break in oils

[P.J.]

What works best for a big block break in oils.This quote is from the article "Is oil killing our cars"

Latest conclusions: Running our older, broken in engines on Castrol 20W-50 GTX is ok. Break in a new engine for 3,000 miles on HD 30 Castrol.
What has been your experience with break in oils.
Is 20 w 50 too heavy an oil for a big block break in??
PJ

[Chevy454]

Nope...main thing is that it's a dino oil [non synthetic]...even better might be Rotella, which still has some zinc in it...just make sure and use lots and lots of moly assembly lube, and maybe even drop in some GM EOS.

[427king]

[ QUOTE ]
What works best for a big block break in oils.

[/ QUOTE ] Gibb racing oil. Rotella T is better than conventional but still not good enough . 3 shops i know of in the area use it exclusively for dyno work. Its called Joe Gibbs Driven BR break in oil.

[P.J.]

What about the hd 30 oil for the first 3000 miles
I know that adding the GM additive OAS helps too??.
Is HD 30 oil ok for the brake in period. I dont want to use 10 w 30 as some people have recommended. The 427 425 hp motor
I think needs a heavier oil.
PJ

[NCGuy68]

Alot of racers in my neck of the woods break-in with Rotella T and shortly there after, switch to full synthetic. Amsoil 15W50 is popular but keep in mind these are race only engines...not street driven.

[njsteve]

Rotella 15w40. I use it in everything, including my Diesel Truck which is actually supposed to run that oil. I buy it in the 5 gallon jugs and keep a bunch handy.

[Chevy454]

Last I knew, Rotella was losing the zinc also...kinda like the switch to low sulfur fuel. People are now wondering why their engines are eating cams, just wait until the same thing starts happening to the injector pumps in everyone's diesel truck...but hey, we're saving the environment, right?

[VintageMusclecar]

The last several engines I've built have been solid flat tappet Chevy engines, 2 big blocks and one small block. I used "EDM" lifters in all three as well as Shell Rotella 15W40 oil. On the 2 big blocks, I removed the inner valve springs for cam break-in (the small block had single springs that weren't very aggressive), and all 3 made it through break-in with absolutely no issues whatsoever. I also use moly lube exclusively on all valvetrain components.

My $.02

Eric

[RamAirDave]

I blend EOS with Rotella for initial break in.

[m22mike]

[ QUOTE ]
Last I knew, Rotella was losing the zinc also...kinda like the switch to low sulfur fuel. People are now wondering why their engines are eating cams, just wait until the same thing starts happening to the injector pumps in everyone's diesel truck...but hey, we're saving the environment, right?

[/ QUOTE ]

Here is a thread from CRG http://www.camaros.org/forum/index.php?topic=305.0
Read the whole thing through, The Shell Rotella Zinc is still high enough for flap tappet cams, John Z gives the SAE rating #'s in this thread. API CJ-4
and as many others have suggested, use GM EOS during the break in too.
And Erics practice of removing the inner valve springs is good insurance too.
Also most of the racing oils will still have good levels of ZDDP in them.
In this Valoline add they even state an increased level of Zink.
http://www.valvoline.com/pages/produ...asp?product=94
Also do some searching on the WWW and the others Boards about this subject, much has already been discussed.
Mike