Feel like I was just "violated" by the motor shop

[Elwood]

Thanks for the advice everyone. Finally got it running! Replaced distributor cap and rotor. Also had to rotate the distributor until I found a happy median between stalling out and fire blowing out the carb. Going to put the timing light on it tomorrow and run it at approx 2000 rpm for 20 min to break in the rings. That's what the motor builder suggested along with lugging the engine for a couple heat cycles. Cant perform that step because I have no brakes yet.

The builder suggested that you lug a freshly-rebuilt engine?

[Ammo]

The builder suggested that you lug a freshly-rebuilt engine?

No, I was misspoken. He said something about driving at very low speed and low rpms, for a few heat cool cycles, but don't lug it. He told me all this right after I paid approximately 50% more than his quote for engine work. So I was pretty upset at the time.

[Cheyenne Dave]

Vary RPM's on a fresh engine rather than maintaining a constant engine speed. Driving around town with a manual transmission would be ideal.

cd

[Matthew Welcher PWA]

I agree with Dave on this for sure, up and down through the range being easy on it is a great way to go.

[Ammo]

Thanks for the help everyone, engine runs good. Put it through a couple heat cycles and retorqued head bolts. Only issue right now is it's running pretty rich and wont stay idling without a little choke. Probably need to play with timing to get that straightened out. Want to wait until I get truck on road before trying to dial it in.