the battery mounting in the frame below the body, very hard to access it if needed so I built a box below the trunk floor just above the diff. Put a lexan door on it for easy access.

DSCN2534.JPG

Next was to figure out why the AC belt would fly off every time I hit 5K RPM.
I bought a small digital angle gauge to make sure everything was aligned, then tested it at 6K RPM, so far so good. Haven't hit the 6.6K redline yet, really suppose to keep it no more than 4K until I have 500 miles on it. Only have 4 miles so far.

I found out my alternator shouldn't spin at more than 18K RPM, bad for the bearings.
At redline it would be 24K RPM, had to pull the alt to install a bigger pulley to slow it down.

Even though I had wrapped all of the exhaust pipes the heat off the mufflers radiating thru the insulated floors was way too much. Out came the mufflers to wrap them with the same material I used on the pipes (the roll in the right corner of the pic) and then some DEI dimpled metal with a fiberglass backing. No heat problem now.

DSCN2566.JPG

Today I dropped the body on the chassis, this is needed for taking measurements, drilling mounting holes, etc. Then the body needs to come off to do more interior work.
Need to finish the tranny tunnel, shifter boot, ebrake boot, etc.
Nate, a while ago you asked about trunk size, here it is. The side panels are loose, just sitting somewhat in place.

DSCN2613.JPG

The air filter location will change after I get the front on and figure out how much space I'll have.
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Now I know how much backspace I have behind the dash so I can cut holes for all of the gauges and place them where I want.

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Not really looking forward to doing the body work, all the seems need to be sanded down.
The hood, doors, and trunk are built slightly oversized so you can sand the edges to adjust the gap to whatever you desire.

[scubajim20]

Very impressive I have been following your progression.

[computiNATEor]

Good thinking on the battery. Trunk looks reasonably spacious! If you're ever bored, some fitted luggage would look really neat

[philly98540]

Looks impressive Jim. Love the battery box too. I'm was not aware of how much custom body fitting was needed on these. It's not just a bolt together project. I'm sure you'll get all the seams perfect. Keep up the good work.

[tptrsn]

I found out my alternator shouldn't spin at more than 18K RPM, bad for the bearings.
At redline it would be 24K RPM, had to pull the alt to install a bigger pulley to slow it down.

Dang Jim, I've been revving my trash heap to 7,600, and I was planning to raise my rev limiter some more. Wonder what I've done to my alt... Seems like a good excuse for me to get an underdrive crank pulley with a fluid damper deal. Lol

[JimLev]

Looks impressive Jim. Love the battery box too. I'm was not aware of how much custom body fitting was needed on these. It's not just a bolt together project. I'm sure you'll get all the seams perfect. Keep up the good work.

No, not as easy as you would think it would be when you deviate from their design.
Adding your own "touches" really lengthens the build process. OK, I'll just add these seat sliders and then you find out a week later after you install the ebrake mechanism it limits the seat movement. OK, I'll just move the whole assy forward but you find there is no framework to mount it on forward of the intended mounting position. So you get some 1/4 Al plate to extend the frame, then you need to make an extension for the brake cables. All easy still to do but it takes time.
All cool, I don't mind doing this stuff.

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Dang Jim, I've been revving my trash heap to 7,600, and I was planning to raise my rev limiter some more. Wonder what I've done to my alt... Seems like a good excuse for me to get an underdrive crank pulley with a fluid damper deal. Lol

I'm sure I'll get to at least 7K after I have a few more miles on the car. I'm thinking about getting one of those plug in hand held tuner deals. Do you have one?
You could just get a larger alt pulley instead of a smaller crank pulley.