LUBE IT AND TAG IT
I recently had a customer that had possibly the biggest mishap one could make on a fresh engine. He got excited and forgot to install the intermediate shaft to the oil pump before dropping in the distributor on his Ford 300 L6. During the first 10 minutes of raised RPM camshaft break-in procedure, nothing got lubricated. I use a high-quality assembly grease on all bearings, camshaft, lifters and timing components. The rod bearings were untouched. The mains had minor scuffing and I was able to lightly polish the crank to save it. The timing gears were not affected and even the cam bearings were ok. The cam looked fine, but since it did not have the proper break-in, it was replaced along with the lifters. The pistons did not have “good” lube on them and were severely scored. I believe the high-quality grease passed the extreme test. I have always used a grease due to its ability to stay put no matter how long an engine sits before fire-up. I have since started attaching tags to my engines with simple notes such as: “Needs Oil”, “full of oil & primed” or “don’t forget oil pump shaft”. Since little things can be forgotten during the excitement of first fire up.
Josh Mitchell
Mitchell Machine Works & Custom
Neligh, NE
April, 2020
