copper filing in engine oil????

[rajvr497]

hi guys,i drained my engine oil to notice that there were copper filings in the oil,anyone knows where it can be coming from????

[Nick Mann]

Copper? Are you sure?

As far as I know there are not any copper parts in the engine.

[TAR]

could someone have overtightened the sump plug and caused copper filings to come off the washer when you drained it?

As Nick said, there is no copper inside the engine.

:happy:

[adaxo]

You may see big end bearings are on its way as it looks like copper-ish swarms.

[rajvr497]

what material are crank bearing made off?

[adaxo]

Steel

[rajvr497]

so it cannot be bearings?????

[adaxo]

Sorry I thought you asking about crank.

[Nick Mann]

Shell bearings are usually coated in a tin alloy that looks a bit brassy in colour. More yellow than the pinky orange of copper. The substrate of the shell can be bronze, which is more of a copper colour but I don't know if the VR4 has a bronze substrate. The substrate is more commonly steel. If you have worn through the brassy colour and have enough bronze in your oil to notice and it is from the shell bearings, then I'm suprised you car doesn't sound like an old diesel.

[Tam]

Hi there.

I had copper looking shards in my engine and Ben (at eurospec) said main or big end bearings. If I had them in my sump usually means crank gone as well. So I changed my engine and recently I dropped my sump off my old engine and Ben was totally correct. My centre main and the big ends either side are knackered, mine did have a knocking at idle but was fine when I revved her, glad I did not carry on using her. I have some pics somewhere I was going to post it in my old thread.

Cheers
Marc

[Adam.Findlay]

It will be bearings,
when bearings fail they leave a copper like colored swarf in the sump, but Nick is correct it is not copper as there is not copper components inside the motor, just looks that way

[adaxo]

Yep, I've change knocking engine with copper like swirls in oil and sump it was still driveable but knocking only at about 3k rpm and what's happened it was bottom end bearings wear so badly that they take crank with them.

[rajvr497]

i will drain the oil today and see how it looks,maybe get some pics too....