EuroKClub
General forum area => Oils & Lubricants => Topic started by: drumwrecker on January 04, 2017, 02:18:40 pm
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Any thoughts on this.
What about the aluminium swarf that's not picked up by the magnet?
http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/how-much-debris-is-normal-in-oil-after-motorcycle-break-in?cmpid=enews010317&spMailingID=27468105&spUserID=MzU4ODk2OTQ5NjQyS0&spJobID=960574156&spReportId=OTYwNTc0MTU2S0 (http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/how-much-debris-is-normal-in-oil-after-motorcycle-break-in?cmpid=enews010317&spMailingID=27468105&spUserID=MzU4ODk2OTQ5NjQyS0&spJobID=960574156&spReportId=OTYwNTc0MTU2S0)
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Well, that's what the oil filter is for Ron!
Having built many competition car engines in my dark and shady past that amount of swarf doesn't seem at all out of place on the magnet. The bits that always worried me were the bits that weren't on the magnet but most of those would have been alloy off the pistons.
The test is always to rub the stuff between finger and thumb. It should feel sludgy and the particles should be exceedingly small, much smaller than a splinter for example. Anything bigger than that and you are looking at bits from the gearbox as that knocks more steel off the dogs and cogs and golden coloured sludge is normally from the phosphor-bronze bushes and change mechanism.
Of course, on a car you almost never see the steel swarf or the phosphor-bronze sludge as that is in the gearbox oil which most owners never see.
On a bike with combined engine and gearbox lubrication you will see the debris from the box and that can be scary.
I have always been a believer in the magnetic oil filter 'helpers' such as Filter Plus which assist the oil filter magnet (assuming there is one) and certainly helping if there isn't.
Of course, if you let the dealer do the service then you a) never see the gunge, b)need to tell em not to bin the Filter Plus along with the old filter and c) never take the Filter Plus off the filter (to prevent b) above) before you ride it to the dealers as any swarf collected by the magnet is then free to circulate in the oil on the way :o
I have lost two top ends off car engines to swarf clogging oilways after a rebore, a head skim or a re-grind of the crank and that despite using long-established machine shops and going over the bits with an airline, a magnetic poky thing and a pressure washer before assembly.
In the old days oilways and camshaft bores were normally through-bored which allowed a decent wash out after the bore but modern maching techniques are getting sneakier and there is no guarantee that what comes off always comes out.
I think modern engines are built to tighter tolerances than back in the day which might account for some of the debris.
Brian (whose dad told him that he only ever worried about the swarf if it was too big to swallow ::) )
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Part of the reason to warm up the engine before draining the oil is to suspend the non ferrous debris in the oil and then drain it out with the old oil.
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...quite right and for those of us who are old enough to remember 'flushing oil', the thrill of going for a 5 mile drive with a gallon of diesel in the sump was one of life's guilty little pleasures 8)
The theory was, as indeed was the practice, that this thin 'oil' flushed out all the stubborn yeuk that simply getting the normal oil hot didn't or couldn't shift!
Brian (who hasn't noticed a gallon of diesel on his BMW dealer invoice for some time now 8) )
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Its not normal to my eyes is too much.
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The only issue with opening up the fine oil ways was the potential lack of oil pressure..
I used to have a Rover V8 which notoriously had low oil pressure, especially at tickover, but it was a low pressure, high volume pump. When you changed the oil you had to change the oil first then the filter after you put new oil in otherwise the oil would run back down the long pick up and the pump couldn't self prime, then it was bottom off the oil pump and out with the vaseline :o