Hooked up everything while on the engine stand and worked on getting it fired up. First I had the distributor out 180 degrees, fixed that. I left my rockers on the loose side because I didn't know if they tighten up when I got oil pressure...motor was spitting fuel up through the carb. It was late so I went to bed...worried.
Next morning I had all day off, so I brought the engine outside so I could do a proper cam break-in. She was still spitting and I was worried maybe I hadn't lined up the cam timing marks properly? I decided to tighten up the rockers more, so I lined up #1 and did all the ones I could and then I lined up #6 and did the others. I did the "tighten until zero lash is felt and then tighten 1/2 turn". I gotta admit, I'm not 100% sure I found zero lash correctly on all of them...basically I tightened until I felt some resistance while rotating the pushrods and called that zero lash. How exact does it need to be on a stock cam?
So anyway then I moved the distributor around a bit and finally I must have found a sweet spot because she jumped to life.
I immediately shut her down and proceeded to hook up a radiator and add water. I re-checked the oil and then got out my watch and ran her for 5 minutes, at a "high" rpm as defined by ear. I was shooting for 2000-2500 RPM (I had no tach).
I noticed that the engine was louder than I liked (I did have a muffler on). I was pretty worried because it sounded like a lot of ticking and what not was going on in there. I ran her for 5 minutes and she heated up really really quick. After about 5 minutes I was around 230 degrees water temp as measured in the cylinder head.
I shut her down again, checked the oil, and noticed a coolant leak at the water neck where it meets the block. I had used only hylomar there and it didn't seal properly. it wasn't a huge leak so I could continue on breaking in the cam, just adding water as needed.
I brought out my strongest electric fan and bungee'd it to the radiator. I let the motor cool down a little bit and took a break. Then I went back out and did another 5 minutes. Boy did she put out some heat - are 250s always hot like this? I had a hard time keeping my hand on the throttle at times.
So at the 10 minute mark I pulled off the oil filter and threw on a new one. I added another quart of Brad Penn straight 30wt and rechecked the oil. The oil filter was really really hot. Too hot to use bare hands to get it off without getting burned.
So I let her cool off again and then did the last 10 minutes. It did seem a bit quieter now, but maybe it was my imagination.
When cold at high rpm I had around 50 PSI oil pressure. When hot I had about 40-44 PSI. I never did let it idle, so I have no idea (yet) what my idle pressure is.
Would be great to have an engine run-in stand. If I was going to rebuild lots of engines, it would be worth the $$$ to buy or the time to build.
So hopefully I did everything "right" and this motor will provide years of service :-) I should find out some time in July, when I get the motor into the car.
Thanks guys for all the help and advice.
Dan
