brass flakes in oil pan!

[iloveshelbys]

finally had some time to work on the car...

i installed a new water pump and i had to use a pry bar but damnet the oil pan finally came off (mechanic used alot of RTV) and YES as i thought my mechanic installed the wrong pick up tube so it wasnt all in vain!!!

but then everything turned to complete crap when i took a peek in the oil pan....

there is large flakes of metal in there!! some of the flakes looks like steel but the majority of the metal looks like brass/copper, what is brass in the engine?

i checked to see if there was any play in the rod/crank connections. there is none up/down, none forward/back, but a little side to side on all of them...is this normal??

if the brass/steel wasnt caused from a rod to crank connection then what could it be..something from the piston??

before pulling the engine apart i had a knock/raddle that seemed like it was coming from the head right above #4

what the hell is going on!

[jdawg]

mmm, no expert in engine internals here, but could be distributor drive gear

[Koreth]

Perhaps worn out wrist pin bushings? Those are made of brass I believe. Are the rods in the motor T-II rods? These rods make use of a floating wrist pin and a bushing, as opposed to the traditional pressed interference fit wrist pins.

[iloveshelbys]

yes it has t2 rods

[iloveshelbys]

is there a way to check of its from the wirst pins without taking the head off? and if it is a bad wrist pin is it possible to resize that one rod and get a wrist pin?

what bearing/bushings in the engine are "tri-metal"

[mpgmike]

The bearings (rod/main) have copper in them, then are coated with a lead/aluminum alloy called babbit. The copper/brass stuff you see could be the copper of the bearings. Secondly, the piston pin bushings in the TII engines are brass plated steel (one corner Ma Mopar cut). Even if you can find the culprit, you have similar shavings in your oil galleys and other places (where it could wind up in your oil galleys after you spend the time and money for a quick fix). I'd strongly suggest a full tear-down. If you don't want to do that, get another engine and be done with it. Nothing more dishartening than getting it back together and having the same problem 2 months later (wanna ask me how I know that feeling?!?).

mpgmike
'88 Shelby Daytona
'91 Spirit R/T
'84 Rampage

[Stevien1]

Most rod and main bearings are tri-metal. Some side-to-side movement is normal on the connecting rods. You can try and remove the #4 rod cap, push the piston up so the rod will clear the crank, then see how "tight" the wrist pin feels compaired to another cyl. The pin would've had to seize to the piston to smoke the bushing in the rod. Or if the bushing wasn't correctly sized to the pin...

-Chuck James

[turbovanman]

See your oil pickup thread for answer!

[CSXT404]

It's a brand new rebuild right? How many miles have you put on it? Have you changed the oil since the new motor was installed? Was the oil pumped primed properly before the motor was started?

I noticed on my last rebuild that it happens when you first break it in. That is why they say to change the oil in the 1st 20-30 miles, again at 150, and then at a 1000. Gets all the crap from everything getting situated during break-in.

[k-briggs]

i just had the same thing. found copperish metal flakes in my oil pan. turns out it was the rod bearings.

[Jackrabbit]

I vote for rod bearings.

Happened in my neon from oil starvation. Scored my crank pretty good to.

[bluneon]

did they look like this?








came from rod #'s 3 and 4. yes, BOTH spun really bad. there's more shrapnel in the oil pan, these were just the bigger chunks that were fused to the crank. of course #5 main was undergoing starvation...and rod #2 was also...they were both either black or at least starting to...

[iloveshelbys]

wow! ive never seen bearings that bad!

[turbovanman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iloveshelbys wow! ive never seen bearings that bad!

Hahahhaaaa, you haven't lived. Come to my shop, I got a few examples for you,

[igotaneed4speed]

i wish i had a digital camera and id show u tons of examples from all kinda of motors and sum nice TII rods that came apart...