I might be jumping ahead of myself a little, however I will be picking up one more order of parts this week/weekend and pending any show stoppers would be in a position to fire up the engine this weekend or even this week. I have a small checklist for engine start but wanted to make sure I have everything I need to start and pick up anything i would be missing.

Details of the engine for those that forgot or care:

Non roller block, with a used flat tappet cam and new lifters. Crank has been polished, new crank bearings. Cylinder walls have been bored out, new rings used pistons. Heads have been redone.

Obvious first:

Engine oil with Zinc additive (5 or 6 Quarts) regular 5w-30? non synthetic?

Transmission oil - Regular ATF? Torque Convertor already has 1 or 2 quarts in it.. so i would need about 5 more correct?

Transfer Case oil - ATF? 2 quarts?

Front and rear Diff oil 1.9 in front about 3 in rear

Antifreeze a bunch of gallons.


Before start prime engine someone was saying using a 1/4 socket on the end of an extension as long as the socket is attached to the end of the extension REALLY well.. i also have an extra distributor but would have to get the gear off of it before i used it to prime i assume.. .

Once its primed do i need to turn the engine over anymore? I know i have to make sure its at Top Dead Center.. but not sure i really need to turn the engine over at this point.

Once i get it running I was told even though the cam is used I should break in the cam to lifters.. so run it about 20 -30 min at about 2000 RPMS. Is this true?

If so and I have problems on first start and for whatever reason can't keep it running will it hurt the engine to start it a few times before I can run it for the 20-30 min?

I know it will be loud but I might not have any way to hook up a full exhuast at first. Will it hurt anything to run open headers? I MIGHT be able to get the o2 sensors in some short pipes but dont know yet.. i know its not ideal to run it without them but i can hook them up and figure something out?

Anything else i should look for or know before I start it up?