Steve helped me fix my AC last week

[daveismissing]

He doesn't remember doing so, but he did.
The AC crapped out on the way home from Allentown, when I got home I checked the pressures and they seemed reasonable - I had expected a leak. So it became an electrical issue.
Steve posted detailed trouble shooting instructions for the electrical portion the old board. Google found them for me. Coupled with the factory diagram and GNTTYPE's sensor location diagram I found the culprit in minutes, a loose connector.

So if younger Steve had said "screw all that typing- they don't listen anyways" it would have taken me much longer.

So Thanks Steve. We listen........ ...eventually. ..

[TexasT]

I told him but he didn't seem to think so. Oh well, you can't reach everyone, right?

[Be4u]

This may be the thread that pops SWs big ass head.

[Steve Wood]

Nope, what pops my head is the fine line between ignorance and stupidity.  Anyone that uses 20-50 oil to break in a cam on a factory clearanced Buick engine has crossed the line-particularly after being told to use a light weight oil that would insure not only a large volume of oil to the cam immediately upon engine start which is the main part of cam break in but it also avoids all the cold oil from going through the bypass valve instead of the filter.  When the filter is bypassed, all the tiny metal bits from the initial cam break in (not to mention all the debris in the system that already exists) goes straight back thru the oil system creating further wear.  Then we have cold thick oil initially and it oozes better than it splashes...so, in the first 5 minutes or so of the break in process which is most critical, we have less adequate oiling than we  could/should have.

It's not the fact that he did not use Joe Gibbs Break IN oil, it's the fact that he did not ask why I suggested 5-30 wt oil for the break in.  Think about it, our engines from the factory have much, much tighter clearances than your average Chevy.  I suspect this is due to the oil pump design.  The factory stated 10-30 wt oil.  I know more than one that run 5-30 synthetic year round with no problem over quite a few years.  I suspect that engines run on the correct weight oil show half the wear of those that struggle with heavier oil each cold start up.  Remember those claims that 70% of engine wear occurs at start up?  There is something to that.

I can deal with ignorant as I usually learn several things a day that I did not understand.  But, when  guy asks you for a suggestion and you tell him 5-30 and he decides to use 20-50 without wondering in the slightest why you said 5-30, then that is simply stupidity.

Hopefully he bought the good lifters and all will be okay in spite of the above...even if the process may cause more wear than required.  I would not wish failure on anyone no matter what.

I simply tried to give him the most fool proof method given the problems with breaking in cams on a Buick with the misplaced lifter problem.  It's not the absolutely best way because that would have involved putting the the old valve springs back in the engine .

Break in oil is a better oil for this purpose than conventional oil, but that is not the real problem.  We have been breaking cams in for many years using conventional oil plus GM EOS or similar products.



Oh, well, to each his own no matter how stupid I think it is.

[Scoobum]

When I worked at Custom Automotive Machine Shop, we used an old dyno. Basically, the intake was off the engine...we hooked up an oil line and filter...and then spun the engine up. We checked for proper oil pressure...and to see how fast the lifters were spinning. If the lifter doesn't spin quick enuf...then you'll burn a cam lobe...and that's why Steve pushes the very best lifter money can buy. We used cheap jobber lifters...and if one was spinning slowly...then we'd replace it with a high quality lifter. The high quality lifter would spin a million miles an hour...compare d to the jobber lifter. Upon assembly, we slathered everything with EOS. I slap cam break in lube on everthing these days when putting an engine together and a lightweight oil for initial break in.


Let's talk about startup. For Gods sakes don't keep cranking on the starter if the engine doesn't fire almost immediately. If it doesn't start up within just a few seconds...find out why. The lifters have to spin up quick...and the other thing you'll do is end up washing the oil off the cylinder walls...and take the rings out of it.


True story. I heard that one of the locals couldn't get his engine started. I get a call from the guy a couple days later. He tells me he's getting all kinds of blowby. I told him to check his compression. Calls back...and says all cylinders come in around 90 PSI. He'd ground away on the starter...and ended up taking the rings out of it. Out comes the engine. Sure enuf...the cylinders were shiney...the crosshatch marks completely gone.


One other thing. Make sure you have proper oil pressure...and keep a close eye on water temperature. Sounds obvious...but to some...it isn't.

[motorhead]

Horse, meet water; water, horse.

[Be4u]

All I can say is live and learn.
Isn't it recommended to change your oil and filter after break in anyways?
Why use expensive oil from the jump?

Through the years I've researched all the boards, cross referenced, double checked, questioned and did my homework. I can tell you that thankfully for people like SW and Bruce and grumpy, NickM, earl, zap etc (you know I'm missing several people) everything has worked out well for me. Flawless actually. I love all u guys!

Then you got guys that just want quick answers so they can move on with life. That could be fatal and lead to more money spent. They'll learn.

Steve and Co may think they are wasting time but to many (silent majority) they are invaluable.

[Steve Wood]

All I can say is live and learn.
Isn't it recommended to change your oil and filter after break in anyways?
Why use expensive oil from the jump?

Through the years I've researched all the boards, cross referenced, double checked, questioned and did my homework. I can tell you that thankfully for people like SW and Bruce and grumpy, NickM, earl, zap etc (you know I'm missing several people) everything has worked out well for me. Flawless actually. I love all u guys!

Then you got guys that just want quick answers so they can move on with life. That could be fatal and lead to more money spent. They'll learn.

Steve and Co may think they are wasting time but to many (silent majority) they are invaluable.

We were told to always change the oil and filter after break in.  My understanding was that it might clog the filter.  Now, I read that high concentrations of the additives that facilitate break in will continue to promote a higher rate of wear.

After all, when we talk about break in, we are talking about a mating of the cam lobes to each lifter which is a "wear in" process for each lifter/lobe relationship.  That's why we cannot move lifters around to different lobes once break in has occurred but we can install new lifters on the cam and re break it in.

Now when the surfaces mate to one another, the by product is waste metal and we don't want that moving around  thru the passages any longer than required and we damn sure don't want it bypassing the filter.  Your Baldwin filter requires more differential pressure than most filters before the bypass opens and that is why we like them.

Obviously, we want to stop the wear in once it has been done so we dump the oil.

On a new engine, break in oil is a good idea even if has a roller cam.  Break in oil ensures a better ring/wall seat initially.  If you read the break in oil write up, they suggest breaking the engine in on the dyno and then putting fresh oil in before extensive tuning.  No need to wear out the engine on the dyno.

These days, I don't think anyone suggests using cheap oil any more.  We have a pretty large investment in the engine.  Why get less than optimum performance at  minimum risk?