Bearing material in oil filter?

RangerJoe · Sep 6, 2010

OK, I bought this car about 1 1/2 months ago. It drives great, doesn't seem to be using any oil and oil pressure stays high. I have been replacing general maintenance items and fixing a few odds and ends.

I changed the oil for the first time last week and saved the oil filter. I cut it open tonight to look inside and see what might be trapped inside. I found little silver flakes throughout the oil filter. I ran a magnet along the paper element and gathered much of it up to look at it.

This is the first time I have ever cut a filter open. I saw my father-n-law do it after spinning a rod bearing, and we found copper looking flakes. I took pictures of what I found. Does this look normal?

Oh yeah, the car is a 93 5.0, but is using an 88 shortblock with factory forged pistons. This was done by the previous owner, along with a new melling oil pump. Tell me what yall think. Does this look like bearing material or maybe ring material, or is this normal to find?

Thanks in advance!

347HO · Sep 6, 2010

That's not bearing material.
I would at first think your pump is going, but you said the pressure is high, so that aint it.

How long ago (miles) was the engine rebuilt?
That fuzz looks very similar to a newly rebuilt engine that wasn't cleaned thoroughly before final assembly.

RangerJoe · Sep 6, 2010

The guy I bought the car from did not build it, it was the owner before him, so there was some information lost between owners as to what was exactly done to the car.

As far as I know, the short block wasn't rebuilt, or at least I wasn't told that it was. I was told that it was a standard bore. I am pulling the heads (gt40 irons) at the end of October in order to have them milled and clean them up. Any suggestions on to what to look for (scoring in the walls, material in the bores, etc.)?

Judging by your response, this isn't normal to find?

Thanks again. Anyone else have an opinion?

mob · Sep 6, 2010

What if its just scrapes from when u cut the filter open. What did you use to cut it?

RangerJoe · Sep 7, 2010

I used a dremel to score the can all the way around, but not all the way through. I then punched the score with a screwdriver and ripped the top of the filter off. I don't think it is filter shavings. These metal pieces were down in the filter webs.

The car has 137,000 miles on it, the short block probably more. Does this look like normal wear for an older block like this?

Thanks again.

wv109323 · Sep 8, 2010

iron in oil filter

I would not sound the alarm just yet. Is this all the metal you could get out of the filter or did you leave a lot more in the filter unrecovered?
I don't think bearing material will stick to a magnet so it is probably not from main, cam, or rod bearings. Since the pistons are aluminum it is not from them. Sources that are iron are cam/distributor gear, rocker arms/valves, wrist pins , oil pump/distributor drive shaft and possible crankshaft end play.
The question is how long (mileage) was the filter on the car? Did someone change oil and not the filter?
Did you look at the oil that was drained out ? The big particles would remain in the oil pan and not go thru the pick-up screen and oil pump to the filter. I would run the engine for three thousand miles and repeat.
I might pull the distributor and look at the distributor gear. I would run the magnet into the oil pan and see if I could get any large particles out of the oil pan.
If not run it like you stole it.
I don't think that would be an excessive amount of metal if it was a long interval between oil changes.

wv109323 · Sep 8, 2010

metal particles

I forgot to mention that I would check the end play in the crankshaft also. Metal could also come from the timing chain and gears.

RangerJoe · Sep 9, 2010

Yeah, I don't know about how long the oil had been in there. I did stick the magnet into the oil catch can and run it around. I didn't find anything in the old oil. And yes, I think I got most of the material out of the filter, there wasn't a ton more in there.

I will definitely check again after 3000 miles. The oil pump and timing chain are both new, but if the end play of the crank is out then I could see it ruining a new chain assembly. What is the correct amount of end play? Anyone know the numbers?

My rockers are aluminum, so I don't think that would be it. I also inspected them when I first bought the car because I had a little ticking from some of the rockers, but everything looked good (lifters and pushrods too).

Its a stock distributor with a new MSD rotor, cap and wires... so I am going to put my money on the distributor gears, if there is anything wrong at all. We will see what the next oil change brings.

Thanks again.

Bearing material in oil filter?

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