Metal in oil

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Fittrjoe

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360 LA crate motor mild cam, 9:1 Pistons / 67 Barracuda driver. Motor has 17,000 miles
I do about 2500 miles a year so I change oil yearly in November. I use Amsoil Z-Rod 10-30 / Filter is 21 micron WIX 51515
Second year since I added Magnetic Oil Plug and I’m getting fine powder paste on plug. Cut open filter and nothing really major stands out.
I’ve decided now to do 2 oil changes per year as a precaution.
Color of “ FUZZ” is gray not Bronze
Anything I can do proactively?
Is this normal Cam wear?
Oil pressure is very good at 60-80
Compression across all 8 cylinders is 165- 180
Pics of oil plugs are Nov 2023 and Nov 2024
Motor runs strong
What gives ? Normal ?
Kinda glad for the Magnet oil plug … I’d rather know.

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That looks like a lot to me. Brass i dont think is magnetic so the magnet won't help for that. Pull valve covers? Intake? So you can chk out a lobes?
Run your drained oil thru a coffee filter.
 
Tolerances may have been a bit tight when it was built on all of the bearings and that is the result. Drain the oil through a white paper coffee filter with a magnet to see of there is anything there. If still runs good and holds good oil pressure, drive it like it's stolen. LOL
 
I would ditch the amzoil and go with Rotella T4 10w 30 and add in a bottle of Zinc Additive to help save the wear on the cam.

Flat Tappet cam engines need the extra zinc additives even after breaking in the cam.

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Your metal on the drain plug is more than likely coming from the cam lobes and lifter faces, working against each other.

Not running zinc and higher lift cam and higher pressure double valve springs are putting the cam wear and lifters to the test.

Knowing you have an issue, I would swap out the high pressure valve springs to the new lighter pressure single coil valve springs. As long as you are not winding it up over 5,000 rpm on a regular basis you will be fine.

Reduce some pressure on the valve train and use the zinc additive until your oil cleans up and no metal is showing up on the magnetic drain plug.

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PS:
If you want to run it with 1 valve cover off at a time at a slow idle, watch to see that every pushrod is still spinning.

If they are no longer spinning, that tells you the angle high point of the cam lobe and the crowned face of the lifters are wearing down, no longer being able to spin the lifters and push rods.

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George Jets said:
Your metal on the drain plug is more than likely coming from the cam lobes and lifter faces, working against each other.

Not running zinc and higher lift cam and higher pressure double valve springs are putting the cam wear and lifters to the test.

Knowing you have an issue, I would swap out the high pressure valve springs to the new lighter pressure single coil valve springs. As long as you are not winding it up over 5,000 rpm on a regular basis you will be fine.

Reduce some pressure on the valve train and use the zinc additive until your oil cleans up and no metal is showing up on the magnetic drain plug.

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He is running zinc in the oil he's running. The Z-Rod oil is quality stuff.
 
High tension rings or inproper end gap wearing the bore. Common on most fresh builds. It should get better but you will always have some ring and cylinder wear with no lead in the fuel.
 
I agree about the rings. They are the single biggest source of friction in the engine. It can sometimes take 3000-4000 miles for them to completely break in, so what you're seeing on the drain plug "could" be normal. I would say if it does not slack up in the next two oil changes, you may have a problem.
 
Add "Prolong" engine oil treatment after the 5000 miles of break in. You'll see a big difference in performance and the wear will stop.

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George Jets said:
Your metal on the drain plug is more than likely coming from the cam lobes and lifter faces, working against each other.

Not running zinc and higher lift cam and higher pressure double valve springs are putting the cam wear and lifters to the test.

Knowing you have an issue, I would swap out the high pressure valve springs to the new lighter pressure single coil valve springs. As long as you are not winding it up over 5,000 rpm on a regular basis you will be fine.

Reduce some pressure on the valve train and use the zinc additive until your oil cleans up and no metal is showing up on the magnetic drain plug.

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Thanks for this advice on the valve springs
Z-ROD Amsoil has plenty of Zinc however.
But you may be on to something
 
Fittrjoe said:
360 LA crate motor mild cam, 9:1 Pistons / 67 Barracuda driver. Motor has 17,000 miles
I do about 2500 miles a year so I change oil yearly in November. I use Amsoil Z-Rod 10-30 / Filter is 21 micron WIX 51515
Second year since I added Magnetic Oil Plug and I’m getting fine powder paste on plug. Cut open filter and nothing really major stands out.
I’ve decided now to do 2 oil changes per year as a precaution.
Color of “ FUZZ” is gray not Bronze
Anything I can do proactively?
Is this normal Cam wear?
Oil pressure is very good at 60-80
Compression across all 8 cylinders is 165- 180
Pics of oil plugs are Nov 2023 and Nov 2024
Motor runs strong
What gives ? Normal ?
Kinda glad for the Magnet oil plug … I’d rather know.

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Click to expand...

How do you drive the car? What's your standard procedure for warming it up? Does it get driven much at constant speed on the highway or mostly around town? Short or long trips? And do you generally drive it hard winding it out with heavy throttle (after warmed up of course) or more putt-putting around?

Makes me want to get a mag drain plug for all my cars tbh, they all have high-mileage engines that are maintained well but get driven hard.
 
Fittrjoe said:
Yes
Thanks
Click to expand...
David Vizard on his YouTube channel has an interesting video on oil changes I would recommend you watch. It was eye opening for me. And yes, stick with the z rod oil, best money can buy.

I’m not familiar with prolong, but OMM has a highly respected reputation around this forum.
 
MopaR&D said:
How do you drive the car? What's your standard procedure for warming it up? Does it get driven much at constant speed on the highway or mostly around town? Short or long trips? And do you generally drive it hard winding it out with heavy throttle (after warmed up of course) or more putt-putting around?

Makes me want to get a mag drain plug for all my cars tbh, they all have high-mileage engines that are maintained well but get driven hard.
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I would call my driving spirited
Once in a while I get on it hard but mostly baby it
I use an oil pan heater when below 60 degrees to warm oil
Mostly trips under 10 miles with a good 2-3 minutes warm up in drive way at idle
I’m 67 and pretty conservative driver
Never heavy throttle over 3500 RPMs
Occasional highway use ( has nice 3:21 rear )
I mean I don’t abuse this thing at all
 
Fittrjoe said:
I would call my driving spirited
Once in a while I get on it hard but mostly baby it
I use an oil pan heater when below 60 degrees to warm oil
Mostly trips under 10 miles with a good 2-3 minutes warm up in drive way at idle
I’m 67 and pretty conservative driver
Never heavy throttle over 3500 RPMs
Occasional highway use ( has nice 3:21 rear )
I mean I don’t abuse this thing at all
Click to expand...
Best if you don’t let it idle, as soon as you get oil pressure it’s best to keep it in the 2000 rpm range as that is where you get the best lubrication to your bearings. It’s also best to avoid short drives as you need to heat the oil to rid it of moisture and water. Moisture kills oil and wrecks engines. Heat cycling kills oil. I have had my oil tested to tell when to change it acouple of times to give me the longevity of it’s life. This was in my daily driver, 40 minutes to work each way. Testing lab results indicated oil change intervals with Amsoil was 15-18k the way I was driving.
 
↑↑↑↑ idling then 10 mile drive isn't doing any favors. You will get fuel dilution and moisture in your oil. The engine has to get the oil up to temp to boil out the water and fuel. Otherwise you might as well save your money on the good oil. We cut the oil filters at work after dyno runs. I commented a while back, I should cut my filter next time. The engineering manager said NO! you will likely never trust your truck again!
 
Duly Noted on the Idling and short trips guys. I know moisture and fuel in Oil are killers
It’s hard to NOT drive it
Ok I’ll make sure she gets more long highway cruises too.

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I wouldn’t call that normal wear and tear at all.
I don’t know exactly where it’s coming from, but if that’s from the most recent change I’d be nervous.

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Last edited:
Some things from this thread.

Do not use diesel oils in gas engines. That's just wrong.

If you have to add something to your oil to make it better, buy a better oil. You do not have a clue what you are changing to the parent oil when you do that.

What may look good initially can come back and bite you in the ***.

If it takes more than 10 minutes of driving to seat the rings you need to find a better machine shop. This bullshit of thousand mile plus break in is piss poor machining.

If I found that on my drain plug or in my filter I'd pull the engine and see what's wrong before it went any further.
 
My questions...


Motor has 17,000 miles on per OP. What has changed?? Was it like this last change? What would be wearing out so long after the build? Did it sit for a long time? Is it diluted oil?
 
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