mightyohm
Donation Time
How normal is it to have fine metal dust and some small shavings or glitter in the oil during break-in of a rebuilt motor?
I changed the oil after the 20 minute cam breakin, and a trip around the block, and noticed a few fine shavings in the oil. Then I opened up the oil filter with a filter cutter to look inside.. The oil inside the filter had a surprising amount of fine metal dust and very small shavings inside, and there was some fine glitter on the paper element. No big piles or big chunks, mind you, but far more than the "zero metal" I was hoping to see!
The "dust" is definitely magnetic, while most of the silver colored glitter is non magnetic.
I changed the oil again after 100 miles, and still had some "glitter" but seemed better.
I'm using Brad Penn 30W breakin oil, which is supposedly made for breaking in flat tappet engines.
Concerned that the cam might not have broken in correctly, I pulled out the tappets and didn't see any major issues with the lifters or the cam lobes. There are some minor swirl marks on the lifter faces, but this is very similar to what I've seen previously. No obvious issues with the cam.
I've done some research online, and folks seem to be split between "some dust and fine shavings are normal" and "no metal at all is normal".
How normal is this?
I changed the oil after the 20 minute cam breakin, and a trip around the block, and noticed a few fine shavings in the oil. Then I opened up the oil filter with a filter cutter to look inside.. The oil inside the filter had a surprising amount of fine metal dust and very small shavings inside, and there was some fine glitter on the paper element. No big piles or big chunks, mind you, but far more than the "zero metal" I was hoping to see!
The "dust" is definitely magnetic, while most of the silver colored glitter is non magnetic.
I changed the oil again after 100 miles, and still had some "glitter" but seemed better.
I'm using Brad Penn 30W breakin oil, which is supposedly made for breaking in flat tappet engines.
Concerned that the cam might not have broken in correctly, I pulled out the tappets and didn't see any major issues with the lifters or the cam lobes. There are some minor swirl marks on the lifter faces, but this is very similar to what I've seen previously. No obvious issues with the cam.
I've done some research online, and folks seem to be split between "some dust and fine shavings are normal" and "no metal at all is normal".
How normal is this?