I am trying to figure out if I do indeed have a problem and how big it may be…I’ll try to keep this short and also let me preface by saying I’m not looking for an online diagnosis, just knowledgeable opinions and suggestions. Also I sent off an oil sample to Blackstone and I’m waiting to hear back from them, but I was told that anything visible with the eye will not be picked up in the results so I’m reaching out to you guys also…



In the video is the bottom of the oil drain pan which you can clearly see glitter. This oil had 850 miles on it. The material is non magnetic. This is what I get every time I change my oil regardless of mileage.



A little history on the car. 2011 base model that I bought 5 years ago with 40k miles and bone stock. I had a cam installed and valve job done on the heads around 45k miles. Due to having metal shavings in motor from damaged valve seats I had all the main bearings replaced also (machine shop said bearings looked fine tho) After this work I had excessive valvetrain noise on the driver side so I ended up having a different cam and brand new set of stock ls3 heads installed. The most recent build was about 1500 miles ago. The noise was still present but is way quieter and sounds pretty normal to me.



The car runs perfect and the motor sounds pretty healthy but after having the new heads/cam installed I have done 4 oil changes now. The first 3 changes were just flushes with not many miles on the oil and every time Ive had some small silver non magnetic shavings in the filter pleats and this glitter at the bottom of the drain pan…. The magnetic drain plug is always clean. I understand that after new heads and a new cam there will be some degree of break in happening but after 1500 miles there’s no way I should have this kind of glitter in the drained oil, right?! Non magnetic glitter can point to bearing failure but I would be really surprised if I have a bearing issue. Maybe the oil analysis will tell me something but Blackstone told me anything visible won’t show up in the results. My oil pressure is normal but on the lower side but I think it’s mostly because is the Johnson 2110R lifters I’m using. Supposedly those lifters can cause your oil pressure to be anywhere from 5-10psi lower… at 215° on 5w30 oil my idle pressure is about 24psi ….What do you guys make of this? Just drive it and not worry about it? Or start saving for a new motor? I don’t remember what brand rod bearings were used when the motor was pulled on the initial build but I can find out. I’ll also follow up to this thread with the oil analysis results. Thanks

https://youtube.com/shorts/SkHxn6ett-w?si=otax6iv5O0Sk7AsB

 

Here’s the video. Unfortunately the video quality here is not as good as the original so the glitter is harder to see but you get the idea.

 

Anybody??

 

Only way to know for sure is open it up. Shouldn't be hard to find when you have glitter.

 

True… I’ve spent so much time and money on trying to get this motor healthy that I think I would set it on fire before I have the motor pulled again. I feel like no matter what I do to it that it’s going to have issues

 

Usually these failures are aftermarket parts. The quality of what is out there is so hit or miss. Then finding an experienced mechanic capable of properly doing the repair is another issue.

 

Right, that’s all very true. I’m not sure what bearings were used but I know all of the crank and cam bearings were replaced. The reason I had the motor pulled and sent off to the machine shop to be built in the first place is because I found fine metal shavings in the heads that were magnetic and come to find out those were valve tips being ground down. So when I had my cam installed the motor was sent off to a machine shop where they replaced all the bearings and I was told they looked fine though. I don’t know much about the machine shop that did the work other than they are a reputable shop and do all of the machine work for the speed shop that built my car. I’m not sure if these shavings are a result of bad parts or a bad installation but I guess at this point I’m just trying to assess how severe it is because I’m not going to pull the motor again. I was hoping that this is just some leftover debris from when everything was replaced but there have been multiple oil changes done since then so I don’t imagine that they’re still should be this much material left. I should get my Blackstone report back sometime soon but I have seen several situations where someone got back a very good report from an oil analysis but still had bad bearings

 

Most glitter factories I've seen have been cam related. Something in the valvetrain. Aftermarket parts quality has declined so much.

 

I was really hoping to get some more feedback from some knowledgeable guys about this but I wanted to update with the oil analysis report that I got from Blackstone the other day. Other than a high silicon level everything seems to look okay from the report however I don’t know how much I trust their reports when it comes to visible metal in the oil because they clearly stated that anything visible with the naked eye would not show up in the report.

 

The only non-magnetic metals that are associated with the engine oiling system are engine bearings and the Alum. pistons that's it everything else is ferrous metal. From the video, it looks like bearing Mat'l. Although it's possible the valve springs could be cutting into the seats but they usually have a steel shim underneath the spring. And not sure on this one, but the lifter bores are probably aluminum too. But I doubt there would be any wear there due to the precision tolerances of the lifter to lifter bore.

 

I have a suspicion it is aluminum but I’m not positive. I have always suspected a lifter bore issue because of a specific ticking noise I’ve had on the driver side around cylinder 1.
Even with a different cam heads lifters and totally different valve train I had the ticking noise and I can’t help but think I have a lifter bore issue. If it’s not that then yeah probably bearings.

 

If its running fine just drive it, that oil pressure is plenty. Would be the same price to just drive it till it blows up (which it might never) as if you did a nervous nelly move and tore it all apart now.

 

I agree, just drive it.

 

Yeah it runs fine. I plan on continuing to drive it and just keeping an eye on it. Just really scratching my heads as to what exactly is happening in there. I feel pretty sure that what is happening isn’t normal but at the same time it may clear up and turn out to not be anything

 

I did another oil change yesterday and put some Driven 5w30 break in conventional oil in it to run for awhile… I was under the impression this oil was thicker and expected slightly higher oil pressure but it was just the opposite. Once the oil was up to 220° my idle pressure propped to 20psi. Also this was the drained pan with about 215 miles on this oil. Total of 1400 miles since the build