Break In and a big trip

I'm leaving Saturday morning to pick up my Cougar at my dad's. It is 500 miles one way. The thing is my Cougar just got a rebuilt 351W dropped in it and it has only about 100 miles on it since the rebuild. Dad is going to change the oil before I pickup the car. Should I change the oil again at the halfway point in Fargo? That would about 300 miles. Not sure where I would do it, and I'm not real excited about having a Jiffy Lube type place change my oil...
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I would try to get another 100 miles on it, change oil and filter, retorque the intake, pull the valve covers and verify everything is OK, then put it on the road. I would do it in 1 hour at a time, and a 15 min break in between for checking everything. Take extra oil, water, and basic tools with you.


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i'd tell your dad to drive the car around for a week, and if no problems then go pick it up, i would never go on a 500 not even 50 mile trip with a brand new engine!!!

Definitely bring tools. I like to plan for the apocalpyse and have one of almost everything in my trunk. Unfortunately it seems like wahtever you didn't bring is what you'll need.

Shortly after I put my new 306 together it broke. At just over 1,000 miles, IIRC, I snapped a rocker arm in half. I was just cruising along at 55 MPH, revs nice and low. Then I heard a *SNAP*CLUNK* and could immediately tell I was running on only 7 cylinders. Shut it off and pulled over, removed the drivers side valve cover and the rocker arm for one of my exhaust valves was snapped in half. How it broke I'm lucky it didn't pop the retainer out and drop the valve (I have rail rockers).

Most failures in a new engine will happen within the break-in period, that is to say the first few thousand miles. All the parts are getting used to the stresses they are subject to in a particular engine, and if you have a bum part, as I did, it is most likely to break soon, not after tens of thousands of miles.

That being said, there's little you can do except make sure your engine is in good tune and nothing is obviously wrong. Make sure your valves are all properly adjusted, spark plug gap, points gap if applicable, just all the basics. Make sure all your lines and connections are good too. Bring the basics with you and if something is gonna break it's gonna break. Just bring tools so if anything does break you can find a parts store and fix it. 500 miles isn't very far, only 1.5-2 tanks of gas, or maybe 2 weeks of driving. Good luck to you, and I hope all goes well for you.

Fargo is the half way point! If you are driving up in that country especially east of Fargo. Bring tools and money...maybe trailer it. There is NOTHING but open country across ND. LOL.... I know, I live 400 mi east of Fargo and race at Interstate dragway. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]
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oops...make that 400 mi west of fargo [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]
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I would'nt drive a fresh rebuild on a long trip either. Having your dad drive it for a week is a great idea, otherwise I'd use a tow dollie.

Well, I made it. No issues, except it runs on the warm side above 75 mph. Probably due to the 2 core rad, no shroud and lousy flex fan. Might also be too much advance, there is some pinging under heavy load acceleration. Nothing that can't be fixed. I imagine being tight from the new break in doesn't help either. It seemed to actually run cooler as it got more miles on it.
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