83-84 L69 305 H.O. - Camshaft and Lifter Replacement

Tynan918 said:

Some other guys are telling me I'm also going to need a fan sitting in front of my radiator during the camshaft break in procedure to help keep the engine cool...

Is this true ? If so, how big of a fan do I need, a shop fan or a $20 box fan ?

I figured that was my flexfan's job...

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Does this sound about right ?

Built6spdMCSS said:

Well, I'd like to say you all here have much more patience than we did over here.

We tried to help this guy with some real world advice and he hasn't been back. Some of you may be here for the entertainment value. For those genuinely trying to help, I applaud your efforts. We tried, and failed.

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I have been trying to help because I can see this guy is young, trying to learn, has limited funds, and is working outside. Doesn't seem to have anyone local to help.

We had to establish that all he has is an old worn out 305 with a flat cam and that it was never going to be a powerhouse. Best case is to make it run good for some time and not put a lot of money in it. Better to replace with a built 350 or 383, but he doesn't have the money.

I would have chosen a bit milder cam than he ultimately did, but it wasn't unreasonably agressive and it was his $$$. It should be fine.

Now we are just trying to get things back together and see what we ended up with.

If he has a big fault, it's that he has a tendency to believe everything he reads on the Internet.

I think he is learning, and I hope he is successful.



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Tynan918 said:

Does this sound about right ?
View attachment 628766

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Thats on a modern engine with modern coolants, you have neither.

This is a break-in you don’t need nor want to run the engine so hot. Under a 15 pound cap you can run coolant to 253 at that pressure that is the top limit. Trouble is if there is a leak of pressure at that temp or actually any over 212F there will be bulk boiling to an explosion of coolant, this will stop your break-in in its tracks. The whole point is to get it running and keep in running not to fix accidents of cooling, fuel, oil or tuning problems so large they force a shut down.

Actually since you’re outside in winter temps the chances of loosing control of coolant temperature is much reduced If not eliminated.

As I’m sure you found out by now in this project that you're up against Murphy’s Law where “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong, usually at the most critical time”. Your whole job is to prevent this description of nature from taking its course.

50/50 is the typical mix of coolant and distilled or deionized water at 15 pounds per inch squared the boiling temperature of this brew is 253 at atmospheric pressure; it’s 225 against 212 for pure water. At 253 under 15 psi of cap pressure the loss of that pressure at that temp results in the immediate change of state from liquid to a gas resulting in an explosion that will take your skin off if your in the way, and where are you at this time but head first above the engine, yikes!

Additionally we’re talking about bulk coolant temps which are crazy enough, but wait, there are other surprises inside the cooling system called “nucleate boiling” where immediate local temperatures far exceed the bulk coolant temp. These are mostly the head’s exhaust seats especially where the exhaust is immediately adjacent as in the middle of the SBC head and the spark plug bosses which if you remember looking at the gasket side of your heads each and every spark plug boss has its own coolant passage. When the bulk coolant temps get up around 220 you can rest assured that these nucleate boiling points are boiling into the bulk coolant. This allows local overheating causing these areas to expend against cooler areas of the structure around them. When this strain exceeds the material strength you get a crack something pretty common on GM castings in particular but nobody is immune.

So the morale on this story is to go in prepared to keep coolant temps well away from extremes yet hot enough to get to running clearances. The sweet range is about 180 to 200 with 50/50 coolant under a 15 or so PSI cap.

Bogie

I have this 18 volt cordless drill.. do you think this is sufficient enough for the oil pump priming?

Tynan918 regardless of age is at the beginners stage and after this he will have some more knowledge about things but there is nothing wrong with asking the simplest of questions as that is how one learns stuff. I remember once when I was just 18 years old back in the early 90's and I have a high idle on my car and pulled into a gas station that also worked on cars and asked if they could fix my idle as my engine was up so high it would not run right.

He came out with a screwdriver and adjusted it and all was good. I had no idea on what a carburetor was let alone setting and adjusting the idle.

Then my choke started to stick another time and I had no clue on anything about automobile stuff and one day my car quit and I pulled over on the side of the road. A nice gentlemen came out and helped me out and said it was a stuck choke. He did something and I was able to go on my way.

Long story short I grew up around cars and hot rods and stuff but it was not till many years later I got the desire to really dig into and learn things and even after many years I am still open to learning things and even still make mistakes on things I already have a lot of knowledge about.

Many folks forget from where they came from and don't like to help others learn and its a pain at times I agree but being a good teacher is is a job and you try your best to reach out to folks who want to learn and being patient is a needed skill and lets face it, if it where not for all the people in our lives that have taught us what we know from cars to how to live and doing everyday things in life from cooking and whatever you do for a job etc where would we all be?

I think the guy has done a great job for what he knows so far and is picking up things pretty well and I myself have a lot of years of experience but nothing like a seasoned veteran like some of the guys on here have but I still question things on the net and am still green in some ways on things. I have learned in life at times you can only work with what you got and have to make the best of what you got and make it work as best as possible within reason.

A big thumbs up to all who have done a lot to help this guy out and give respect too him and not discourage him but keep encouraging him which in this day and age a lot of young folks need good folks to help mentor them like ones on here have done so.