As the title says- should I lube the cylinder walls, pistons and/or rings when rebuilding my engine? I have read conflicting opinions online- what is the consensus for t4's?

YES. rings, ring grooves, cylinder walls, piston skirts. LUBE IT ALL. i rub it in with my bare hands-fingers. this is one last chance at inspection to catch any game stopping irregularities. most experienced engine builders have their own assembly lube recipe and im not talkin...but you can buy some off teh shelf chiles and albert or permatex super slick or Lucas engine assembly lube

anyone that would say assemble it dry is a moron.

Never assemble any two engine components without proper lubrication. I have seen nothing except issues when guys have the "Drag Race Engine Builder" mentality with these engines and assemble the cylinders and pistons dry.

You can ask 20 people this question and get 20 different answers.. Ultimately you must make your own decision and you won't know if you were right or not until the engine fires up and has a few hundred miles on it. Thats part of assuming the role of engine builder.

I'm glad u said that. Unlubed internal components seem like a disaster waiting to happen. I was surprised when I found many references to unlubed cylinders. Gotta love some of the stuff you find online.

when I was a young kid there were alot more of these superstitious engine builders around. 30 years of metallurgy, science and the instant information age have made such dinosaurs extinct but back then if crusty ol Bannac the circle track racer told me that, I would have done it. now I apply my engineering education to my engine building. evaluate the source too. I usually put more weight to info from data collectors and those who do

Assembly lubes for anything that will take a couple seconds to build oil pressure on that first start. Which is just about everything as the Raby stated. At the duc shop we would just use plain ol engine oil for the purpose of lubing rings and piston's and cylinders. This is what my master tech would suggest.

No lube on the back side of the bearings. You want the bearings to stick to the case or the rods so keep those aeras dry on build up. I can't think of the name but there is a jar of a red grease/ assembly lube that I like to use.

Some may have a fit over this but I've always used a container of oil several inches deep and dipped the piston in past the rings, jostled the rings abit as to lube the lands real good, wipe the rest of the piston skirts and cylinders with the motor oil. Makes for great seal and first fireup.

That's exactly what I always did, learned it from old guys on farm equipment, and always did the same in my shop. Always 30W oil, though, never assembly lube, STP, Slick 50 or anything like that. Then my shop bullshit group got a lot bigger and I heard from some of the hot-sh*t aircooled engine builders (not drag racers Jake) that they used no lube at all, that the oil under the top compression ring just carbonized immediately on the first startup anyway. Sounded crazy, but there was some logic there too, and they swore they got immediate and better bedding of the rings and the rings never lost their temper, which was my big fear. So, curious guy that I am I decided to experiment and didn't dip the pistons on a few engines. They started up fine, ran great, had super compression, and kept running well for as long as I followed them. I will admit I didn't follow any of them through a full life cycle where I pulled them apart when they were worn out, but none ever had problems while I was around them.

So I've tried it both ways, and in my considered opinion I can't really say. I do know I got a lot less smoke on startup, which was nice. But beyond that maybe the only significant thing I can say is that they didn't blow damned up like I thought they might.

Edit: After that experiment I went back to lubing things but used less oil generally, just the walls, light oil on and under the rings. Kind of split the difference.

Too bad our engines dont allow you to spin the oil pump independent of the engine.

I know a few other racing vintage cars where you can remove the distributor and spin the oil pump shaft with a drill.

Then you can slowly rotate the engine with oil pressure up before firing it the first time.

I guess if you had an oil cooler and a cheap pump that can handle oil, then you might be able to pull that off.

Stu

Also packing the oil pump with clean white lube will give a quicker prime for oil pressure on startup. It just disperses in the oil

Well, now for something different! I assemble the pistons, rings, and cylinders dry on air cooled engines. I've been doing this for more than 40 years. My engines don't smoke after breaking them in on the engine stand. In fact, I figure the rings are pretty much seated during the assembly process (I turn the engine over by hand 30-40 times while building it). On the other hand, I liberally soak the rings and the cylinders of waterpumpers while putting them together.

Damn Krusty. I thought I was taking a chance admitting it, but 40 years? Dude! Total respect.

Redline...

Like I said.. Ask 20 people, get twenty different answers. Make your own mind up about which way to go, because its your engine. Ring composition, ring tension, cylinder honing roughness averages and procedures also impact the results that you'll see.

The only time something is done the wrong way is when you have to do it twice.

I'm certainly glad this got cleared up.

Also depends on what kind of cylinders you've got.
When I took the Jerry Woods 911 engine rebuild class (I know - not a T-IV - read on...) he recommended using -1- drop of engine oil wiped on the piston skirts. Nothing on the cylinder walls.

This was for Nikasil.

You can get Nikasil cylinders for T-IV's. So - if it's not a plain, virgin-honed steel cylinder - ask your piston/cylinder supplier what they recommend. Crowdsourcing answers doesn't work well when there are multiple specific situations...

(And no, I don't know where in California you can find a virgin to hone your cylinders...)

I should teach a class on how to make friends and how to keep the ones who helped you over the years;)

Huh.... so you're talking about those California virgins?

Wouldn't that require being at an age thats still in the single digits??

"Bad news my king". "The Parade of the Virgins must be canceled". "One is sick and the other refuses to march alone". (From a Playboy cartoon a loooong time ago).

I oil the cylinders.

Ok, time to bring this up again.

I am about to start assembly of my engine.
I have Jakes cam lube for the cam (obviously), and LUBRIPLATE No. 105 for all of the bearing surfaces.
I plan on Jakes engine break-in oil for the cylinders/rings and for startup/breakin oil.

I tentatively agree that engine oil for all bearings would be sufficient IF you were planning on firing the engine in a day or so.
However, my build will probably take weeks (months ) between short block assembly & actually running so I plan on using the LUBRIPLATE for all bearings.

Then I figured a squirt of oil in each cylinder thru the plug holes before cranking the engine to prime the pump.

Next, I have read a number of posts where some people pack the oil pump with everything from Vaseline to white lithium grease.
Anyone tried packing the pump to get it to prime sooner?

Final opinions appreciated!

Let me know.

Stu

Next, I have read a number of posts where some people pack the oil pump with everything from Vaseline to white lithium grease.
Anyone tried packing the pump to get it to prime sooner?

Final opinions appreciated!

Let me know.

Stu
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Having just finished my second rebuild in a year (serial rebuilder?) I started thinking hard about this bit of "packing" the pump. If you literally pack the pump with grease, it seems to me that it'll just shove some hard to process grease into the oil filter. Consider that the oil pump should be flooded with oil if you've filled the crankcase to a half quart above the top mark on the dipstick to compensate for the dry oil filter. Backpressure due to a clog would delay the priming by keeping a bubble in the pump gears.
Sooooo.....I put in just enough grease to make sure the pump gear tips had a seal on the housing as well as the base and cover. Then, leaving off the filter, cranked the starter and almost immediately got oil spurting from the filter base. Then put on the dry filter & kept cranking (no plugs & throttle blocked open, no fuel pump operating) to get oil pressure up--takes what seems like a long time, but no harm is being done with good assembly lube on all moving parts.