440 first start

[Charger jUNkiE]

I'm in my late 50's been around Mopars all my life.  Worked in the dealerships as a kid for my old man.  Assembled lots of motors; Mopar, Ford, Chevy and Misc Japanese stuff.  Never had any major problems.  The usual getting firing order wrong or timing etc.  Fixed it and bang the thing would start up and run just fine.

However I have been reading A LOT about all these flat tappet hydraulic issues and failures and I keep going over my build and what i did.  I'm kind of scared to start the thing from all the neg press.  First hobby car for me in about 20 some years.

Machine work was done by Dennis Mauer here in Phoenix.  Clean shop, coated the cam with the lube that came with it.  Primed the system to get oil running inside (came up and held steady at 80 psi with a drill). Dennis recommended shell diesel motor oil 30W non detergent.  He said it still had all the friction fighting stuff in it that you need. Ive seen the molly paste cam lube that some people use but Dennis frowned on it because he said it could temporary plug an oil hole while the engine is running and warming up.

I guess my post is to ask everyone out there whats truth and whats BS.  I have a stock 1970 440.  .030" over. Balanced, cast pistons, 452 heads, stock HP manifolds (intake and exhaust).  The cam is a comp  21-223-4....pretty mild i would think.  With stock stamped steel rockers and 933 street Hemi valve springs.  I even read the comp setup specs on lifter preload and had a custom set of Smith Brother push rods made to provide the recommended .030" +/- .010" lifter preload.  Is there anything else that needs to be done or paid attention to?  After building and messing around with this car for 8 years I would hate to have to tear it apart. Is there really soft cams and all the other issues out there Ive heard about?

thanks in advance

Don

[b5blue]

Look through here Hughes has a cam package "foolproof combo" . Johnson Hightop lifters are the best and made here in USA. I'll be using whatever Hughes recommends.
https://www.hughesengines.com/TechArticles/productinstructionsheets.php
  You can compare what you did to what Hughes does all over the engine. I also have a copy of Mopar B/RB High Performance used as a reference.

[b5blue]

Watch this also. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT7CXzOKJ5g