Health watch of motor

[91420L]

I need onother advise from you.
Every time when I get oil changed. Little amount of metal has come out with old oil. The shop I trust warned me I have to do OH in near future but I have no budget for a while. I just wonder if I install Vaccum Gauge to monitor health of motor, will I know when I MUST to do OH?
Does anyone install this part on your car for daily driver to monitor for this kind purpose?

[Barber Dave]

Seams to me your engine is giving you a very good sign that all is not well!!! I would park it untill its repared, or it will undoutedly self distruct. Then you will need to replace the entire motor instead of a rebuild. Just my 2 cents. Dave

[Joe Ricard]

Engines are made of metal, Duh you know that.
All metal parts rub together and wear no matter what oil or filter you use. I have changed my own ol since I was a young lad and have never NOT found metal particles in my oil. Just fine speckly stuff some ferous some not.
3000 mile intervals 2 Porsches 928, 914, Two VW bugs, Three Fords A few GM products, and a Toyota. NEVER blew up a motor NEVER had less than than 100,000 miles on them. Bodies usually quit. My 928 has never had a wrench to the valve covers 125,000 miles.
Now big chunky stuff is different!

[Barber Dave]

Joe; I took his post to mean there is an excess amount of metal in his oil. Not just what you would expect from normal wear and tear. Or why ask the Ques? Dave

[Bleyseng]

You could have the oil analized to see what kind of metal it is in the oil. That way you could see if it's the cam going, the bearings (lead) that kind of thing.
I bet Sammy G knows alot about this kind of stuff.....
Geoff

[anthony]

I'm curious how he's finding the metal. Magnetic drain plug?

[Bleyseng]

look at the used hot oil in the sunlight, it shouldn't have too many sparkly things in it. No you don't want your motor oil to look like it has pretty gold flakes in it.
Geoff

[Tom Perso]

I'd run a magnet thru the oil to see if you pick up the specs, then that can tell you what material it is. If the magnet picks it up, you've got camshaft problems (with a T4? ), if it just sifts thru it, it's bearing material.

A valve adjustment would be in order as well, that can help out telling if you've got a set of lifters going south.

Later,
Tom

[91420L]

The amount of metal is not too much but it sizes about 0.2 cm long, 0.2 cm wide and very thin.
I have not tried magnet test yet but assume it is from bearing.

[91420L]

by the way, how much does it cost to do OH of 2.0 FI motor in general figure?

[Zeke]

General figure= $2500.00

[Joe Ricard]

I read it twice to make sure I didn't make any assumptions. We can rad here inthe south. However I am a transplant. (ain't from around here)

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

A vacuum gauge will give you some idea of the health of the intake. It won't say squat about the bottom end. An oil pressure gauge would probably tell you more about the bottom end (esp. main bearings and oil pump).

10 PSI per 1000 RPM is what you want. If it's lower than that, start saving $2500+. Probably more, frankly, because the cylinder heads almost always need a fair amount of help....

--DD

[sammyg2]

For the record, I don't know squat about used oil analysis except for what Dion and Sons tells me. Thats the company that handles the oil samples we send out, they fax me a real pretty analysis paper for every sample and we just follow thier recommendations.
It's a no brainer, which is perfect for me :-)

I would recommend getting a sample of your used motor oil and sending it to a similar lab, they are all over the place.
They will be able to tell you what kind of metal it is, and maybe the likely source. That way we could make a more educated guess on how long it will stay together before you have to rebuild.

If it's aluminum slivers, it might have something to do with the cam gear?
babbit could be bearings, etc. cast iron could be from cylinders/rings,cam.

[91420L]

Thank you for your advise.
I may check oil pressure first.
It seems like I better start saving +$2500 to day!
Thank you again.

[Bleyseng]

Or locate a good low miles 2.0L motor for $1000 that a guy doing a six conversion is selling. See the classified ads for listings
Geoff