Spartan

I saw that before a few years ago. Since then the car has been tracked heavily and when I pulled and tore down the motor this winter the bearings were in great shape (other than the oil input shaft bearing which is normal).

Change your oil to make yourself feel better, blackstone for more relief, then go on enjoying your turbo

Quadcammer

yup. They look identical to the OP's pics as well as the other ones that i found during a search.

I don't bother with the dipstick anymore, but when i first saw that my heart sank.

btw, I just realized I never responded to your PM...my bad.

uicnick

Interesting, I found those exact same gold colored flakes after I bought my car 2 years ago and immediately drained the oil. Of course I freaked out but the fact was my oil pressure was good I assumed it wasn't an immediate issue. When I drained the oil, I didn't notice the gold flaking in the oil but it might have been too dirty to see. Anyway, I haven't seen the flakes since, I just assume something was wearing and after monitoring I haven't noticed them so i'm going to keep driving it until I have the opportunity to pull the motor and rebuild my cylinder heads, then i'll take a look at the bearings.

Mike J

Its likely the dipstick rubbing inside the access tube - when the dipstick goes in, it has a curve that follows the tube, and if its not rotated the right way I can see it dragging hard on the tube. However, in 20+ years of 911 ownership and servicing, and checking the oil on lots of 993's, I have never seen this. Weird, maybe I need stronger glasses!

cheers,

Mike

wagongotya

doubt the CEL is related to the oil concerns. I would address them each separately...CEL's are typically ignition related not mechanical.

PAULUNM

I don't believe the 993tt has a cartridge style filter like the 996tt, but you can still cut the filter open (just more difficult), and look for metal shavings in the filter.

If it were me, I'd do that and a Blackstone- but it's probably nothing.

Mike J

its got the usual 993 dual filters - metal canister type. Looking into the filter is a good idea.

Burkey

Would bet on the dipstick tube, I would change the oil and have it tested. Had the same issue unfortunately it was worse, 2 valve guides dropped which are brass, if it continues you may want to do a compression test. I am putting my engine back in this weekend.

PiB993

Got my lab work back. Oil had high copper and lead. So I guess I will just watch this space and do another analysis after 1-2k miles. My mechanic didn't see any problems with the filters, oil, etc. Like I said I had been running California Sunoco 100 in it - there shouldn't be any lead in that (?). So maybe copper and lead are in bronze or maybe the engine is still bedding in at 11,000 miles.

Mike J

You can do a base test on the clean oil to get a baseline to compare against.

I really doubt if the dipstick rubbed enough material off its guide tube to cause your oil analysis to be that far off. I have not personally seen any 993 have this issue, and I have checked the oil on dozens of different cars, but others on this list have. It would be interesting to see if any of them have seen the same readings you are seeing.

Not a positive message I am afraid.

Cheers,

Mike

PiB993

Yeah. The dip stick issue (photo) is likely completely different than the oil lab results (yet again a la check engine code). I need to read some more on valve guides and the engine cover deal . . . I'm not too worried yet. Here are the actual numbers mine/universal averages - ppm?

copper 39/23

lead 29/12

Kein_Ersatz

One data point:
'96 TT 39K / 2.5K on Swepco T609 - Blackstone
(measured - unit avg - universal avg)
Copper 10 - 10 - 17
Lead 12 - 12 - 5 (Techron flush before oil change)

Mike J

That is interesting, I use Blackstone, only have done one change so far (one is in the next month), so I only have one date point, but my universal average is different than of yours. Not sure why.

97 TT 50K, first change when I bought it, Mobile 1

Copper 13 universal average 21
Lead 8 universal average 10

Are there any other elements out of range?

Cheers,

Mike

PiB993

Universal averages might vary based on amount of miles driven on the oil among other things? That would be a pretty sophisticated data repository they have. I noticed my universal values are different than all of yours too.

Texas993

You mentioned running 100 Octane fuel, then the Blackstone report mentions high octane. Why don't you run 91 /93?