Metal in the oil? Anyone know?
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Dec 2003
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Metal in the oil? Anyone know? I bought a 2000 ss about 3 months ago ith basically boltons and a mid size cam. The mods were installed about 3k-8k miles ago by the previous owner.
When I picked up the car, it had a fresh oil change, everything looked fine, but I didn't really look extra close at it. I checked the oil when I got home (after about a 75 mile drive) and I could see small shiny metallic flakes in the oil that I wiped from the dipstick. I re-dipped it, and out came a few more metallic flakes. An old man with far-sighted eyes may have missed this, but I can see them pretty well. They are made of iron or steel, because they are attracted to magnets. Now after 250 miles, they are still in there, obviously not getting picked up the oil filter, or something is continuing to wear funny.
The car has excellent oil pressure, 50-60psi @ idle when cold, 38-40psi @ idle fully warm, and 55-60psi @ WOT fully warm.
I am going to drain the oil tonight to see how much metal I'm dealing with, but is this even normal?
When I picked up the car, it had a fresh oil change, everything looked fine, but I didn't really look extra close at it. I checked the oil when I got home (after about a 75 mile drive) and I could see small shiny metallic flakes in the oil that I wiped from the dipstick. I re-dipped it, and out came a few more metallic flakes. An old man with far-sighted eyes may have missed this, but I can see them pretty well. They are made of iron or steel, because they are attracted to magnets. Now after 250 miles, they are still in there, obviously not getting picked up the oil filter, or something is continuing to wear funny.
The car has excellent oil pressure, 50-60psi @ idle when cold, 38-40psi @ idle fully warm, and 55-60psi @ WOT fully warm.
I am going to drain the oil tonight to see how much metal I'm dealing with, but is this even normal?
It is not normal. You should never see metallic flakes in your oil. There is a problem somewhere that needs to be addressed soon. My car has almost 97k miles & has never had any metallic material in the oil & neither has anyone else I know unless there was a problem.
I would buy one of thoses magnetic wraps for the oil filter and at least try to get the most of the metal out of the oil. After you change the oil again you can get a better idea of how much metals getting in there.The thing I'm talking about look about like a beer can cooler and it wraps around your oil filter and is magnetic to trap the metal. Their reusable too!
I would pull the filter off and cut around the top check that and your oil with a magnet. I had my engine do that last week.. and not to get you pissed off just yet but I ruined all my lifters and chewed my cam, havent seen my crank yet.
but good luck.
but good luck.
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USUALLY.....when there are very fine amounts of metal, like a paste or very small flecks, the problem has been ongoing.....if theres bigger chunks it usually means something traumatic has happened pretty fast
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Dec 2003
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I changed the oil last night and checked the drain plug. Looked like a fine metallic powder all over the tip of the drain plug, and one long sliver sitting in the grooves of the plug. My next step is to cut open the filter and see whats in there, should be able to do that this afternoon.
About the nitrous, he said he never sprayed it.
See if this plan makes sense:
Pull the valve covers and see if theres anything obvious under there, like a bent pushrod or broken valve spring. If not, do a compression test to make sure I'm working with a good motor. If that checks out, pull the cam, heads, and lifters. Replace cam and lifters if bad, then get the heads milled to ~11:1 and get some minor port work if cheap. Maybe $800 for everything?
About the nitrous, he said he never sprayed it.
See if this plan makes sense:
Pull the valve covers and see if theres anything obvious under there, like a bent pushrod or broken valve spring. If not, do a compression test to make sure I'm working with a good motor. If that checks out, pull the cam, heads, and lifters. Replace cam and lifters if bad, then get the heads milled to ~11:1 and get some minor port work if cheap. Maybe $800 for everything?
Originally Posted by juiced_lt1
See if this plan makes sense:
Pull the valve covers and see if theres anything obvious under there, like a bent pushrod or broken valve spring. If not, do a compression test to make sure I'm working with a good motor. If that checks out, pull the cam, heads, and lifters. Replace cam and lifters if bad, then get the heads milled to ~11:1 and get some minor port work if cheap. Maybe $800 for everything?
Pull the valve covers and see if theres anything obvious under there, like a bent pushrod or broken valve spring. If not, do a compression test to make sure I'm working with a good motor. If that checks out, pull the cam, heads, and lifters. Replace cam and lifters if bad, then get the heads milled to ~11:1 and get some minor port work if cheap. Maybe $800 for everything?
Thread Starter
Teching In
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Well, if the cam, lifters, cam bearings, etc etc ARE good, then the next obvious place to check would be the bottom end. I might as well get those things freshened up while they are off though.
I took it to a local speed shop this afternoon and had them listen to the motor. They said the only noise they hear is normal valvetrain noise for a cam this size and a small header/exhaust leak. I'm bringing them my old oil filter to cut open, hopefully that will tell me more...
I took it to a local speed shop this afternoon and had them listen to the motor. They said the only noise they hear is normal valvetrain noise for a cam this size and a small header/exhaust leak. I'm bringing them my old oil filter to cut open, hopefully that will tell me more...
Thread Starter
Teching In
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Well, I ended up cutting that old filter open myself, couldn't take the suspense of waiting till today. I expected to see LOTS of glitter. Instead I saw, well, not much of anything, just a little bit of black specs (carbon most likely), but no visible 'glitter', or at least if there was some, I couldn't tell.
Maybe nothing is really wrong, and the light film of metal on the tip of the drain plug meant nothing, and the little glitter things that used to be on the end of the oil stick was a fluke. That would make my day.
Maybe nothing is really wrong, and the light film of metal on the tip of the drain plug meant nothing, and the little glitter things that used to be on the end of the oil stick was a fluke. That would make my day.