Cut my oil filter open and removed the pleated paper element. It is full of what looks like aluminium flakes. How to proceed from here? I'm thinking pull the pan and inspect. Advise please.

 

pictures are not great so her is another hopefully someone has seen this type of debris in a filter before and can advise wher to look for problems

 

What did you use to open up the filter like that?

 

Justaguy
That looks BETTER than mine....from what I understand when the metal is silver in color it is still in the "bearing" surface of the rod beaing...once it gets down to the gold-copper the bearing is all gone and now its eating the backing plate...like mine is.....

It looks like if you just change the rod bearings and clean things up you'll be okay....

Also what type of tires are you running...if you are a full street weight 928 on street tires the amount of G forces you generate is far lower, which is easier on the bearings.... Since full track setup race 928's can pull well over 1G in turns

 

What car is this from, your track 10 times a year 928?

that doesnt look good. if those are pieces of metal, then something is terribly wrong inside. good to know what the material is first. eitherway, the motor has to come out if it is not magnetic.

when i pull a filter and cut it open to look, nothing is in the filter but faint blackish carbon type coloring. Not really any thing metal or shiney.

 

from my Iphone g meter, looks like i was over 1.4g lateral and near that under braking.

mk

 

I crush the top from every direction using a vice, then you can usually pull up the tabs holding down the center piece with a screw driver. Once those are up, you can pull out the guts, spread out the filter element.

A lot of people use a hack saw, which is a good way to fill the filter full of metal flakes from the saw debris

 

MK
1.4g sounds about right......since I saw 1.18g peak in my stock 928.......

 

Thats a good idea. I use the hacksaw method. It pollutes the edge, but the bulk is left un molested with chips. that way, if I ever see chips, I can blame them on the hack saw and continue to live in denial.
Seriously, ive seen nothing but some very faint shiney stuff on the very first oil change of the new motor, and nothing after the second oil change. the holbert oil changes with filter cuts showed nothing at all. clean as a whistle. couldnt even tell which side was doing the filtering!

mk

 

Material is none magnetic so I assume its aluminium.Hopefully from either rod or cam bearing and not the block.

I am a machinist so I just put the filter in a lathe and cut the top off with a parting blade. You can buy a hand held tool that will do the same thing but I dont have one. My wife has a battery operated can opener that runs around the rim and cuts the top off on the side below the rim which would work perfect ...................................but she wouldn't let me use it on the oil filter

I am running Michelin PS2's 265 18 front and 315 19 on the rear dont know what g I am pulling with these tires but youre right its way more than what the stock tires could produce. I had a hard time keeping the car pointed in the right direction with the stock tires fun to drive though and found the limit at a lot slower speed. Safe learing tool in my opinion. Also I seem to catch a lot of guys under braking it appears that I brake later and harder than a lot of the guys I run with. Dont think that would effect the motor just that the big boots have a lot of grip

I have the car booked in to eurasia they quoted me 12 hrs to R&R the base pan as well as the valve covers. I could do it my self but dont have the time and the season is upon us Also if extensive work is required they are the right guys for the job. Hope fully I will only need to to re-bearing the rods.I will know more once I see inside
Thanks for the replys

 

You're done, too. Pull the pan.

 

I hope it is just rod bearing babbit, if it is coming from the cams, they are done short of line boring the the heads where the cams ride.

Bottom line, if you have metal in the filter, there is a problem some where.

 

Damn.

 

I know there is a problem just hopeing for the best. Pan & Cam covers will be off next week and I will post the findings.

 

A little off topic; is oil temp or pressure a better/sooner indicator of problems? I assume you want both indicators. Coolant temp seemed to be a slow indicator when I blew my head gasket at the track (temp was in the lower middle part of the gauge).

I too have heard the LS1 can spin rod bearings at the track.

Tony