I'm rebuilding my engine and getting ready to lube my lifters. I've never done this before so can someone recommend a good assembly oil to use? Thanks!

 

Use a cam manufacturers lifter lube
Usually just some real good sticky black moly grease
We all just used assembly lube in a tube in the old days (the white lithium grease in a tube)
The actual cam break in lube is much better
Comp cams makes some that is decent

 

On the flat tappet cam and lifter(bottoms only) I use the Driven Assembly grease. I use grease NOWHERE else in the engine assembly, only 50wt oil. Using grease as an assembly lube is a bad idea. It is easy for it to get pushed into an oil passage and very difficult for the oil to push it out. I've seen a 351W that was put together using white grease that spun a cam bearing when that grease blocked the oil passage up to the cam bearing.

 

When you say “grease” is that the same as “assembly lube” in a bottle? The stuff that’s kinda like sticky syrup.

 

I use this stuff here for lobes and lifter bottoms. It is nice because it will blend into the oil and dissipate.

https://drivenracingoil.com/i-304977...-1-lb-tub.html

You can also get it in squeeze pouches. The stuff in the bottles from them is the HVL which is good too. I've used that before for other parts of the engine.

 

The thicker grease is for the bottom of the lifters and the cam lobes only
The rods and mains get thick 50w engine assembly (aircraft oil) or the lithium engine assembly lube in a tube

 

I don't recommend using lithium grease anywhere in the engine assembly.

 

What?
You mean to tell me you have never used this white lithium grease as assembly lube?

 

No. That stuff can block an oil passage and cook a bearing.

 

The machine shop filled my oil pump with the stuff a few times when I had work done is what made me start using it back in the 70s
I have been using it for years and years and never burnt up any bearings yet.
Course, I always prime the motors anyway and probably ran that stuff through there and back into the oil pan
I still see engines coming from the machine shops around here with that stuff everywhere really, under the rocker arm fulcrums etc.

 

Never use that on any bearings in the engine. It is too thick and it makes it very difficult for oil to flow through the bearing until it finally gets hot enough to melt and get out of the way of the oil. I have seen this cause a cam bearing to spin in a freshly rebuild 351W that a customer assembled. I'm not saying that you will have problems but it certainly can cause problems. Right now we've got an engine that came in that was put together in 1985 and never run. That stuff was like a rock and it took a trip to the hot tank to get it off of and out of the crankshaft.

 

sorry dave but here's a engine that was assembled with it and primed before firing it's i have always used for 60 years

 

Whatever works I guess. What's the oil flow out of the cam bearings look like?

 

Without a doubt, the lube you use is very controversial and I guess we can all agree that no lube is no good.

I've used grease but I cannot imagine I would use so much grease that it could plug an oil passage. Especially a cam bearing. If I am going to run this engine within days of building, I would just use a liquid oil. If the engine is going to be parked on the shelf, then I believe grease stays put longer.

I have never checked the oil ports [with oil] when the engine is disassembled. Sure, they get blown out and cleaned, but never checked with oil flow. I don't know anyone that does. Once the engine is assembled, can you even check if there is oil flowing out of the cam bearing?

With all the information/opinions out there, why do people still ask the same question over and over? It's always the same discussion/argument.

 

I think you guys have never had your fingers in the lubriplate stuff
It is very thin, liquid mostly
Doubt it would set up in 20 years like regular white lithium grease would
Lithium is a rock in nature, same as silica