What should the proper way to prep a new crate engine be? Right now I have put the new engine in (bolted to the tranny and engine mounts), but as I get ready to put in the 2nd and 3rd bolts for the TC I thought about if I should be doing something to the engine (like oil) before I turn it over by hand to align the other TC bolts up??? Or is it ok to turn over by hand right now. What would be the best way to prep this engine before start up also? I have read some, about people using some kind of a preluber before operation, but I don't have one. Is this something that has to be done, or what is the way I should be preparing this engine for its first firing? I'm sure there is a "best" way by doing more than necessary, but I'm looking at just what has to be done to ensure I properly prep this without buying things, or doing more than I really need to. What's your guys formula to success on this?

 

Whoever built your engine already put assembly lube in it. All you need to do is make sure it is filled with oil, and the oil system primed.

The day that you start the engine is the day you prime the oil. Remove the valve covers and pour oil all over the valve train until the oil pan is filled to the correct level.

You can't spin the engine fast enough by hand to get the oil pump to work. You'll need an oil pump priming rod. Turn the engine by hand until cylinder #1 one is at top dead center. The distributor has to be removed, and the oil pump priming rod fits down onto the oil pump shaft. Spin the priming rod with a hand drill until oil comes onto every rocker arm in the cylinder heads. Put everything back together. Engine is now ready to run.

First time the engine runs you will see smoke coming off the headers, it's going to smell like stuff is burning, and you're going to be worried the whole thing is going wrong. If the engine and trans aren't leaking coolant or oil then don't worry about it.

If you have an automatic transmission then you will need to purge the transmission of air and get the fluid fill right. Get the rear tires off the ground so they will spin free. Start up the car and run the transmission through every gear and let the tires spin slowly. That will purge the air out of the transmission. After the transmission fluid is warmed up, then check fluid level with engine running in neutral.

 

Thank you so much QwkTrip! This was very helpful. I had only seen the large oil primers with their own tank, or others who hilljacked a screw driver or tore apart a dizzy to do this. I did not know this tool existed, but I have one on order from summit now. This puts me at some ease with as much as I have in this engine (time and money wise), I really appreciate you (and many other regulars-Drew, Sofa, Tuned, Orr to name a few) sharing your knowledge with me and on here. I'm learning alot as I go. Just to be clear though, am I safe to turn over the engine by hand (turning the crank with a wrench) to get the TC bolts on while this engine is still dry? Also, my Dizzy is not in yet, so do I need to worry about the engine being TDC? Is that only to pull the Dizzy out, or a starting point I need to be at for the Primer Rod? (forgive my ignorance): confused:

 

Yes, you may turn the engine by hand.

Putting #1 piston (driver side front) at top dead center is standard procedure when installing a distributor. If you have never installed a distributor then Google how to install distributor on a Chevy small block.

 

Engine location doesn't matter for priming. But if you're going to do it, have your assistant turn the motor over with the starter while you run the drill, and only do it for 20 - 30 seconds at most. Of course, fill the oil filter SLOWLY through the center hole, until it quits bubbling, before you put it on.

Use "normal" oil viscosity. Resist the temptation to put candle wax in it because "all the fast cars run 20W-50"; bear in mind that LOTS of those do that because their oil gets saturated with fuel VERY rapidly, especially alcohol cars. Just use 10W-30. If you have a flat-tappet cam, use Rotella; if you have roller lifters you can use synthetic. (the factory does)

I'm not a big fan of "priming", myself; if the engine was built properly, it's not necessary. That is, the build lube should be entirely sufficient to keep it happy until the oil begins to flow. Priming doesn't hurt anything, and I'm not saying "you shouldn't" do it, only, it's unnecessary. About the only reason to do it is if it makes you feel better somehow. I'm pretty meticulous about lubing stuff as I build, which is why I say that. Not everybody is though.

First thing to understand about "timing" a new motor is, your "timing" mark is NOT to be trusted. Those are almost never accurate, sometimes not even on a new damper. ESPECIALLY not if you have a replacement timing cover. Other means of finding and externally observing #1 & #6 TDC need to be found. Best way to at least get close is, turn the motor by hand while watching the #6 valves. Turn ONLY in the forward (CW viewed from the front) direction. Use a crank turning tool of some sort such as https://www.summitracing.com/parts/pro-66782/overview/, NOT the damper bolt. Rotate the engine and observe the #6 exh valve: watch it open fully, then begin to close. As it reaches fully closed, the #6 intake will begin to open. The point at which those 2 valves are open the same amount, or in the center of the space between the exh fully closing and the int just beginning to open if you have a really weenie cam, is very close to #6 and #1TDC; this may or may not be "exact", but will give you a pretty decent reference. Mark your damper with a line of white touch-up paint or something once you have found that spot, if it differs significantly from the mark cut in the outer ring.

Remember, #1 & #6 (and #8 & #5, and #4 & #7, and #2 & #3) come to TDC at the same time; but at each of those times, one of the pair is firing, and the other is at the point with the valves doing as described above.

To stab the dist, continue turning the motor, and stop when the #6 exh valve has fully opened and is on its way back closing, with it a few degrees before wherever you want the timing to eventually be. 15° BTDC would be a good rule of thumb. Look down in the hole, and turn the oil pump drive shaft with a large screwdriver or similar until the slot is about 30° away from straight front-to-rear, going from front driver's side to rear pass side.

Put a rotor on it that doesn't matter if you get it dirty. (i.e. not your brand-new one) Hold the dist with its body in the position it will assume when in the engine; for the large-cap dist, that's approximately with the main wiring harness (red, blk, & brn wires) straight toward the front; put the cap on it temporarily, and the plug in the cap for those wires should be pointing straight to the driver's side. Take the cap back off and turn the shaft so that the rotor is pointing straight to the driver's side, then about 1/16 turn (22° or so) toward the front (CW) from there.

Stab the dist into the block, with its gasket on it of course. (no sense going through all this then having to pull it back out to put that in) The shaft will rotate CW as you put it in. It should go in, engage the oil pump, and continue, until it's up against the intake. If it doesn't drop all the way in, it's because the oil pump shaft isn't quite exactly lined up to it... you can turn the motor by hand in small increments with the dist just sitting as far down as it will go, and after each increment, check to see if it will drop the rest of the way in. Eventually the dist will turn until it lines up to the OP shaft. If you have to do this, re-lineup the motor to the 15° BTDC point after the dist drops in. Put the dist clamp on and tighten enough to hold the dist tight, but loose enough that you can still move it by hand.

Take the rotor off. Observe the little "star wheel" and the teeth it lines up with down in the center of the dist. Pull up on the shaft and rotate it as hard as you can in the CCW direction; while holding it like that, rotate the dist body until the teeth exactly line up. You can let go of the shaft; then rotate the dist body slightly CCW from there, maybe 10° or so. Leave the clamp tightened to where you can just barely still turn it by hand once you get it set like this.

Put the new rotor and cap on. The rotor should be pointing just about straight toward the left headlight. Plug everything in. The plug wire terminals of the dist should be such that there's a gap between 2 of them straight to the front; #1 will be the one just to the driver's side of that gap. The wires will go on with #1 there, then in the firing order (18436572) CW around the cap. #2 should route in front of the dist and lay down on the intake below the dist (not be stretched through space or go across the top), #3 & #6 should go behind in the same fashion.

Pour a couple of ounces of gasoline into the carb through the vents in the top. Ideally, fill up the fuel bowls this way, pretty much to their normal level, or as close as you reasonably can. Bolt up all the accessories and adjust the belts; fill the cooling system with 2 gallons of NEW green antifreeze and the remainder DISTILLED water (NOT "filtered", and above all NOT tap water... have 3 gallons of distilled water on hand); install all hoses, wires, clips, retainers, etc. etc. etc. just as if it wasn't a "new" engine; in short, FINISH THE JOB, all the way right up to the point of putting the air cleaner on; put a KNOWN FULLY FRESHLY CHARGED battery in it; exhaust system FULLY assembled and sealed from heads to bumper; make sure the tires are aired up, the brakes work, and so forth; CLOSE THE HOOD. The concept here is, you want the motor, and the car as a whole, ABSOLUTELY COMPLETELY TOTALLY ALTOGETHER PERFECTLY READY to start up and back down the driveway the instant you hit the key. (although you won't quite do that, you want it to be THAT ready) DO NOT half-a$$ is some kind of way "just to hear it run"; DO NOT "give it a try"; NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT. Assure yourself that it is READY TO DRIVE before you hit the key. Make sure it's in neutral with the wheels chocked if it's a stick, or in Park if it's an auto (VERY important: you have NO IDEA how many people have done an installation of this sort and had their car instantly take off on initial startup). If it's getting late, STOP NOW, put your trickle charger on the batt, and pick it back up tomorrow night.

You want the startup and break-in procedure to be able to run ALL THE WAY THROUGH without interruption from start to finish. I cannot emphasize this point strongly enough. You should have everything so well prepared, so well assembled, so perfectly READY, that there will be NO DOUBT IN YOUR MIND that the car is READY TO DRIVE before you TOUCH the key the first time. Then when you do start it up, you should be in a position to run ALL THE WAY THROUGH the break-in without stopping in the middle.

Pour an ounce or so of fuel into the throttle bores on each side of the carb. Start it up. If it doesn't start up INSTANTLY, STOP!!!! and figure out why. DO NOT sit there and whirl it over and over and over and over without starting!!!! This is a GREAT way to RUIN your new motor in ways that can't be recovered from. Once it starts, if your cam is a flat-tappet type, keep the engine RPMs above about 1800 for the first couple of minutes of running by blocking the carb slightly open (setting it up on the highest fast-idle step before you start it, and not touching the throttle after it starts, works good for this). If it's a roller this isn't so important. Verify that you have oil pressure: should be at least 40 psi cold with a stock pump, 55 or so with a high-pressure one. If it's an auto, and the trans is dry, start filling it; it should take around 10 - 11 quarts or so, maybe a little more, if it was completely dry; subtract from that whatever you poured into the converter before you installed it (ordinarily about 3 qts or so). Have 12 quarts on hand.

By the time you get this done, it should be fairly well warmed up. Let the idle back down to normal and set the idle speed and mixture. Obviously you don't want to be hearing any knocking, banging, squeeeling, or other unpleasant noises; ideally, not even any tapping. Check for leaks and things touching the manifolds or headers and all such as that. Expect it to smoke a bit out the tailpipe at first, as well as off of the exhaust and various other things. Run the shifter through all the gears, make sure they work at least to that extent, and check the trans fluid level one last time. Turn it off, tighten the header bolts if you have those. Crank it back up and hit the road, driving NORMALLY. Resist the temptation to drag-race it (full-throttle acceleration to redline in low gear) right away.

Again, verify oil pressure as you drive. Should be at least 20 psi at hot idle, probably closer to 30; at least 40 hot above 2000 RPM, preferably over 50. Get on the freeway or similar high-speed open road as soon as possible. Accelerate at about ½ to ¾ throttle in manual 3rd gear, from 2000 - 2500 RPM or so, up to 4500 or so. Let off the gas and let the engine brake it back down to 2500 or so, then repeat the acceleration. Do this about 5 or 6 times. Cruise for a minute or so, then repeat. Do about 4 or 5 reps of this sequence. Drive back home normally and once again check for leaks.

As you are driving it this first time, listen for spark knock ("pinging"): if you hear ANY, STOP and turn the dist slightly CW, and if you don't hear any, stop and turn it slightly CCW until you do, then turn it CW in small increments until it quits. While this is probably not going to be "right", it's a good way to get it somewhat close, and in any case, the "spec" is SURE to be wrong (not enough advance), as well as, if the "mark" system isn't accurate, then any "setting" you attempt to give it, will be EQUALLY wrong. And of course, YOU HAVE NO IDEA what the "right" setting is ANYWAY; it's always best to LISTEN to the engine and let it tell you what IT wants, rather than get some preconception of what YOU want to give it, and forcing that on it. A simple truism to always keep in mind is, "if it RUNS good, it IS good". If the engine is happy, then NO MATTER WHAT you "think" the "number" should be, YOU'RE WRONG and the engine IS RIGHT.

After this it should ready for normal service.

 

Thanks Sofa! Very detailed, good info there. My build is with a 383, bought it off of Summit (ATK). Yea, the motor came as a "long block" if you call it that...Had to put almost everything on it myself but the heads/internals. The part you described about the Timing marks being off is spot on for me. I had to put the dampener on (and the engine was already assembled with the heads/valve covers), so I had no idea where the true degreeing was at, so yea, I'm trying to figure out the best way to find my TDC accurately so that I can tape the dampener accurately to my pointer. I know I could pull the valve cover off and watch the valves-but I don't have faith that I'll be too accurate doing it that way. I've been looking into the piston stop tools (which I don't feel to comfortable with either), and found the tool that actually goes into the spark plug like the piston stop, that is spring loaded and has marks etched into it to read the depth of the piston. (this idea i like), but all i'm finding is one that is labeled "made only for flat top piston Hemi" don't use on anything else or will cause damage to piston. I would think I would be alright using this method and tool to find TDC if I just went real easy on turning the motor over, (forged KB pistons). Or, is there a better way? Also, no carb-I've got a HSR for an intake, which also means that I will have a small cap dizzy to install on this. I will be controlling everything with the Holley HP, so I'm thinking that I just set the dizzy up where it needs to be (?) and the Holley HP will retard or advance for me? I'm assuming since it's computer controlled and reading off of my wide band, spark knock, and whatever else that it will somewhat adjust this for me itself (to get close as you said), and later I could tune from the data from the HP manually? One more thing, you said since it's a roller, that it really doesn't matter on the idle RPM's and what kind of oil to use to break it in? I know I don't need the zinc break in oils since its a roller, I was just thinking of using the cheaper regular oil, since I will be trashing it prematurely through the first few oil changes anyway...Is this ok then? Oh, and final ?. (ok, not really, I got alot to learn still)... I had taken off my TC when the engine was out (and just had the tranny propped up still connected), because I was going to swap it out with a new one I got with the stall that I needed for this engine. To be sure, I counted my spline, and it was 27. Dam. I had read that my year was when it changed, only to find out afterwards just not on my camaro. Soooo, I put the old one back on (debating what to do with this one now-new or rebuild). It really didn't leak anything out, so I never topped it off or anything. I was thinking I can just read the level from the dip stick (top off some down the tube if needed) and should be ok? And obviously do this after getting it running and going through the gears making sure my fluid is still through the system. But, as I said, I did't top of the TC or anything, but it still had what was in it when i took it off. So is this still going to be ok run/check as is?

Thanks

 

I've got a couple questions. I'm putting a crate 350 in my 1989 RS. First what type of gasket goes between the passenger exhaust manifold and the adapter piece that fits into the exhaust pipe

(see picture)?

Second how do you get the dipstick tube into the block without breaking it? This is how it arrived from the company that built it. I've checked youtube and nothing on there looks like this.

 

Oil dipstick tube install tools do exist. DO NOT attempt to drive it in with a screwdriver on the bubble or a hammer tapping on the end of the tube.
Neither will work without destroying it.
If you have the room, find a steel spacer that just fits over the tube against the bubble, and you can tap on that with a punch.

 

Thanks for the reply but there's no bubble on this one. It's just a straight skinny tube about 1/3 the thickness of the one I pulled from the 305. The tube from the 305 was much better. I've looked for installation tools and all I can find is very specific years that need a bubble on the tube to work.

 

No gasket goes in that exhaust place. Wire-brush, sand, grind, & file it down ABSOLUTELY FLAT on both sides, so that the pieces are in perfect contact.

If whatever dipstick tube ("gauge & tube assembly" in parts book language) you have is uninstallable, get another one. Pretty sure those are readily available from GM as well as plenty of other sources. Life is too short to waste it on stuff like that.

 

Thanks for the info. Trust me, I'm pissed that I have to waste 5 minutes thinking about this stupid ****. I'm going to the dealer Friday to see what they can do.

 

Okay, I need help again. I can't find a plug/bolt that will fit this hole to save my life. I circled what was in my old block so you can see what I'm talking about. I assumed my new engine would come with this hole plugged so I didn't save the old one. Anybody?

 

1/8" pipe. Unbelievably common. Home Depot and the like, or any parts store or hardware store or plumbing supply place, will have that.

Put it in with Teflon tape on the threads, being VERY careful that it doesn't escape off the end of the plug and dangle down into the hole; or, "Hi-Temp Automotive Thread Sealer with PTFE" from Permatex/Loctite, hanging on a card in the sealer dept of your favorite auto parts store.

That said, the oil pressure sending unit goes there, in most applications. Not sure about yours specifically. Usually requires some additional fittings, like about a 2" pipe nipple and an elbow.

 

Your oil pressure gauge fitting or sending unit fitting goes in that hole...

 

I've been to NAPA, O'Reilly's, and Autozone and none of them could figure it out. My sending unit is down by the oil filter. Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it!

 

That brass plug you already have is the correct plug (1/8" NPT). That's tapered pipe threads. It will get tighter the more you screw it in.
If nothing is required in that hole (sensor), then put some pipe thread sealant or Permatex on the threads and screw it in.
DON'T KILL IT.

 

It won't go in the hole, I tried a couple times.

 

Is the initial thread in that hole buggered up?

 

I just checked and it went right in. This engine is cursed I swear. It forces me to make a dumbass of myself before it will comply. I appreciate your help!