Found this in my oil filter??
 

The last time I ran my boat, I noticed the oil pressure guage reading somewhat lower than normal. I have an electric guage on the dash, however, I have a mechanical guage mounted on the engine, both read identical. The engine is a 540 with 70 hours of hard running. My oil pressure used to be about 30 psi at idle after a hard run and about 70 psi while running. Now, it seems to have droppped 10 psi across the rpm range. 20 psi at idle after a hard run and 60 psi while running. I use Mobil 1 Gold Cap synthetic, have a real good oiling system and cooler. I also have an ESP Pre-Luber. The engine sounds fine, no noises. Today, I changed the oil and filter, same results while running. I just cut the filter open and found this. It is about .010" thick, it sticks to a magnet. I have never seen something like this in a filter. Any ideas? There was nothing else abnormal was found in the filter.

could that be a piece of oil pump gear tooth?

Had to come from between the oil pump screen and filter,no way that would fit through the pickup screen

Drop the pan and check the pump. Put the piece on the gear to match it. If nothing else missing your OK. If there are other parts missing, tear it down.

Hopefully just a bad pump. Smart to check the filter. I do at every oil change. Even if you have to tear it down, its only a thousand $$. Blow a motor and it could be 5 - 6K

I think the metal is too thin to be part of the oil pump gears. Doesnt seem to have peeled off the gears. I agree, something that big could never pass through the oil pump pick up screen. Nor could it pass through the mains of the block. But, remember, I have an ESP Pre-Luber which picks up oil from the bottom of the pan, no screen. The Pre-Luber sends the oil directly into the filter. I dont think that big a peice can pass through the tiny gears in the Pre-Luber either. If it did, I would think it wouldnt build any pressure on the Pre-Luber. When you have this piece in your hand, it looks like a piece of tin from the inner lip of the timing chain cover. But how the hell can that come off? I doubt that is the case. Also, what about the 10 psi drop of oil pressure I am noticing? If this piece went through my Pre-Luber and simply got trapped in the filter, the oil pressure should not have changed. If I had no change in oil pressure, I would swear this piece was in the filter before I screwed it on.
Hey, i just thought of something.... I have a check valve between the Pre-Luber and my filter head. Maybe it came from there?? That would explain the sudden drop in oil pressure. When the engine is running, the job of the check valve is to keep the oil and oil pressure in the filter head. If the check valve is coming apart, it will be leaking or bleeding oil back through the Pre-Luber and into the oil pan.
I know what I will be checking first thing tomorrow.

How did a pencil get in your filter??:p

Vinny,
How about a picture of that thing from a different angle ? Sure looks like a pc of gear to me, but its hard to tell from the picture. Is it magnetic ? Could it be part of a the distributor gear ?

Bill Koustenis
Advanced Automotive Machine
Waldorf Md

Looks like a tooth from a bronze distributer gear to me, but that would not explain your oil pressure drop

That was my thought. At least it looks bronze in the pic.


Darrell.

I don't think bronze is magnetic. That is what it looks like though.

Hope it's not bearing material....

Only steel is magnetic, which he said it is. Looks to be iridited- a surface treatment for hardened steels. I've seen steel "flake" under heavy loads- it looks like scale flaking off. I have also seen these types of failures on case-hardened steel- the treatment only penetrates a few thousandths.

My guess- you've lost this piece from your oil pump.

Thanks for all the ideas. It seems I have a very unusual situation brewing here. Today, I removed the check valve after the pre-luber. It was stuck open. It had a small piece of brass looking material in it, that was holding the valve open a bit. It was not magnetic. No way did these 2 pieces originate from the same place.
The next thing I took apart was the pre-luber pump. I found a small piece of the corner of 1 of the impellers that was broken off. I dont have a picture, didnt take the camera to the boat yard. That explains the lower oil pressure. As I suspected, the slightly hung open check valve must have been alllowing oil back through the pre-luber and into the oil pan. I ran the boat today, oil pressure was back to normal. No noises, engine ran perfect. Everything is good, EXCEPT where the hell did the piece of metal in the oil filter come from? I am not running a bronze distributor gear. I believe this piece is too big to pass through the oil passages in the block. I swear, the filter was built around this thing. The only thing I can think of, is to run it for a few more hours and cut the filter open again. Here are a few more pictures.

Sorry Vinny, but that funny.

exactly what I was thinking

more, remember this piece is magnetic

Yeah, I was waiting for that. Surprised it took as long as it did.

Good thing the filter did its job!

Have you noticed any difference in oil temperature?

No, everything was great today.

Vinny, could it be a peice of the main thrust bearing ? don't know how it would get there though ???? good luck, Rob

No, it is magnetic. I am at a loss on this one. :mad:

Did you check the oilpan for any stuff ?

befor you run that engine i would check it.
and pull the valvecovers and check the rockers and springs.

It could be a piece of junk out of my motor, Vinny!! Not sure how it would have gotten all the way to your oil filter??? That is a good puzzle!.
But you got me to thinking about my oil psi.. from last year. Time to tear down the oil system and check the check valve..

Could be a piece of the oil pump pickup.I have seen on certain pickups when pressed in the pump they peel the coating and goes through the gears.

What about a piece from a hardened drill or other tool from when machining the engine block?! It could have been stuck in some oil passage from when the block was new and just got loose and picked up by the filter...

Almost looks like a small piece of a single edge razor. The back side with the rolled over safety edge.

That's what I was thinking ...

Or as he said - it looks lilke the filter was built around it ... hell, maybe it was in the filter to begin with.

I dont think so, it is too flat. If this went through the pump gears, I would think it would be more mangled up.

I spent alot of time thinking about this one. I think I finally came up wth something logical. What about a piece of the oil thermistat? I actually have a spare one here. It may not be identical to the one in the filter head. I dont know if anyone here has ever looked at one closely, but there are alot of small parts to one of those things. I checked it out with a magnet, most of it is not magnetic, but some of it is.

I feel confident that is the origin of this piece.

You really only have two choices...


1. take the motor apart piece by piece until you find where it came from and what damage it's done.

or

2. Take a chance on reducing your expensive motor to worthless scrap.

is your filter after the oil cooler? was the oil cooler used with another motor? if so you may be seeing some trash from a previous motor failure

Maybe something from your oil pump?

Check the next filter too...

The filter is part of a thermistatically controlled filter head. When the oil is cold, and the t-stat is closed, oil flows around the closed t-stat, through the filter and back to the engine. When the oil is hot and the t-stat is open, oil flows through the t-stat, the cooler, then the filter and back to the engine.
This cooler has never hooked up to any engine failure.

If I see no other issues, I plan on running it a bit more, then pulling this filter for inspection.

Could it be part of the filter casing? Or a part of the filter?

Just a guess?

wow, this a puzzle, keep us posted. As much as I would like to think it was filter from manufacturing it etc. that is two pieces of FOD right. (sliver holding open the bypass and this. Too much foreign material, I vote tear it apart. Too much stress and money not too.

Well, I found where the small piece of debris that was holdong the check valve open came from. It was a small corner of the pre-luber pump impeller. The mystery is the larger piece.