hey whats up. do u need to break in your cams? i installed my cams and was planning on breaking them in for about 100-200 miles by not revving past 3K rpm's

but someone just told me that i only need to let the car idle for about 20 minutes and that should be good enough. is this true?

 

Just make sure you lubed up the shafts really good and let it warm up before you rag on it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by boosted k20 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> is this true?</TD></TR></TABLE>

yes

 

also if you use synthetic oil you are supposed to go back to conventional to break in the cams, synthetic is too slippery

 

You do not want the car to idle during the break in. Before you install the cams, put some engine assembly grease on the journal and lobes. Crane says to keep the rpm past 1500 rpm for the fist 20 mins. After that, their good to go.

 

you don't want it to idle below 1500-2000rpms, because idle is when there's the most stress on the lobes themselves.

after 15-20minutes of idling you're good to go, there's no real break in for cams. some of the manufacturers suggest using non-synthetic fir the first little while, as synthetic is too thin and doesn't protect the camshaft as well.

 

i loaded up the cam shafts and bearings with lube before i installed the cams. i just let the cams idle for 20 minutes, i didnt rev it to 1500. damn i hope nothings messed up. i dont think anything bad happened though.

do i need to raise the fuel pressure cuz right now the car wants to stall whenever i snap the throttle open and shut it quick. the rpms will go down (about 400-500 rpms) and will sometimes stall out. only when i slowly let off the throttle it doesnt stall. im getting a B&M FPR and gonna increase the fuel pressure and tune it with my SAFC. also increase the timing to about 18 degrees. any suggestion on how to solve the problem? should i increase my idle speed?

 

my LS with 404's did the exact same thing, i just had to fine-tune the a/f ratio at idle with my SAFC, took about 20seconds to find the sweet spot.

 

hey man, did u increase the fuel with the safc. all my settings are at 0%. can u give me ur settings for i have a base idea of how to tune it for the mean time b4 i get it dyno tuned.

 

I believe that breaking in the cams should be a part of the basic engine break in process, if you're breaking it in the way it should be broken in. Don't let the car idle, keep the RPM's moving, and keep that throttle open! Make sure that, of course, everything is very lubed up and your oil is circulating fine before you actually fire the car up.

 

it's really hard to say man, i'm not happy with my settings, the FPR is set too high(44psi), causing my SAFC to have to be set very lean(0@redline to -27@idle), and causing pretty shitty gas mileage on the partial throttle.

when i redo it i'll zero my safc, drop the FP as low as possible while checkin the a/f ratios, when the FP is just right start fine-tuning with the safc.

if i were you i'd just bump up the FP to about 33-38psi for an LS, say 3-5psi higher than whatever stock was, and then tune your 1000rpm partial throttle setting to find a nice idle, which will probably involve leaning it out a little

* all fuel pressures are WITH vaccum

 

thanks this is thei nformation i needed. right now my fp is at 33 psi with vacuum (42 psi w/o vacuum). im gonna bump to fuel pressure to about 36-38 psi like u said which will be about 48 psi w/o the vacuum.
need this bitch dyno tuned already. **** but i wanna put in my pistons b4 i go get dyno tuned and that wont be for another couple of months. damn it.

oh by the way 2chron4u, do u remeber what u torqued ur cam caps too?

 

i didn't install the cams myself bro, helms says the cam holders, which i think you'rte talking about, should be torqued to 7ft-lbs
it says:

"tighten the camshaft holder bolts in a criss-cross pattern, beginning with the inner bolts. 1kg/m - 7lb-ft"

might as well tune it, you can get alot done in an hour, it's not really that expensive,

 

Most cam makers tell you to break in the cams for 500 miles and use a cheap detergent type non-synthetic oil. After the 500 miles change the oil with good oil and your ready to go. I also would install a magnetic oil pan drain bolt to catch any metal shavings during break-in. Very important ..... Don't forget to do a valve adjustment after install of new cams !!!!