zeroptzero

I snapped some pictures of my oil pan after dropping it when I had the oil pressure light come on at warm idle. From what I've seen of the rod bearings I've removed none of them appear to have been capable of producing this metal. The last picture is of the three largest pieces that seem to be of a ribbon shape with a black colour on one side, silver metal colour on the other side, not the best picture but all I could get tonight before the camera died on me. All of the other metal pieces in the pan are square flat shears, the majority of the metal is silver/copper coloured.

Nutterbutter

Have you pulled the crank yet? I read your other thread and saw that you already checked the rods. It could be Mains and/or thrust bearings.

zeroptzero

That will be the next thing - to pull the crankshaft and check the mains and thrust washers, as I haven't found anything out of the ordinary on the rod bearings.

I should state that I found a pile of this same metal sitting on top of the oil pump pick up arm.

SgtB

You can check the cranks endplay real quick to check the thrust bearings. That doesn't look good at all though. Sorry man.

Slows2k

It's main bearings.

SpitfireS

Wow... this is serious!
There is enough copper there to get a couple of dollars for it.


You never noticed anything during the track day where you (we) think it happened?
The engine never held back - like hitting the rev limiter or like running out of fuel?

If this doesn't confirm the mains go first during serious oil starvation... nothing does.

zeroptzero

SgtB someone said to engage and disengage the clutch and see if the crank moves, we have done that a few times and I couldn't see any movement, but maybe that test isn't reliable for thrust washers/bearings ?. I think the three ribbon-like pieces of metal in the last picture might be the thrust washers ?, they look very different than the other pieces of metal.

Thanks Slows2k, looks like I have to work my way towards the mains.

SpitfireS, the odd thing about this whole event is I had a track day last fall in 2011. There was no funny engine stuff going on at all the car ran great, never seen an oil light or a CEL, no engine cut. I drove home after the event 2 hours on the highway and everything was good. I did get high lead and iron readings in my UOA after I dumped that oil a month later which you may remember. I have since put 1000 miles on the car and the car has driven perfect the entire time, it honestly felt like I had a brand new engine that just rolled off the lot, lots of power, very smooth, no oil burning. I never over-revved the engine.

Even during this last event all we had was the engine cut out around 8600 rpms before the limiter would come on which seemed strange so we decided to turn the car around and drive home about 2 miles. On the drive home the engine still seemed fine at lower rpms, i did notice a bit more vibration through the clutch pedal during engagement at the friction point. Having a hardtop on the car I did notice a bit more vibration in the cabin and the shifter had a small rattle to it, but it was all very slight. The engine oil light came on at the first stoplight we hit and only at idle, it would go out as soon as the rpms went over 900 rpms. When I dumped this oil I only got one metal flake in the clear drain container that I used, goes to show how much metal gets stuck in the pan during an oil change. I couldn't believe it when I dumped the pan.

Nothing about our driving or engine performance would lead me to suspect a major issue. I honestly feel the oil pump has caused this issue, but I have no proof.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I appreciate everyone's opinion.

INDYMAC

Sorry to hear this Joey. After reviewing your last two UOA's, I'd say the problem started to occur sometime between the two as evidenced by the significant Fe/Pb/Cu wear metals increase. You're just finding yourself at the final bearing failure stage right now. Not sure why the oil starvation occured...maybe you could have the pump tested when you have it out. Hopefully, the rebuild will go quickly and you'll back in your car soon!

starchland

maybe link your uoa thread. Interested in finding a group consensus for you on what went wrong

dwight

The US dollar hasn't depreciated that much yet!

But seriously, it sucks that this happened. I hope you find the root cause and get it fixed and back on the road soon.