|
Metal Shavings in Oil
Doing my first 500 mile oil change today on my PE 351W. I have metal shavings on the magnetic drain plug and in the oil pan.
Is this cause for major alarm (engine is getting ready to let go) or is this "normal" for a newly built engine on the first oil change? Oil pressure and temp, water temp, etc, have all been in the normal range and hasn't been over 4000 RPM during the break in period. |
Shavings or ring dust? Can you post a picture? Steel? Bronze?
Engines should break in, but "shavings" are not good at all. |
I would pull the dist. and inspect the gear as well as the gear on the cam. There have been at least a half dozen of these type engines(Ford SB) that I have seen in the last 6 mos. experience cam/dist. failures because of a mis-match of gears. My recollection is that they were using a steel gear on a cast roller cam core that had been ground to new specs. They were all from the same engine builder as yours as well.
|
Pictures
2 Attachment(s)
|
Pictures are small....are those floating on top of the oil?
That is definitely not normal. I would contact the engine builder. Do they look like steel or are they gold colored? If you want to do a little investigating before your engine builder steps in, you can pull the dizzy like Woodz recommended and look around. Also, pull the valve covers and see if anything looks amiss. |
They look like steel - the pics are of them on the oil drain pan. I will contact Jay and PE to see how they want to handle this.
|
What's up with the oil filter? Looks like it was beaten around a bit?
|
Quote:
|
[quote=rngnkr]Doing my first 500 mile oil change today on my PE 351W. I have metal shavings on the magnetic drain plug and in the oil pan.
Must be steel. John |
Quote:
|
Hopefully good news!
Finally got back from a week long business trip to D.C. last night - reminded me why we moved away from there!
Was thinking about my metal shavings all week! Went into the garage first thing this morning and cut off the top off the oil filter and pulled out the element. Checked it top to bottom, inside and out, between every fold - nothing in there but oil! I am embarrassed to say this, but I think some of the stuff I saw in the top of the drain pan was possibly little flecks of paint that came off of the oil filter as I was wrestling with it to get it off. There was some metal there (and on the magnetic drain plug), but most likely not nearly as much as I initially thought. My oil pressure is running 3 to 4 bars on a 5 bar scale, and my oil temp is completely normal. Talked to Eric at PE this morning - told him what I found. He said the pressure and temp are the indicators I need to keep an eye on. Pending further changes, I will probably change the oil again in a few hundred miles and see what, if anything, is in there. |
Quote:
|
All the more reason to run a pure power oil filter. Depending on how well the builder did cleaning the motor during assembly you will see some metal as well as gasket material in the oil. Hopefully no brass.
First oil change after the head job on my 482 I saw some aluminum as well as gasket material which the stainless screen of the pure power oil filter trapped. I then cleaned the filter out after the Cobra Bash where I did open track and the filter was much cleaner than the first oil change. |
Quote:
Not an "I told you so..." moment at all :D |
| All times are GMT -7. The time now is 09:30 PM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.0
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Search Engine Friendly URLs by vBSEO 3.6.0
The representations expressed are the representations and opinions of the clubcobra.com forum members and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and viewpoints of the site owners, moderators, Shelby American, any other replica manufacturer, Ford Motor Company. This website has been planned and developed by clubcobra.com and its forum members and should not be construed as being endorsed by Ford Motor Company, or Shelby American or any other manufacturer unless expressly noted by that entity. "Cobra" and the Cobra logo are registered trademarks for Ford Motor Co., Inc. clubcobra.com forum members agree not to post any copyrighted material unless the copyrighted material is owned by you. Although we do not and cannot review the messages posted and are not responsible for the content of any of these messages, we reserve the right to delete any message for any reason whatsoever. You remain solely responsible for the content of your messages, and you agree to indemnify and hold us harmless with respect to any claim based upon transmission of your message(s). Thank you for visiting clubcobra.com. For full policy documentation refer to the following link: