September 15th:
I pulled the intake and cleaned and lubed the solid cam, lifters, push rods and rockers. Installed a new intake gasket, filled with break in oil and finished up a few odds and ends and steeling the carburetor from the wife's Chevelle, Shhh... maybe she won't notice. My best friend who is designing some cool stuff for the race world brought over his data logging system and we hooked it to the engine to record this momentous occasion.
I can't believe it, the day finally came.
Over 26 years of waiting after it was first assembled... it was time to fire the big block 454. After a fuel leak on the fuel pump on initial start I'd have to say the rest of the break-in went flawless. She did get a bit hotter than I expected, but I didn't rejet the carb or set the timing, so 210º at the thermostat and oil pressure at 50PSI with 30 SAE was pretty good I think. Too bad the RPM didn't record but it was still way cool to have a documented break-in on the other gauges.
