Lucas break in oil?

[smeg]

We run in all of our flat tappet engines with Lucas 30 break in oil and then run the Valvoline VR1 10W30 racing oil. Have not done a lobe in years and I do mean years.

[midnightbluS10]

If guys don't understand basic chemistry, they won't understand differences in oil composition, additives, etc... Seems like that's part of the issue. Not here specifically. Just in general. They don't understand that oil today isn't the same oil from 1997. And that break-in oil is more similar to what we used to use back then.

All they know is "well I've been using 20w50 to break in engines for 45 years and blah blah blah...." and they stick to "what they know".

[Steve.k]

High zinc 20w50 with lucas break in additive. How ever my cams are all broke in by mfg and i run in with full spring pressure. No issues yet!

[ProPower engines]

I think break in oil that is in a weight greater then 15/40 can be an issue with todays hyd. roller stuff.
Even FT stuff needs oil flowing to keep the cam and lifters protected and it takes a long time in many cases to get the oil temp up to operating levels higher then 160 degrees so the lifters get fully pumped full. So why use such a heavy oil on 1st start up??

[Steve.k]

I always use same oil as i intend to run. Don't know if thats the correct thing but its worked as never had a lobe go south on any i built flat tappet or otherwise. I just figure if its been working don't change routine. That said i did a some mild engines that we were going to run 10:30 broke in with that.

[Truckedup]

Any conventional motorcycle oil that has a JASO rating is a SG retro rating. No friction modifiers and generally about 1200 ppm ZDDP that should be ok for mild cams...

[novadude]

at what point (presumably a spring lb value over the nose) do people normally recommend light running in springs?

I don't recommend breaking in a cam with over 300lbs of spring pressure at Max lift

With what rocker ratio? 300 lb spring load at max lift is going to equal a different lifter-to-cam load in a BBC with 1.7 rockers vs a SBC with 1.5 rockers, no?

[CamKing]

With what rocker ratio? 300 lb spring load at max lift is going to equal a different lifter-to-cam load in a BBC with 1.7 rockers vs a SBC with 1.5 rockers, no?

Correct. That's for a 1.6 rocker on a SBC. I recommend the same pressure on a BBC with 1.7 rockers, because the BBC cam will have a bigger base circle, so it can handle a little more pressure.