pieces of debris in motor oil = a very bad thing?

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bigcletus94

Registered User
I changed my oil today (3k mile mark) and my catch bucket had chunks in the bottom of it like very small gravel. This can't be good. Last time this happened my motor spun the crank bearings. This new motor from ford has 18k miles on it now...could the bearings be going out again?? Or is it normal to find junk in your oil? Thanks for any help.
 
bigcletus94 said:
Why does my SC always take a **** on me!? What would cause this?
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Are you sure its bearing material?

Could it just be some debri off the bottom the car when you changed the oil? I had some stuff in the bottom of the oil drain pan earlier this year that scared me.

Look at it real close. You could take a high resolution digital picture and zoom in on it.

Are SC drain plugs magnetic? And if so would bearing material stick to it?
 
oil3.jpg


The bucket was squeaky clean before the oil dropped into it. I had this same crap on my last oil change and wanted to make sure my bucket was spotless this time to rule out anything that might have already been in there.

Looks like its just a matter of time now until the motor blows again. What a piece of ****.
 
Not that it will help this late in the game, but everyone should install a magnetic drain plug in their SC. It is a M14-1.50 thread size. If you can't find them locally, let me know, I have a bunch in stock.

Paul
 
It does look like bearing material. Paul. What usually brings on this type of damage?
 
wezar said:
What usually brings on this type of damage?
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They could have been left over from the core engine if it wasnt properly cleaned or caused low oil pressure to an area promoting acellerated wear. Hard to tell on that one without knowing the oil pressure. What color are the particles and are they ferrous? I think Steve Webb or Dave Dalke would be better at speculating a cause than I, I do not have enough experience with engine failures to give a fair diagnosis. I will say though that my limited experience indicates those particles look just like those I found on my magnetic drain plug on the first motor which were from the camshaft lobes.

Paul
 
sure way to tell

when you change your oil run it threw a paint strainer and look for metal or brassy looking chunks,I think what your finding is small pieces of gasket material and such from assembly.pick up a piece of it and sqeuze it it it flatens out or falls apart you know it aint bearing material.
Vetteman
 
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It's way to hard to tell from the picture. Take the residue and rinse it thoroughly with some paint thinner or solvent and then spread it out on some paper. Then you will be able to tell what it is.
 
From a couple of the particles I brushed off they look greenish. I tried to stick a magnet on them but they don't appear to be magnetic. I will try and clean some up better so I can post a pic of a clean piece. I am looking for a new car though. :(
 
You aren't running a fram or other poor equivalent oil filter are you? Could it be a BS oil filter falling apart? Just some food for thought, being there was that oil filter study done some time ago.
 
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