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First oil change after engine re-fresh?

thelostartof

unbalanced chemical
300+ Club
Joined
Jun 26, 2002
Location
Apache Junction, AZ
So lets just say that someone put new bearings into a red block along with some new Rods. How many miles after doing this refresh of the shortblock would you go before doing the first oil and filter change?

So far I have about 6-10 miles on the setup and I am tempted to just do it (oil and filter are cheap) just to help get any extra build up that I didn't clean out of the engine out of the oil.

What does TB think about this? How many miles or how many heat cycles would you recommend before doing the first oil change?

Right now I am just running cheapo 15-40 oil and I will be switching back to the 10W60 stuff I used to run.
 
It's not miles its hours, 50 miles or 2 hours whichever comes first.

And change oil HOT, to better rinse out the bad stuff that lays in the bottom of the pan.

Remember these are flat tappet motors and need better oil than the "low emissions" crap out front at PepBoys.
Especially for break-in. Joe Gibbs markets a good break-in oil.
 
So lets just say that someone put new bearings into a red block along with some new Rods. How many miles after doing this refresh of the shortblock would you go before doing the first oil and filter change?

So far I have about 6-10 miles on the setup and I am tempted to just do it (oil and filter are cheap) just to help get any extra build up that I didn't clean out of the engine out of the oil.

What does TB think about this? How many miles or how many heat cycles would you recommend before doing the first oil change?

Right now I am just running cheapo 15-40 oil and I will be switching back to the 10W60 stuff I used to run.

If the engine was not clean on the refresh, do it now! I did that at 18 on a 305 Chevy and at 15k bearing were toast. All kinds of metal in the bearings. Did you see the old bearings. Change the oil and catch some and have it analyzed.
 
I am using 15-40 diesel oil for right now, but normally I run liqui moly, I very much dislike new oils so I stick to odd stuff vs the off the shelf junk. I used to run 0w40 Euro oil for a few years before I switched to the 10w60.

While I cleaned the outside of the block to paint it the inside stayed sealed up until I swapped the rods and bearings. This was a unknown mile n/a block that had been rebuilt in the recent past and the bearings looked really good.

For sure I will put around 30+ miles on the car today so I will plan the oil change tomorrow AM after a drive to get the oil hot as I need to go get some fresh 'flexfuel' as my current mix is 3gal of 18month old and 5gal of yesterday fresh fuel.

The head is a big valve ported setup that was property cleaned by the shop that did the work as the head was sealed in a bag until it went on the engine.

Either way good advice thank you.
 
So lets just say that someone put new bearings into a red block along with some new Rods. How many miles after doing this refresh of the shortblock would you go before doing the first oil and filter change?

So far I have about 6-10 miles on the setup and I am tempted to just do it (oil and filter are cheap) just to help get any extra build up that I didn't clean out of the engine out of the oil.

What does TB think about this? How many miles or how many heat cycles would you recommend before doing the first oil change?

Right now I am just running cheapo 15-40 oil and I will be switching back to the 10W60 stuff I used to run.

TLAO you were holding some pretty respectable power on the stock b230 bottom end, did you finally break it or are you just upgrading to be safe?

Sorry to thread jack
 
I am using 15-40 diesel oil for right now, but normally I run liqui moly, I very much dislike new oils so I stick to odd stuff vs the off the shelf junk. I used to run 0w40 Euro oil for a few years before I switched to the 10w60.

While I cleaned the outside of the block to paint it the inside stayed sealed up until I swapped the rods and bearings. This was a unknown mile n/a block that had been rebuilt in the recent past and the bearings looked really good.

For sure I will put around 30+ miles on the car today so I will plan the oil change tomorrow AM after a drive to get the oil hot as I need to go get some fresh 'flexfuel' as my current mix is 3gal of 18month old and 5gal of yesterday fresh fuel.

The head is a big valve ported setup that was property cleaned by the shop that did the work as the head was sealed in a bag until it went on the engine.

Either way good advice thank you.

If the bearings look good you will be fine and changing it is great piece of mind and it cheap. Got. 93 245 that I got cheap and no wear in the cylinders but not good pressure. Put about 60 miles on it. Runs great but I would not drive it. Finally pulled the pan in the car and saw quick why pressure was low. A torn transfer tube o ring. Pulled a cap or two and bearings are shot. No wear on the crank at all. Just going to replace it with a 87,000 mile 93 b230 and when I get there me fix the one in the car. Easy fix but time. I ran 15-50 Mobil for years and switched to the 0-40 euro. To me less noise in my 87 that had 15-50 but all but one is N/A and i?m Not hard on them. I got the kit to send some oil off for analysis and plan to to that on the b21FT before changing to that high dollar Swedish ported head I?ve been hoarding
 
TLAO you were holding some pretty respectable power on the stock b230 bottom end, did you finally break it or are you just upgrading to be safe?

Sorry to thread jack
I had a TB shaft break causing a screw to get sucked in a d chew up a 531 and #3 piston. So I threw some rods in this n/a block to hold me over until I can do an engine properly with rods and pistons. If I am lucky this engine will never fail and I never need to use another engine.

https://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=337884

Plus to be safe as at 26psi Everytime I got on it I worried about the rods. One day I will pull those rods out of that engine and see if they are bent or not.
 
I've done the first oil change after the engine has been hot and possibly driven a little. Just to clean the possible debree. Second change after ~200-300 miles if the engine needs breaking in.
 
I had a TB shaft break causing a screw to get sucked in a d chew up a 531 and #3 piston. So I threw some rods in this n/a block to hold me over until I can do an engine properly with rods and pistons. If I am lucky this engine will never fail and I never need to use another engine.

https://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=337884

Plus to be safe as at 26psi Everytime I got on it I worried about the rods. One day I will pull those rods out of that engine and see if they are bent or not.

Wow, pretty impressive that these stock bottom ends hold up so well.

Also, that sounded precisely like a rod knock instead of something in the combustion chamber. That is crazy.
 
I've done the first oil change after the engine has been hot and possibly driven a little. Just to clean the possible debree. Second change after ~200-300 miles if the engine needs breaking in.

Got the motor up to 190, and then dained out the cheap stuff and put in the $$$. I will get the small sample I took of this stuff checked out and if need be I will change again if there is anything odd that shows up.

Cut the filter open to check for metals if you have any doubts.

I saved the filter and I will cut it open and check it out later this week.

Wow, pretty impressive that these stock bottom ends hold up so well.

Also, that sounded precisely like a rod knock instead of something in the combustion chamber. That is crazy.

This block I had was very surprising as I made 301whp back in 2009 and I had been beating on it with another 50+whp for the next 9 years and it just took it, then again I liked to run this car on 100oct, and then E85 and then E54 fuel so it shouldn't not of seen a lot of knock/detonation which I am sure is the main reason the lower end stayed together as long as it did. I had a few times where the lower end held 30+ psi for 5-6 seconds at a time when I was having the overboost issues along with at the track when the boost hose came off the WG.

I am hoping that with these rods if I can keep the motor from knocking it should last forever.
 
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