Metal in the oil follow up
Thread Starter
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 4,732
Likes: 815
From: Portland, OR
Metal in the oil follow up Stewed over this all summer, missed the whole season, raced my Vette.
Dumped the oil and filter a couple of times then finally took it for a long drive, thinking, it might be ok.
Well, things don't fix themselves so pulled it and took it all apart.
Hard to do post mortem!
Rear main obviously had a chunk of metal go through it. Front main as well, but not so bad.
From the mains the rods get fed, and 3 rod bearings showed debris.
Nothing on the verge of failure, just pissed off.
I have to admit, I believe this was my fault. Didn't clean **** good enough. I did wash the block at work, but it's hardly a clean wash machine. In fact it's gross.
I did hose it out, and blew it out, but no matter.
So my belief is that I left metal in the oil passages.
Thrust btw looked excellent! King bearings and I did a small mod to feed that surface with pressurized oil.
Another source of metal.....the oil pump. Was clear the oil pump drive was hitting the oil pump housing. Machining itself.
I did not do the feeler gauge method of centering the pump.
So, can this metal get by the filter? I plugged the bypass in the pan. But filters bypass, and with the popcorn fart filters we run, you bet.
I believe I'll upgrade to a Moroso pan that accepts a real f'n oil filter with no internal bypass.
So more bearings. The new crank needs polished. It's "groovy" now.
And I might just let the machine shop assemble the short block. I can't keep this clean enough in my garage or basement.
Last laugh? The oil pump pickup was full of cat hair...…..
My disclosure.
Ron
Dumped the oil and filter a couple of times then finally took it for a long drive, thinking, it might be ok.
Well, things don't fix themselves so pulled it and took it all apart.
Hard to do post mortem!
Rear main obviously had a chunk of metal go through it. Front main as well, but not so bad.
From the mains the rods get fed, and 3 rod bearings showed debris.
Nothing on the verge of failure, just pissed off.
I have to admit, I believe this was my fault. Didn't clean **** good enough. I did wash the block at work, but it's hardly a clean wash machine. In fact it's gross.
I did hose it out, and blew it out, but no matter.
So my belief is that I left metal in the oil passages.
Thrust btw looked excellent! King bearings and I did a small mod to feed that surface with pressurized oil.
Another source of metal.....the oil pump. Was clear the oil pump drive was hitting the oil pump housing. Machining itself.
I did not do the feeler gauge method of centering the pump.
So, can this metal get by the filter? I plugged the bypass in the pan. But filters bypass, and with the popcorn fart filters we run, you bet.
I believe I'll upgrade to a Moroso pan that accepts a real f'n oil filter with no internal bypass.
So more bearings. The new crank needs polished. It's "groovy" now.
And I might just let the machine shop assemble the short block. I can't keep this clean enough in my garage or basement.
Last laugh? The oil pump pickup was full of cat hair...…..
My disclosure.
Ron
no matter how clean you get it . if you cut the first filter open there is crap in it. with a new engine I run cheap tractor supply oil and change the hell out of it. I hate to even pull the valve covers off. as it bugs me and i'll run it a half hour and change the oil. I might be ocd about it but they seem to live. sound like you got to it early . and it is an easy fix.
I was wondering how this came out when you first said there was a problem.
Cat hair, sounds like half the rags around my house, if you dont bag them the cats will
find them and sleep on them, lol.
Cat hair, sounds like half the rags around my house, if you dont bag them the cats will
find them and sleep on them, lol.
TECH Fanatic
Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 1,002
Likes: 123
From: Mechanicsburg, PA
I was really itching to ask how your engine problem played out. Glad it was all relatively simple! Now I can't wait till spring when you start whooping on it and find the next weak link. It's nice having you do all the research for me, lol.
