Finally my mild 173 is days away from running. What's gotta be done to run it in? Since the car is mostly in parts I can really only drive it up and down the side street outside my house. Everything has been replaced....new cam, bored out, new pistons, new rngs and bearings, the works. Can someone give me a rough guide on wat to do during it's first run. I know there's sumfin to do with the cam, but that's about all I know, and even then I don't actually know wat to do. :bang: Here's a short vid I did the other day of it's very first time turning over. YouTube - Kerr Bros VK Wagz - Cranking over Now we got the ignition hooked up, and it's got oil pressure. I've decided to go with both senders, one for the gauge and one for the light. I'm gonna use an old shiftlight to put around the tacho with the other shiftlight, so it will come on when oil pressure is low. Already got it workin. Oil pressure is sittin at about 20psi....I guess it will go up more when the motor starts. I can't wait till she's runnin......here's some pics of the work we've done within the last few days. This is just after the gauges were put in (at this stage the oil psi gauge was still on order, I picked it up 2day). The battery earthing points. The battery...had a circuit breaker hooked up, but that kept switching off when we turned the motor over. Then we put a VL dash in.....so had to move the tacho coz it wouldn't fit around the steering column. It will all get painted when it's finished. New spot for the tacho....gonna move the other gauges now coz they don't look right without the tacho there.
different people suggest different ways to run in motors/cams. most cam manufacturers have there own suggested method of running in their cam. most require running the engine at a minimum 2000-3000rpm for 20-30minutes. some people run it for 30 minutes moving between 2000-3000rpm, others will start at 2000rpm for 10 minutes then 2500rpm for 10 minutes then 3000rpm etc. the main thing is to not let it idle for the first 30minutes.
When I had a rebuilt 202 in my VC I started it, made sure everything way fine, put the garden hose up to the radiator on a mist (As it got really hot during the run in) and ran the car for 10mins at around 2500rpm let it cool for 20mins, then 3000rpm for another 10mins, 20min cool, and then varied between 2500 - 3000rpm for another 10mins. The motor was just a rebuild without any preformance parts, except the 350 holley and extractors and made 110 rwhp. Jezz
Thx guys. It's not heavily worked, just a few goodies and a lot of replacement parts. Blue 173 2.85L inline 6. - Bored out 130thou to a 186 3.0L. - Chemically cleaned block. - Fully balanced up bottom end. - Flat top pistons. - JP Straight cut timing gears. - JP Oil pump. - New fuel pump. - New waterpump. - New starter motor. - New alternator. - Rebuilt Varajet carby. - Motavator extractors. - New lifters. - Crow cam. - Crow valve springs. - High compression 173 head, shaved a further 10thou. - All new ACL rings, bearings and MonoTorque gaskets. - New harmonic balancer. - New Top Gun gloss yellow 8.8mm Pro Racing Series leads. - Shaved flywheel.
