Starting a fresh motor

[thebabybrahma]

We are fixing to fire up a new 402BBC in the 83 GMC. Looking for some time saving pointers, to try to start. Things like how to make sure the timing is correct, distributor is close to the right place, etc... any help would be great. We haven't had to crank a fresh motor up in a long while...

[Captkaos]

Bring #1 Cylinder to TDC, set the distributor so you have enough advance movement.

[ccz145a]

I just recently did this with my 454.
Do what Capt says and...
Fill it up with cheap 30wt oil and some EOS (ZDDP additive).
I bought a pre-oiler from summit for about $20 and spun it until oil flowed from the pushrods.
Once I got it fired up after 20min @ ~2000rpm (cam-break-in), I changed the oil with 10W30 and a new filter and added more EOS.
During the cam-break-in process, I had a small coolant leak and two plug wires crossed. I shut it down and fixed those before continuing.

The last new engine I fired was 20yrs ago, and surprisingly I had the distributer pointed close enough and had pre-adjusted the lifters correctly.

[heavychevy91]

might help to have a little gas to prime the carb if the fuel pump is dry. i believe lucas makes a break-in additive that is similar to the EOS ccz145a mentioned

[thebabybrahma]

thanks guys,
we tried her out, got close but started backfiring thru the exhaust.
going to start over tomorrow and reposition the distributor and try again