Metal flakes in my catch can!?

Tony Conti

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I checked my catch can the other day just to make sure it wasn't getting too full and I noticed a few sparkles. Turned it a little to see the bottom and... looked like someone poured silver glitter at the bottom of it. I'm going to make an assumption that this isn't good. The engine hasn't been running weird or anything and I haven't heard any knocks or chattering. Any ideas of whats going on? The motor has 86k on it and I change the oil with full syn every 3k miles (I know that's early.)
 

07 Boss

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I change my oil every 3K too. Uh what concerns me is that that this stuff is not getting filtered out. For it to make it into your catch can I would think that it has to be an issue up on the top end of the motor. Pull your valve covers and check the valvetrain first. And it's easy.
 

Tony Conti

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Ok I'll try that, other than seeing obvious metal flakes up there is there anything, in particular, I need to look out for like are there any components I should be able to move or should nothing have any play in it?
 

Macman45

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If there are flakes in the valvetrain how should I go about cleaning them out?

..... no no no flakes mean metal wear, metal on metal damage. You need to find what is causing that. The mere existence of metal flakes aint the problem here
 

Tony Conti

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I should have mentioned that I want to find out where it's coming from but anyways, I've never noticed the flakes in the oil when I drain it so I'd assume its top end. I'm not experienced with motor work and I don't have a ton of tools. Is there anything I can visually check without the cams needing removed?
 

Juice

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I should have mentioned that I want to find out where it's coming from but anyways, I've never noticed the flakes in the oil when I drain it so I'd assume its top end. I'm not experienced with motor work and I don't have a ton of tools. Is there anything I can visually check without the cams needing removed?
Yes, the cam bearing caps. Take off ONE at a time, take a pic of the cam journal, take a pic of the bearing cap and post them.
 

Tony Conti

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Ok I bought the black ford performance valve covers the other day (before I found the metal flakes) so once those get in which should be soon I'll inspect all the caps.
 

KRS

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Just a couple of quick suggestions. Use a magnet to see if they are ferrous or non-ferrous particles. Pull your oil filter, cut it open and inspect the media for particles too.
 

Tony Conti

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Alright, replaced the valve covers last night. I did not see any metal flakes in the valvetrain and I even put a CLEAN magnet around there and didn't pick anything up... but in this video, you can see that the timing chain has what seems like a lot of play in it. Like I've said before I'm not very skilled in engine work and I don't know these 3v's very well. So I don't know if this is normal or not. I feel like it's not. Also, I bitched out on pulling the cam bearing caps. You can see some shit on the cam phaser but that fell off the old valve cover when I pulled it off. I cleaned all surfaces very well before sealing everything up.


Also a side note, with my hands I could move every single rocker arm except for two. Don't know if that's normal as well.
 
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Pentalab

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Aluminum, stainless steel, copper, won't stick to a magnet.
 

mpm_1

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Can be / can't be depending on the alloying content on the stainless. But anyway, I would not necessarily call that level of chain movement abnormal given the oil pressure fed chain tensioner is in a resting position with the engine off (so some amount of mechanical tension from the plunger ratchet back stop but not full tension without oil pressure.)

Anything in the catch can or oil filter element sticking to the magnet? I'm not discounting chain wear if you pick up steel in the flakes.

Moving most but not all of the rocker arms would make sense. Ones that are loose should be on base circle of the cam lobe (so no valve event going on) and would wiggle a bit without oil pressure pumping up the lash adjuster. Would expect a few to be somewhere on an an intake or exhaust event so on the cam lobe with rockers pressed against the lifters and more likely to feel firm.

Were the cam lobe running surfaces free of any pitting, just normal contact witness marks? I couldn't quite tell in the video (~17 to 20-ish second portion of the video.)
 

Tony Conti

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The first image is at 19sec second is at 21sec, I felt those lobes when I had the chance and they felt completely smooth.


fuck1.jpg fuck2.jpg
 

Juice

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You still have not removed a cam bearing cap. While that lobe does not.look great, it isnt that bad IMO.
 

Dino Dino Bambino

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If the cam lobes/journals/caps feel smooth without any scoring, there's no cause for concern there. If the cam followers and lash adjusters look fine, the metal flakes could have come from the timing cover.
A bad timing chain tensioner could allow the chain to slap against the cover so you might want to rule that out.
 

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