Camshafts and followers - these items still come with break in provisions every time I buy one / have one made. They say that from initial start up engine revs must not be less than 2000rpm for the first 20 minutes of running.
That creates two issues with my new old engines - the first is it assumes that even without any initial set up guidance or data for a standard engine let alone one then blueprinted and modified - that when we stick it on the dyno for initial running we can get it to run right straight out of the workshop and the second, particularly with early aero engines, is that 2000 rpm is pretty close to redline for the feet per minute speed of the pistons!
Camshafts and followers aside plenty of my car and bike engines are run in at first practice followed by an oil (and filter where fitted) change in the paddock and then a weekends racing. Only failure to date (leaving out old 2 stroke bike engines which in race trim are always a hairsbreadth away from destruction) was on a fabulous engine with only a few hours on it which had a chain inside the timing chest driving the generator. A roller on the chain broke up and a piece went into the oil pump at full noise on a trials hill, it sheered the drive to the oil pump, caused a weird screeching noise and brought everything to a sudden halt as the mains seized. The journals turned blue from the heat either side of the big ends and mains. It was all rebuilt and running again 10 days later - modified so it couldn't happen again even though I could find no record of any of the same car having had that particular failure in the 80 years since they were made!
Camshafts and followers - these items still come with break in provisions every time I buy one / have one made. They say that from initial start up engine revs must not be less than 2000rpm for the first 20 minutes of running.
That creates two issues with my new old engines - the first is it assumes that even without any initial set up guidance or data for a standard engine let alone one then blueprinted and modified - that when we stick it on the dyno for initial running we can get it to run right straight out of the workshop and the second, particularly with early aero engines, is that 2000 rpm is pretty close to redline for the feet per minute speed of the pistons!
Camshafts and followers aside plenty of my car and bike engines are run in at first practice followed by an oil (and filter where fitted) change in the paddock and then a weekends racing. Only failure to date (leaving out old 2 stroke bike engines which in race trim are always a hairsbreadth away from destruction) was on a fabulous engine with only a few hours on it which had a chain inside the timing chest driving the generator. A roller on the chain broke up and a piece went into the oil pump at full noise on a trials hill, it sheered the drive to the oil pump, caused a weird screeching noise and brought everything to a sudden halt as the mains seized. The journals turned blue from the heat either side of the big ends and mains. It was all rebuilt and running again 10 days later - modified so it couldn't happen again even though I could find no record of any of the same car having had that particular failure in the 80 years since they were made!