Oil additive for first start up after rebuild help plz

bullyboy · Post by **bullyboy** » Mon May 31, 2010 7:24 pm

Hi
Just about to start up my rebuilt 4.6.
i have normal mineral oil in it, can anybody recommend an additive that will help protect my cam when running in ?One that i can get from halfords or motor factor, as i want to do this on wednesday morning.

cheers

Chris

topcatcustom · Post by **topcatcustom** » Mon May 31, 2010 7:56 pm

Real Steel sold me an additive and said that my cam warranty would be void without using it, I think it was from comp cams.

adamnreeves · Post by **adamnreeves** » Mon May 31, 2010 8:31 pm

Yep cam lube its a gooey red oil with the consistency of treacle. Liberally cover the cam and tappets with it then run engine do not idle something like 1500rpm for 20mins should do it.

topcatproduction wrote:Real Steel sold me an additive and said that my cam warranty would be void without using it, I think it was from comp cams.

Davo · Post by **Davo** » Tue Jun 01, 2010 1:44 am

It sounds like you're in a hurry and I'm probably too late but you really should use a high-zinc oil, preferably a running-in oil. The cam and lifters really need that zinc for the initial start-up. Penrite do this sort of thing.

In the olden days lots of oils would have been okay but now that they're removing the zinc for emission reasons that leaves people like us rather stuck. There are additives you can get to use with everyday modern oils but I would guess you'd need to hunt around for them.

adamnreeves · Post by **adamnreeves** » Tue Jun 01, 2010 1:50 am

I run Valvoline VR1 in mine which has the added zinc.

topcatcustom · Post by **topcatcustom** » Tue Jun 01, 2010 12:06 pm

adamnreeves wrote:Yep cam lube its a gooey red oil with the consistency of treacle. Liberally cover the cam and tappets with it then run engine do not idle something like 1500rpm for 20mins should do it.

topcatproduction wrote:Real Steel sold me an additive and said that my cam warranty would be void without using it, I think it was from comp cams.

No! Use cam lube yes- but you still need a zinc additive for mixing in with the oil to help with cam bed in. This is the stuff real steel supplied me with, and as previously mentioned, I'm sure they would not give any warranty with my cam unless I used the zinc stuff with it for bed in.

adamnreeves · Post by **adamnreeves** » Tue Jun 01, 2010 12:51 pm

Oh yeah. I used an oil with zinc added anyway. the cam stuff comes in a small round container like chemist uses for prescription ointments.

topcatproduction wrote:
adamnreeves wrote:Yep cam lube its a gooey red oil with the consistency of treacle. Liberally cover the cam and tappets with it then run engine do not idle something like 1500rpm for 20mins should do it.

topcatproduction wrote:Real Steel sold me an additive and said that my cam warranty would be void without using it, I think it was from comp cams.
No! Use cam lube yes- but you still need a zinc additive for mixing in with the oil to help with cam bed in. This is the stuff real steel supplied me with, and as previously mentioned, I'm sure they would not give any warranty with my cam unless I used the zinc stuff with it for bed in.

topcatcustom · Post by **topcatcustom** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 9:41 am

I've done all the miles I wanted to do for running in- time for an oil change now but is it worth getting more zinc additive or not really? I cant see 99% of rover v8 powered car owners putting an additive in as well as oil when doing a change, but is that why the cam lobes disappear?!!

So, will get a good mineral 10-40 but additive as well or not?