I just finished dropping the pistons into my 225 block. Fit, filed, gapped, and clocked the rings per the FSM. Made sure they were oriented correctly and used copious amounts of lube and oil both on the outside of the piston, the piston pin/bore, and rod bearings, but didn't 'immerse' the piston in oil like the manual stated to do. Already a heck of a messy job, and hard to keep hold of the pistons and tighten the rings when they're oily like this.

The engine became difficult to turn over when I started dropping the pistons in. Noticed it when #1 went in. Became harder as I kept installing them. I expected the resistance, but it's definitely become an effort to turn over the crank. There was no resistance before I dropped them in: the crank and cam turned over smoothly together.

On a positive note, the rings are doing their job: I can see they're scraping the piston clean of oil, but that's not exactly what I want right now. Or do I?

I'm going to continue dropping the head on now, and I hope the break-in will wear the rings rapidly to where the engine can turn over easily, but I am a little concerned that there's too much resistance for the starter to torque it over. I don't know what I could have done differently though. The bores seemed to check out at about 3.43 on all of them.

Anyone have thoughts about break-in tips? Once it's back together, I'm planning on cranking the engine over without plugs or distributor connected to try and pre-lube the engine. I do plan on priming the oil pump.

Also something else: I have the components to switch over to EI from the mechanical distributor, but I'm thinking I should wait to switch it over until the engine is running correctly and lubed up as it should be. Don't want to be futzing with trying to set up the EI correctly on the first attempt to start it up.

you can expect some additional friction with each piston added.
my recent rebuild definately was more difficult to turn over via a breaker bar on the front crank nut as a never ran engine than it was after it was started and actually ran...

I used a known good points distributor and coil for the initial run,, nothing like having one less thing to worry about. Conservation on the ignition timing.

Spinning the engine without the spark plugs in, in intervals untill you see oil pressure on the gauge is a good idea.

Once the motor starts, I had seen Doc mention that he likes to verify that the push rods are spinning and the top end is oiling. I did that on my build,, left the bolts out of the valve cover and pulled it off while the motor was running to get a good look.

Once the VC is secured, re start the motor, take a good look to verify that the engin is free of fuel, oil, water leaks,,fan belts are still in place and the engine sounds normal, if so run it up to 2000 rpm for about 20 minutes to break in the cam.

top off the radiator as needed, continue to watch for leaks, keep an eye on the oil pressure and engine temp gauges. I let my engine completely cool down then ran it through another 2000 rpm 20 minute cycle.

good luck,, let us know how it goes

Thanks DadTruck. Will do.

It will be tough if everything is on the tight side of clearances. I've only had one slant that was loose (and it was on the looser side of the goal posts for bearings and ring gaps...the only thing looser was a 200K slant six...). If in doubt, drop in a mini-starter it will roll a duster down the street with no spark...

As long as when you get the head on and the valve train set, it doesn't have a spot where it stops when you breaker bar the crank over, it should be fine.

Prime the engine and make sure that everything is good to go per above.
Get an under hood tach set up (timing gun w/tach?) to keep an eye on the rpm.

set the carb with the idle screw set in so the engine is up to 2000+ rpm....
Run it like that for 10 minutes, spend the next 10 minutes modulating the rpm up and down a few hundred rpm to vary the oil pattern in the crank case (on the rods, cam lobes, etc... 2200, 2700, 2000, 2300, 2900...etc).

Make sure to have a set of earplugs in, it might get loud under the hood.

Almost there.

-D.Idiot