The cam break-in procedure that air-cooled is promoting is specifically recommended for air-cooled engines which are very much prone to cam wear which I believe is due to the fact that each cam lobe drives two of the lifters/valves on the horizontally opposed air-cooled engines. The OHC diesels do not suffer from the same cam wear issues.
a horizontally opposed engine's cam does have double duty, unless its ohc, usually porche 6cyl, but having 4 or more vw a/cmotors i never found evidence of excess cam wear, some motors were stock and were daily drivers, mild like 55-60mph, i had/have at least 1 with a fairly wild cam, could rev up to 7grand regularly, no cam wear. if you feel its not a problem for you thats up to you, i figured it would be good advice as a cam does have to break in and i feel in more than one of the shop manuals i had seen a caption in the head/valve train section, aprox wording; after certain head/cam work 'do not drive for the first 20 minutes' that would indicate the cam needs to 'start; to break in, 2000rpm is best for this, hi idle. if you low idle during this time or put in gear and drive it is adverse to the cam breaking in.
within 5 mins of this YES put a load on her, i like low-mid rpms @2/3throttle at first
Good information all around, guys.
I have the valve cover off, but haven't specifically looked at the condition on the top of the lifters or the appearance of the cam lobes. I'll try to remember to take a look tonight.
When this engine went together, I used the TechTonics "coated" hydraulic tappets. If I remember correctly, these lifters are also lighter than the factory hydro units.
Steve.
745, notice for that cam its 1500rpm and above easily rev up and down bet 1500-3000, similar. i find above 2000 at this early stage(1ststage), unless your cam mfg recommends; 2000 is normal , both enough oil there, and not enough speed/rpm to bother anything, & for your 1st start your doing some work on internals, not as much as when you put a load on it, but its a good 1st workout, then i change oil/filter and go to the next step, 100miles low/mid speeds lots of load. dont forget decel revs, like the man has quoted, he finds a good hill and up with a lot of load, down -off throttle decel, or reverse load.
when a motor isnt in gear 3000rpm is A lot, above and you can ask for trouble.