changed oil and saw this...

[a240sxpinoy]

Let me give you a little info...

so i boosted my ka, had a little problem running rich so i was constantly changing the oil cause of gas mixing into the oil. so i was tired of buying expensive oil so i used the really cheap $2 by quart oil from autozone.

i got the car running pretty well but was still using the cheap oil because i wanted to make sure before i put the more expensive oil that it wasnt i wasnt going to just drain it again.

i drained the oil yesterday to put the more expensive oil and in the oil that i drained, i saw metal dust. i am somewhat freaked out if my motor is dying on me. could it be the cheap oil that i was using for about 500 miles?

as stated before my afrs are:

idle- 13-16afrs (sometimes goes to 17 but doesnt even stay there for more than a second, mosty stays around 14-15) and im still not sure why it fluctuates so much i already changed the o2 sensor, and now im looking towards the distributor cap?

cruising- 14-15afrs

boosting- 11-12afrs

i have the emance tune.

oh ya and lately when i am shifting between gears, the afr goes rich and then lean. is that normal? before it used to just go lean and now it does a sweeping motion and goes rich and then lean
Modified by a240sxpinoy at 4:29 PM 10/9/2008

[Spinn3r]

which wide band are you using? can you check knock? maybe your Rod Bearings are washing off, if you see tiny metal shavings, I woulnt go past 14psi. Are you using manual boost controler?

[a240sxpinoy]

oh im still boosting stock at 7psi

no manual boost controller. and i cant hear any knock.

knock sounds like a tin can with stuff in it right?

[WDRacing]

Knock sounds like really loud rice crispies...seriously.

Doubt it's the oil, if it's cause of a lube problem it's because of running the car with gas in the oil. You have to remember people were using regular old dino oil since the 50's in cars that saw over 200k quite often. My Blazer has only seen regular elcheapo brand oil and it has 165,000 on the ticker.

Don't believe the hype...

[Warped161]

the cheap crap from AZ is really lousy oil but even it should have enough viscosity to protect your motor. extremely fine metal particle can come from many sources in your engine, it doesn't necessarily mean it's toast. Install a magnetic drain plug to get a better idea of just how much metal your getting, it wont actually protect the motor but it will get all the metal in one spot so you get a better idea of how much there is.

[neverlift]

the cheap crap from AZ is really lousy oil but even it should have enough viscosity to protect your motor. extremely fine metal particle can come from many sources in your engine, it doesn't necessarily mean it's toast. Install a magnetic drain plug to get a better idea of just how much metal your getting, it wont actually protect the motor but it will get all the metal in one spot so you get a better idea of how much there is.

the BEST cheapo oil is at walmart, it is sm rated like the good stuff(mobile one) honestly I think its made by mobile...

oil is oil in any event... as stated, and I too use cheap **** in the wifes jimmy, like 150k and 20ish mpg, with air on... honestly I should steal the motor out of it and do a 4.3 240...

your idle shouldnt be going that rich the lean is fine as no load to kill anything, teh eff bomb!!!1!!!eleven!! I run higher wihtout meth/water...

also how long were you letting the gassy oil be used? Doesnt take long, 3 miles wihtout oil and I have a slight tap on cold starts now

[480sx]

Its most likely damage done to the rod bearings by running way to rich. The rod bearings are the first to suffer when fuel gets into your oil. Gas acts as a cutting agent, tears your motor apart. No worse engine failure than a gas polluted oil failure.

Honestly, if it were me i would drop the pan and inspect the bearings/journals. If you catch trashed bearings before they get to bad you wont have to replace your crank.

A magnetic drain plug actually will protect the motor by pulling some of that metal out of the oil pan and sticking it to the magnet. Its also a good idea to just stick a 'rare earth magnet'(strong mag..) on your pan to do the same thing.
Modified by 480sx at 5:52 PM 10/9/2008

[a240sxpinoy]

thanks guys for all the replys.

i bought a magnetic oil drain plug today.

ill be putting it in tomorrow.

i bearly boost and drive my car hard. lets just say that i havent even passed 4 grand.

i check all the time for gas in the oil, i was wondering what are the best ways to check for gas in the oil?

what i mean is, do i check before i leave in the morning or after i drive the car?i have been checking the dip stick and opening the oil cap for the smell of gas but it just smells like oil to me.

ill update what happens.

[krazydriver]

A magnetic drain plug actually will protect the motor by pulling some of that metal out of the oil pan and sticking it to the magnet. Its also a good idea to just stick a 'rare earth magnet'(strong mag..) on your pan to do the same thing.

Just because it's been brought up before....A magnet won't really do much in this case. The Bearing material is non-ferrous and will not be attracted to a magnet. It would collect pieces of iron based material(block, crank etc) but if pieces are coming off that your pretty much screwed.

To the OP, unless your oil is getting black and watery from being REALLY rich i don't see that being a problem. And your AFR's look fine.Do you have any way to monitor the oil pressure just to be sure there's no issue there?

[480sx]

Ohh im testing that out today!

It still helps, speaking from personal experiance, those things work great.

[WDRacing]

If you have the pan off, drop a old speaker magnet in the sump...done and done.

If the AFR's are in the 10's don't even let the motor run for very long.

[a240sxpinoy]

i'm going to pick up a oil pressure gauge asap.

when i check the dip stick its yellow, no black or anything.

[WDRacing]

New oil won't be black if fuel is in it, it will just be dilluted. Dilluted = bad =

[andrewhuffman]

i thought yellow was water? well, milky whitish..

[a240sxpinoy]

ok so whats the best way of checking if the oil is diluted with gas?

do i try setting the dip stick on fire? lol

i mean the oil on the dip stick looks normal?

and the smell of it doesnt even smell like when i first turboed and when it was running 10afrs on idle and spitting out black liquid from the dp. it actually smells like oil.

the only rich afrs i see is when i shift or let go of the gas, it goes rich and then lean in a second, almost like a sweeping motion, when the wideband first turns on.

i took it on the freeway this morning and afrs at 70mph and 3grand is 14-15afrs

[480sx]

The thing is, when your oil gets diluted with gas that damage happens before you do your oil change. Now you have good afr's, and fresh oil so it should be ok. However the damage to the motor is already done. Its impossible to say how much, but if you have metal coming out of your engine there obviously is SOME damage.

If you get enough gas in your oil it will light up with a lighter. Better to just smell it, but its hard to tell if its just a faint hint of it or a lot of it. Wish i could get a disposable tester(maybe like a PH tester) to test for gas.. I guess if it smells at all you probably should change it.

[480sx]

The Bearing material is non-ferrous and will not be attracted to a magnet. It would collect pieces of iron based material(block, crank etc) but if pieces are coming off that your pretty much screwed.

Engine bearings are attracted to magnets.

[a240sxpinoy]

ok so i drained the oil after putting the magnetic drain plug. there was bearly to none metal shavings.

i think i was the source to this problem. i got a few suggestions that i was probably starving the motor from oil. someone asked how many quarts of oil did i put into the motor, and i answered 3.5 quarts of oil, maybe even less. i mean i check the dipstick after putting oil and it was always at a full level, but maybe when the car is on, the motor is low on oil because of the oil that goes into the turbo.

could this be the source of the shavings found in the oil?

[480sx]

Possibly the cause, hard to say. You always check your oil after letting your motor idle, then sit for 30 seconds.

[krazydriver]

Engine bearings are attracted to magnets.

The backing is, but the bearing face is 2 layers of non-ferrous material. If you've worn through that it's already pretty bad.

There's no reason not to use a magnetic plug considering how cheap they are, they just won't really start to pick up stuff until your already going a bad way.

a240,3.5qts is lower then what you should have. FSM says it takes 4.5qts i believe. With turbo and the oil cooler setup i take ~6qts.

[WDRacing]

Damn, how big is your cooler? Pics?

[krazydriver]

*threadjack*WD, i don't really have any good pics at the moment. But the cooler is a B&M think it's 8x11 or something. Couple that with 9ft of -10 AN line and the oil capacity went up about 1.25qts. First time filling the system once i put the cooler on was at least 5 3/4-6qts.

It doesn't all drain out when i change the oil, but it still takes 5+ qts to refill everything.

On the plus side, absolutely beating the piss out of my car on a 100* day, the hottest oil temp i've EVER seen was 210. generally it's in the 160-170 range.