Should I be worried?

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I made a thread about this a few months ago, I was super worried when I changed my oil after cam break in. It looked pretty much like yours, and I had a little bit of crap on my magnetic drain plug. First oil change I had about 4-5 little slivers (really tiny pieces of crap) in the oil filter, next oil change the oil was better but still kinda dirty, oil filter had 1-2 slivers and my last oil change looked really good, the oil was fairly clean and the inside of the oil filter looked brand new. What I was told on here and by my machine shop was that most of the glitter is from the rings seating and many other things seating. The colour is also caused by ARP bolt lube, cam lube and whatever other lube was used inside the engine. For my motor I had used a whole bunch of ARP bolt lube, it took a while for that to clean out. I remember after the second oil change I still had some on the head bolts under the valve covers.

I went to my machine shop and asked him about it, he told me that as long as it clears up and oil pressure doesn't change there shouldn't be a problem. Now if you keep getting pieces of metal or they seem to become more apparent, and if oil pressure starts to drop I would be worried.

Currently my motor has about 2000 miles on it, oil pressure has been completely consistent and it runs like a champ! I have still been adding a zinc additive as well just to be safe.
 
This is what mine looked like after my first oil change. Nothing to worry about from what I gather...as long as it clears up, which mine did, and I'm sure that yours will too.
 

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Change the oil, put a GOOD filter on it and run hell out of it.
 
RustyRatRod said:
Change the oil, put a GOOD filter on it and run hell out of it.
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x2 , run it hard . I beat the crap out of my engines from the start , Terry Zeke Maxwell built my first high perf engine and that's what he told me to do , put 190,000 hard miles on it and it still ran great when I sold it
 
I broke the cam in then ran it through some heat cycles. Took it out and beat on it. I didn't like the way it ran so I bumped the timing then took it to the track. A few of those 20 miles was making passes.

The car ran great. A little slower then I anticipated but I can get to my goal with some tuning and maybe a new fuel pump and ignition.
 
doogievlg said:
I broke the cam in then ran it through some heat cycles. Took it out and beat on it. I didn't like the way it ran so I bumped the timing then took it to the track. A few of those 20 miles was making passes. The car ran great. A little slower then I anticipated but I can get to my goal with some tuning and maybe a new fuel pump and ignition.
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Doogie since your asking opinions here's mine. It looks like zinc additive to me. I don't know what additives you used but your oil is the color of used oil with zinc additive.

Dan
 
Thanks dan. I just used conventional oil with the Lucas zinc additive. Next time I am at the shop I'll put the oil pressure guage on it and see how that looks.

I don't remember off hand but I am pretty sure I had around 60 psi when the motor first got started. I have everything written down back at the shop.
 
Old thread but one that is worth reviving.
Fresh rebuild on a 440-495. I just drained the oil and pulled the pan to fix a rear main leak and noticed the silver-gray shimmer in the oil. I always worry about cam and lifter failures so this had me worried. I used Driven Hot Rod oil, 10 w 40 and NO additives since recent reports have shown that it is best to just choose the right oil to begin with and to not use any additives.
I'm going to put the pan back on, fill it with fresh oil and see how it runs, and how long it runs.
 
I do not remember my additive being silver. The silver that you are seeing is probably aluminum, or bearing material, not steel.
As far as cutting a filter open, you need a filter cutter, not a hacksaw or something similar. How would determine which metal is what you are looking at?
You are probably okay, run it some more, and don't let it idle for 20 minutes, the cam lobes like to have oil thrown at them, unless it's a roller cam.
 
CRUZE 418 said:
I do not remember my additive being silver. The silver that you are seeing is probably aluminum, or bearing material, not steel.
As far as cutting a filter open, you need a filter cutter, not a hacksaw or something similar. How would determine which metal is what you are looking at?
You are probably okay, run it some more, and don't let it idle for 20 minutes, the cam lobes like to have oil thrown at them, unless it's a roller cam.
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After 8 years I'm sure that he got it figured out, at least I hope he did.
 
Your right! I do not always look at dates. I need to pay more attention to that.
 
I know from using Isky Rev Lube (moly type lube, I put that **** on everything!) on cam, lifters, pushrods, valve stem tips, etc that the silvery appearance will show in the oil as the “Doogster”mentioned and showed.
 
Kern Dog said:
Old thread but one that is worth reviving.
Fresh rebuild on a 440-495. I just drained the oil and pulled the pan to fix a rear main leak and noticed the silver-gray shimmer in the oil. I always worry about cam and lifter failures so this had me worried. I used Driven Hot Rod oil, 10 w 40 and NO additives since recent reports have shown that it is best to just choose the right oil to begin with and to not use any additives.
I'm going to put the pan back on, fill it with fresh oil and see how it runs, and how long it runs.
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That engine this post was about ended up being smoked. Main bearings were trashed and the crank needed to be turned because of it. Onto a new engine now though and it’s humming right along.
 
doogievlg said:
That engine this post was about ended up being smoked. Main bearings were trashed and the crank needed to be turned because of it. Onto a new engine now though and it’s humming right along.
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Thanks for update!

Did you have any idea what caused that first “smoked” engine?

Was it a full rebuild with every wear component new or re-machined (bore, crank, heads, cam, oil pump…) ?
 
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