I've got a freshly rebuilt 3VZ with 0 miles on it here. It'll take me a few days to get everything switched over to it and into the truck. I'm just wondering what special precautions have to be taken when starting a new motor for the 1st time. Do I have to prime anything or put any temporary lubricant anywhere? Any advice is appreciated. I'm not really into building motors, but this is just the way this situation turned out. Bear with me please.

 

It's always good to have oil 'primed' throughout the system. One easy way to do this is when you're ready to start the engine - remove the EFI fuse and crank the motor until you see the oil pressure gauge rising. Then put in the fuse and fire up the engine. This pumps oil up through the whole engine before it runs.

 

Let it run for a little bit (10-15 minutes maybe), then change the oil/filter. If you want, cut open the filter to see if there are any metal shavings...

 

I actually spun mine on the engine stand using a drill (BIG drill) with the spark plugs out and the valve covers off to see when the oil made its way to the cyl heads. The idea is to get the oil circulated before putting any compression against it. You could do this just the same with the engine in the truck cranking it with the efi and ignition fuses pulled and no spark plugs to keep it from building compression should not take any more than 45 sec or so.


Before spining it with the drill I tipped my engine on its side while on the stand and poured oil into the oil filter union (the out side leads to the pump and the center to the engine) in order to fill the pump from behind. You should be able to tell when its fully primed, my engine was difficult to spin (poor drill) but all at once it got much easier that let me know it had built oil pressure. When I started the engine Initially I let her run for 40 mins in the driveway to check for leaks and give things a chance to seat in before making her do any work. After 40 mins I changed the oil and filter to remove any debris from the initial start. Next step was to go babie it around for 100 miles in town keeping it under 2500 rpms or so. At 100 miles I changed the oil and filter again to remove any break in debris (metal particals). I ran her 500 miles on the next phase keeping it under 3k rpm and doing alot of in town stop and go driving to get everything seated in. At 500 I changed the oil and filter again but when I finish this 500 mile stage im on now its time for good oil and putting the coals to it.

Is this all necessary? I have no idea but after all my time and money to rebuild it I was taking no chances. I just used castrol dino oil in all the initial oil changes. I also used run of the mill purolator filters, stay away from ANY fram oil filters in your engine or any one elses for that matter. The "Pure
One" is considered to be one of the best in many reviews and is what I will be using from here on out.

I have 700 trouble and leak free miles on her and I could not be happier.


Edit... Keep cranking even after the oil pressure gauge rises. Having done it with the valve covers off I can tell you it does take a bit to get the oil up to the cams and followers. Its also important to note that the 1st thing the oil see's as it leaves the oil pump is the pressure sensor so you could easily have registered oil pressure readings in under 5 sec of cranking but that does NOT mean your entire engine has oil pressure.

 

i dump a quart oil over the rocker assembly before i put the valve cover on and add the rest of it. no worries about the bottom end, i use plenty of moly assembly lube there.

to prime the engine, i packed the oil pump with regular lithium grease and then cranked the engine until the oil light went out. then put the spark plugs in and fire it up

if you have a new cam(s) run it for 20 minutes or so at 2500RPM and then adjust the valves, not a bad idea to change the oil. i changed mine after 500 miles and it was NASTY! i'm up to about 2500 miles on the new motor and i'm going to switch to amsoil, seeing as to the fact that nothing at all is leaking on my engine.

 

i would do everything to it that was said above, except being "easy" on it, after you break in your cams (if new) if not new then let the engine come up to operating temp, go find a road without much traffic, and accelerate hard in third from about 40-65, then decelerate back down to 40 or so then repeat this process quite a few times, HERE is a link that better explains what I'm saying, good luck

 

yeah, basically wind up the engine(nothing too insane, 4k is a good bet) and let off the gas and let it compression brake a bunch of times. helps seat the rings quickly

 

I agree with kyle. There is a growing knowledge in motorcycle that the current recommended way of breaking bikes in actually decreases HP. Why? Bad seating. Engines these days are designed for fast break in. Just do a search on breaking in an engine. Wala!

 

I agree. When we put a new top end in one of our race bikes, we crank it and let it get up to full operating temp. at idle. Then let it cool completely down. After that, we fire it up again, take it out on the track and do 1-2 slow laps, and then HAMMER it. The motor has to be broken in like you're going to run it normally, or else it'll never have the power. Good luck with it!

 

i think it has less to do with the design of the engine and more with advances in piston ring technology. in the first 700 miles on my engine it probably consumed about a half quart of oil -- now it stays perfectly full. didn't take long at all for my moly rings to seat!

 

Thanks for all the good advice, guys! The motor is on the stand now and I'll be starting assembly tomorrow. Hopefully it'll be ready to put in Saturday night. I'll start another thread and post pictures of the build for anybody else that cares to follow. I bet there are a lot of people with the 3VZ that have never seen it apart.