Metal in the oil

[dhirocz]

100k ago I rolled in mains and rods, among other repairs, in order to get more life out of my 871 when I repaired a flat cam. Been running fine for the most part ever since.

Today I checked the oil during my pretrip and was bummed to find metal. Not a ton of it...very small pieces of it...but I did get one noticeable flake of metal. Bummer. Oil pressure is 40-43 hot at speed, idle is around 18 hot. It did get 6 dimes last time it was apart. Whatever is causing it just started.

I guess im going to be taking it home so I can pull the VC and drop the pan...do a rod and main inspection, inspect the pump and valvetrain for the source. Ill also be doing a leakdown test (fuel mileage)and check the head again for wear.

Since this is definitely not normal, nor do I care to junk an engine, at 784k miles, is there anything I might need to pay attention to other than the obvious?

Its got @m*m^2 and frequent oil changes with gear lube as an additive. Bypass filtration with a filtermag on the full flow. Still runs normal, not noisier than usual. I keep getting intermittent low coolant alarms though the cooling system is not low/holds pressure and the wiring and sensor is new...Ive attributed that to the age of the engine. Turbo/compressor are recent and its up to date on all maintenance items.

[dhirocz]

Now Im totally stumped. I just returned to my Savannah terminal...a total of 60 miles from where I shut down...no metal. At all. Not a single speck. So im thinking (uh oh) it either:
- was 'self machining' under higher load/boost (I was loaded yesterday @ 90k, came back empty)
- the combination of the filtermag and bypass filter outpaces the rate of deposits into the oil
- it was some random junk that made its way into the oil from a long time ago
- somehow the Cummins God spoke and I pulled a Ron Jeremy today

Is this possibly a sign of a bad oil/fuel pump or some other component? If the oil is clean now, it may make failure analysis a bit harder.

[Unilevers]

how much metal? big chunks or small fine particles? pictures?

[dhirocz]

Mostly particles...very small ones. I did get one flake that was definitely metal. You could feel it by rubbing it between your fingers easier than seeing them.

And now there isnt anything. I must have pulled the dipstick 10 times lol

I didn't think to photograph it... I was mentally disturbed at that moment

[Rawze]

replace the oil filter and cut open the old one... see what is in the botom of it, take pictures.

[dhirocz]

Will do...