shavings in oil, funky pressure....

siege said:

ok so I changed my oil yesterday for the first time since I put on new head gaskets and valve springs (yes I changed the oil when I did it). anyway, I was lookin at the old oil and when you stir is there is a slight copper-ish shine to it. I ran a magnet through it and get some metal shavings on it (not a lot though). my question is would this maybe be normal for the first oil change? I mean, that valve spring was beat to hell when it broke and I'm sure I got a lot of crap in there from the gaskets, etc.

also after I changed it, I'm noticing that my oil pressure is varying based on my rpms and it never used to do that. it used to just hover dead center or maybe one tick above on the stock guage, never changed with rpm. sometimes it would go below center and my rockers would start ticking. now I was driving it last night (maybe a little hard) and I noticed that at idle the pressure was one notch below center, but as I went up in rpm's the pressure would go up to center and sometimes one notch above. I put some stop-leak in with the new oil (castrol 10-w30 synthetic blend) but I highly doubt that would be the reason for this.

any suggestions? I hope its nothin really bad...I'm sick of all this car's problems. wish I had money for a 67 or an 05

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im not sure what happened before, but if there was significant trauma inside your motor, i would expect shavings to be making their way out still. at the very least, id stick a magnet around the filter to try to hold stuff there (drain pan mag is not strong enough).

your oil pressure should fluctuate with rpm. i would recommend sticking an aftermarket gauge in. my stocker is like a little kid in a candy store; it wanders [around] for no real reason. do that so you know whats up. and since i m not sure what happened before, ill stop.

good luck, siege. bump

you might think about getting a FilterMag. I put one on my brand new 4Runner, stang and the wifes' Jeep. If it can help remove that metal from the oil then you know it will cut down on the wear and tear of the engine. They are some real strong magnets that you put on your oil filter. Think of it as cheap life insurance for your engine.

siege said:

well the only trauma that happened is I broke a valve spring, but I had to limp it about a half mile my my gf's house. when I took it apart the spring was busted in a whole bunch of little pieces. so I wasn't sure it the shavings were from that or somethin else. also somethin coulda got in there from when I changed head gaskets. anyway, I'm just hopin its not from anything important. the engine was supposedly rebuilt in 2000 but it doesn't look like they did a good job.

as for the pressure, I had no idea it was really supposed to fluctuate, especially cause it just started doing it. what concerns me is that it goes low enough at idle to cause my rockers to tick.

I'll unfortunately have to wait on the new guage cause I'm dirt poor atm, but I'll see if I can find one of those filter magnets...can you find them at autozone or somethin? I was just using one of those cheap extendible magnets, swirling it around in the oil...probably not too strong...

thanks guys

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Gaslight, thanks. i knew there was a trademarked name for the magnet around the filter (thats what i tried to spit out earlier). IIRC, they are a little pricey,considering they are a magnet. i think they are mail order items, but i could be wrong (Gaslight is the one whom knows.

if there are little shavings of a spring in there, perhaps that is it. might take a couple times of flushing oil to get it all out (not good when one is hurting for money). also, use a real good filter (filter small microns) during this time. need to catch anything you can.

your oil gauge and ticking situation reminds me of honda shadow motors. they would get little shavings in the oil (factory), and the shavings would block the oil passages to the lifters. people complained of ticking at idle (just happened one day). i would recommend for people to rev the thing (rap the throttle) in riding. normally within one day, they said they heard a muffled pop of some sort, and no more ticking at idle(lifter not oil starved anymore). i have no idea if that could apply in any way, but that is what popped into my pea brain when you said it.

Siege, wish i had more ideas for you. with my limited knowledge, were it me, i would go buy two good filters and some cheap crappy oil. some guy in here swears by flushing the engine with atf. says it cleans up deposits and such. anyhow, i would maybe run something to flush it and change the oil and filter (use one that filters small microns). then again (use same filter), repeat. do all this just idleing in garage (would not drive with crap like this in the car). repeat til you think all metal is out. should be able to use the same filter for all flushings; it should have caught whatever shavings possible. then do a final change (with the second filter) and drive it.
that is what id do, but im not nearly as smart as others in this arena. good luck.

Well.. back when I had my cam, heads, and intake changed on my old motor... I suspect that my mechanic let some gasket crap, or dirt get in the oil pan... because right after i got the car back, the oil pressure was real lazy... seemed fine on the stock gauge, but my autometer would register 10psi at idle, and would shoot up slowly when I revved it...

A day later, I blew the oil filter off, and lost all my oil about a block from the house... Luckly I shut it off in time, and didn't damage the bearings (at least not a lot)... After putting on another filter, and repeating the oil loss problem... We figured out the pressure valve got stuck in the oil pump (probably from debris), and it was sticking... We ended up pulling the pan, and changing the pump and screen..... and everything was good again...

Just somthing to think about... Also, even if you have to buy a cheapo gauge from Pepgirls... get a mechanical gauge to check the actual pressure... because my stock gauge would read normal pressure from 10PSI-60PSI... not very accurate...

If you do a search on the internet for rare earth element magnets, those should work, i mean they have enough strength to break a finger between 2. The best part is they arent even expensive, im talkin like a buck or under. If you get a few, i dont see why it should work any different than that patented thingy.

i'm having a similar problem in my 5.0 , the stock oil guage fluctuates all over the place but i dont notice any difference in the engine, could this just be a problem with the stock guage? any help would be greatly appreciated