Last Lemming

Oh dear oh dear, I think I may have a problem! The previous owner put new rod bearings in I would say no more than 1500 miles ago maybe 2000. Over the last couple oil changes which probably spans 500 miles I've noticed at the bottom of the pan after the oil is dumped out brass or gold colored glitter far too small to have any actual dimension more like points of light, though there was one piece that was maybe a millimeter long and about a 10th of a mm wide that looked like a flake. The second oil change has less glitter than the first time then the first but that could just be luck. Then there is that bothersome flake that keeps coming back to haunt me. I have collected some of the oil and will be sending it to Blackstone. Now what I don't know is if the glitter is from the new rod bearing installation gone wrong or something else. The previous owner said he put new rod bearings in for preventative reasons not because something had gone wrong. I have no reason to suspect he is lying since he is an indirect friend of mine. The question is what should I do?

My thought was if the analysis comes back showing bearing wear in excess of what there should be I would drop the oil pan and take a look at the rod bearings. However there is no guarantee if the rod bearings are bad but the source of the damage is from bad installation. It could be something else is wrong. So then there is the conundrum of do I rebuild the whole engine. Which I do not really have the money for.

But the first issue would be looking at the rod bearings. My question is this - I have read the procedure for removing the oil pan and it seems you have to take off the A-arms the ball joint and the tire rods. My question is can you not leave the A-arm on and ball joint connected and still drop the crossmember with it all attached, or do you have to remove the A-Arm? The reason I ask is it is hard to get an alignment around here meant to mention if I can avoid having to take it all apart that would save me some valuable time.

I don't put a lot of miles on this car maybe three or 400 a year is all I can seem to put and my old pressure seems to be the same every single time I drive as well I don't notice any dropping pressure. So I'm not sure with only that much mileage on the car it would be enough for the pressure to start dropping.

I've also ordered a filter cutter so I can open up the filter and take a look. The last time I opened up the filter there weren't any precivible glitter or flakes and my wife is still trying to figure out why the can opener doesn't work well anymore. I'll post what I find when I open up the current filter.

mytrplseven

The cross member and the steering rack can be dropped to make room for the oil pan to be removed. Be careful to pull the oil low sensor probe from the side of the pan first and carefully lower the pan while guiding it around the oil pickup tube. While you're in there check the oil pickup for cracks around the mounting on the block.

Pizpot

Some glitter is normal when breaking in new bearings, and it is normal that it will reduce in quantity over the first couple of oil changes. Flakes are worrisome though could be a remnant from before the previous bearing replacement.

I would definitely cut open the filter and inspect for flakes, but I wouldn't rush to pull the pan unless some loss of oil pressure is noted or the filter is full of debris. I'd continue putting some miles/hours on the engine, and do a couple of early oil/filter changes and see if the glitter continues to reduce.

Last Lemming

Ok, I just cut open the filter and there was zero glitter. Even in full noon sunlight. Nothing I could see at all.

However, I did notice that there were small granule black "rocklike" looking material at the bottom of the pan I drained the oil in. They were very small, bigger than a pinpoint but smaller than the point of a ball point pen. There were about 20 of them at the most. They are not attracted to magnets and under a 60x loop they look like little rocks - though I'm not sure they are rocks at all.

My only thought as to where they came from might be form the "stop leak" the previous owner (or one before him) used. I found evidence of similar granules in the radiator hose a year or so ago. Could it be possible that this golden glitter that I see comes from a "stop leak" product that made its way into the oil from a faulty head gasket? The car has records of a faulty head gasket and a resurfacing and valve job from the head gasket leak.

Pizpot

I don't think I've ever seen glitter as a byproduct of an additive. Glitter is usually from the tin or aluminum top coating of the bearing shell; in an engine which has had rod bearings replaced without resizing of the rod you'll usually see it shed some coating near the parting of the big end due to major or minor distortion. It may not be bad enough to represent an actual problem.

Glitter might also be coming from the mains, specifically from the thrust surfaces. This is pretty normal. You could check the crank for endplay; if it's really bad you'll be able to detect it simply by pushing/pulling on the crank pulley by hand.

The little rock things might well be from an additive, or could be chunks of dessicated gasket, gasket sealer, valve stem seal, etc. The oil was clean in color when drained, right?

Humboldtgrin

Take off the oil pan and check. Better safe then sorry. Hang the engine a take off the cross member to get the oil pan off.

Last Lemming

The oil was clean in color. However I have looked at this oil from the bottom of the pan in a microscope and the word "clean" wouldn't be the first word that comes to mind. Lots of little bitty things but I can't really tell you what they are. The reason I thought stop leak was I saw a lot of pictures online where they have a gold or copper color to them.

Humboldgrin: while I have all the tools and capability to do this work I don't want to go through it all just to find the bearings are fine. Then what? I'll then need to pull the engine just find the actual culprit. Mains? Turbo bearings? Thrust bearing? I don't drive the car many miles and if it just ends up something "normal" then I would've taken it all apart and had to put it back for nothing which is a lot of time I don't really have right now. And it runs fine And the oil pressure is fine so I don't want to go through all the work for nothing.

I'm certainly going to wait for the sample to be looked at by Blackstone. If it comes back saying catastrophic bearing failure, then fine I'll pull the engine if, it comes back somewhere in between then I'll have to rethink. If it comes back normal or just above normal wear then I suppose I'll just leave it alone.

Last Lemming

Do you need to remove the A-arms and disconnect the tie rods for this?

Last Lemming

So I got my report from Blackstone. Seems my aluminum count is a little above normal, but nothing sticks out. They say to drive it more and then do another lab report. I figure the higher than normal aluminum count is probably due to the few miles and many cold starts relative to the miles that probably account for that.

So I'll put some new oil and filter on and charge on

Pizpot

Good to hear. Agree with your assessment on miles vs. cold starts.

I'll bet you a coke that your next lab test shows a further reduction in wear metals.

Dougs951S

As stated above, it sounds like normal break in for new bearings, "glitter" isnt exactly the word I'd use to describe the break in but higher than normal amounts of wear metals are definitely to be expected for at least 1000 miles and a "sheen" to the oil that is not normally present in a broken in engine is also par for the course. I'd guess you are ok.