I would have "searched" but as you guys probably know, it is temporarily not an option...

I am getting close to putting the motor in the car and want to know how you guys did the break in. From what I recall, the header companies don't want you to break in the motor on new headers as the coating on the headers is supposed to be conditioned before running a motor long enough for an engine break in.

Did you guys run you original manifolds during a break in period then switch over to headers and perform some conditioning for them? Or did you just install the motor with the headers and break in the motor? For those of you that have done it this way, have you noticed any adverse affects on your headers coatings?

 

Here's another question: How about the non-coated headers? How do you guys that are running the non-coated headers rate them? Are they holding up well?

If they hold up then I can put the motor in just once (I hope!).

 

I installed my coated headers and did the break in process, it turned them kinda white-ish on where the bends are.

 

A lot of header companies and pro's will say not to break the motor in with coated headers. I broke mine in with painted headers, no problems at all so far.

 

What do you need to break in? There's no cam break in with a roller cam, and 5-6 hard accelerate/decelerate cycles in second gear will seat the rings. It's not like the old days of flat tappet cams where you had to run it at 2,000 RPM for 20 minutes. It was that cam break in that is bad for coated headers.

 

Only thing about rebuilding an LT1 is if you put the rings that came in the car back in it, you are putting a moly ring in, not a steel, so it takes longer to break one in.

 

Thanks for all the info guys. Sounds like I can put the headers on right off the bat.

The original motor had about 192K miles on it so the only thing that I think I have re-used is the block itself, not including the ECM and sensors and stuff.