My engine rebuild is almost complete and I am almost at the point where I can start my engine. I would like to start it before putting it in the car...I have never done this before.
I was wondering:
what types of checks i will need to do before starting it?
What exactly do i need to do?
are there any either youtube or a video link that shows you how to do this?
and anything else anyone can think of....

Im all ears.

 

You need to buy, borrow or build a break-in stand.

 

What kind of engine? Carb only or computer? Make sure it's got oil. Then it depends on if you just want to fire it up for a few secs or keep it running. If it's a carb you can pour some gas into the carb and it should fire. If you want to keep it running you'd need a cooling system hooked up to it and a small gas supply to the carb. If it's fuel injected and/or computer controlled just think of everything it would have connected to it in the car and replicate it somehow. Could be a big job but sounds interesting. Anyone know if there's a ready made way to connect a computer etc.?

 

Without a run stand it's not a good idea to do this.

The best thing you can do is prime the oiling system to make sure you have oil in the right places. Pull the valve covers off and remove the distributor. Go get yourself a priming rod for a sbc (Or make one out of a long shank flatblade screwdriver, I did this for quite a while and it worked fine until I lost it ) put it in a cordless drill and spin the oil pump shaft. If you have everything good to go oil should come up to the heads in a minute / minute and a half.