haha yah as the topic says.... I got metal flakes in my engine oil....

all started ~2 weeks ago, going to mt gambier cruise set @ 110kph, and car shunted and check engine light came on for 10 - 15 secs

Then a few days later commin back crusie set at 110kph and tacho was jumping bewteen 2,600rpm and 3,200rpm

My old man picked up on my car couldn't keep it's revs in N or P...

Then checked my oil and it had a milky colour to it (I know that means head) then checked it 3 days later and it had metal chunks in it, now it has metal flakes in it....

So, i spoke to a mechanic and he basicly said "put in a new oil filter, replace the oil and drive that motor into the ground, when it gives you greif get it rebuilt".... I was quoted at complete auto distmantlers ~$2,000 for a complete top and bottom rebuild....

I gather better off a complete rebuild with the ammount of kms my cars done (271,000) and well it needs new valve stem seals, head work, metal flakes now, and hydrolic lifters.... it used over a full tank to come back from mount gambier so yah nfi why so full rebuild I rekon....:doubt:

And yah I can't see the point putting in a 2nd hand motor when well the 2nd gen V6 is common for the problems mine has and I cbf puttin in a new motor and dealing with them again in a few years.... may get it slightly worked when it gets rebuilt too :D

:shock: That is some shizenhouzen news mate....not a good thing to hear...:doubt:

I may be in the same boat aswell with the rebuild - so your not alone, why is it when i take care of a care so much it repays me by saying "hahaha i f**ked you over! i need a new engine bit*h!"

:doubt:

For an extra few K slap the DOHC in there, you know you want to!

pistons mc fooked

Not good news mate - that's the problem with cars, New ones cost $$$ in lost resale value, old ones cost $$$ in maintenance. :doubt:

On a slightly different topic (but still one that may help you a bit)... has anyone used or heard anything about these... Magnetic Sump Plugs/Bolts:
Mods, I know it's from ebay (but it's a finished auction)
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/MAGNETIC-SUMP-PLUG_W0QQitemZ4630578255QQcategoryZ32624QQrdZ1QQcm dZViewItem

The pistons are probably fine, along with the cylinder sleeves, most likely you've spun a cam or crank bearing, or both. This is why you're getting quoted a top and bottom end rebuild (thanks for the genius that invented over head cams!). You've most likely gummed up your oil pump or pick up tube some how, this caused a low oil pressure (hence the check engine light) and your bearings spun and threw metal shavings through the block.

You basically got two choices on the rebuild/replace idea. Rebuild it with forged pistons, new bearings, stage 1 or 2 cams and you'll have damn strong motor for future mods but will cost just as much as a replacement (junkyard) DOHC which could be just as bad as the motor you pull out of your car.

I know all this cos it just happened to me today on my DOHC here in the states, no need to replace my motor cos its nigh on impossible to find the 3.5DOHC for anything less then 2500USD and i dont have that kinda money, so i'm just pulling the pan, changing the oil pump and pick up tube, redoing the crank bearings, and dropping in some VR4 cams. All in all should cost around 400-500 bucks and i'll have myself a nice running 220hp motor before dropping twin turbos in there and adding 100 to that figure. That is of course if i can keep the damn thing from breaking again, i just dropped a 500 dollar transmission in the car after it sat for a few months!

On a slightly different topic (but still one that may help you a bit)... has anyone used or heard anything about these... Magnetic Sump Plugs/Bolts:
Mods, I know it's from ebay (but it's a finished auction)
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/MAGNETIC-SUMP-PLUG_W0QQitemZ4630578255QQcategoryZ32624QQrdZ1QQcm dZViewItem

I have :) The idea is to attract any metal flakes in the oil to it and keep it there. The problem with the magnetic sump plug bolts is that the surface area and area of magnetic attraction is so small that although it will help, are far from perfect. I bought a similar thing of Ebay, except this is an extremely powerful neodynium magnet (and I mean its strong)! lol, not one of those weak magnets you see on Ebay half the time. This sits in a bit rubber disc that doesn't do anything but says reusable oil filter magnet or something like that so mechanics don't ditch it with the filter. Now these work better because the magnet is stronger but also because a magnet will turn a piece of magnetic metal (such as those used in your oil filters, like RYCO etc) into a magnet. So the metal flakes in theory will be caught inside the oil filter which is now acting like a big magnet. The strongest magnetic point will still be under the magnet, but the whole thing will be magnetised. Ever dropped a magnet inside a container of paper clips etc?!

I would suggest only a proper neodynium magnet as these make normal magnets look like fridge magnets, and they wont fall off.

(oh, and if you take the filter off then drive it down to get serviced etc., or take it off and run the engine, and caught magnetic flakes will begin to circulate again!)

Magnetic sump plugs have been around for decades.



If you don't want to spend any $$ and you've got a dead harddisk drive lying around...
rip it apart and that'll get you 2 big super-strong neo magnets.

Gaffatape them around your oil filter - that's it.


Seems to work pretty well as if you cut open the filter you can see where the magnets
have been from the sludgy pattern inside. The crud would be trapped by the filter element
anyway so there's little risk from running your engine without the magnets.

...The crud would be trapped by the filter element
anyway so there's little risk from running your engine without the magnets.
So do the oil filters capture the metal flakes anyway - ie. no point in buying the magnetic sump plug if ya have an oil filter (like all modern cars have).

So do the oil filters capture the metal flakes anyway - ie. no point in buying the magnetic sump plug if ya have an oil filter (like all modern cars have).
Oil filters will work whilst the filter is still fresh and the oil can flow thru it without too much effort. Any filter should be able to pick out metal filings big enough to be visible.

But when the filter gets gunked up with dirt & combustion residuals, they have a bypass valve that will activate when the pressure is too much... that means the dirty oil just bypasses the filter = no filtering.

I support 5000km oil & filter changes.

I support 5000km oil & filter changes.

I guess Mitsubishi with their 10,000/15,000km recommended oil changes along with the other manufacturers will be up for a lot of warranty claims before the new longer warranties are up?!

']:shock: That is some shizenhouzen news mate....not a good thing to hear...:doubt:

I may be in the same boat aswell with the rebuild - so your not alone, why is it when i take care of a care so much it repays me by saying "hahaha i f**ked you over! i need a new engine bit*h!"

:doubt:

For an extra few K slap the DOHC in there, you know you want to!

lol man im thinking the same thing!!! I have had a complete engine reconditioned and the other day the head went grrrr,,, costs me about $800 i think hopefully i'll get it back 2moro or the next day! I miss my car! im thinking nothing else can go wrong costs me about 3g as it is now... The way i see it is that it wont break down for agessss so that should be a good thing and if it does i'll kill someone lol

Does no one here understand that most of the metal in the motor is not ferris? In other words the Brass, Aluminium and copper will not be held by the magnet.

Given the complexity of the internals of a motor, without Scott having actually told anyone what sort of metal it is, no one can more than guess as to the origin.

If it were a piston, the engine would not run as they usually lose the complete top or more. Bid end or main, you will hear that from a mile off. Cam, you may not notice too much at first. Again only guess work though.

i would be pulling the sump off and checking the conrod bearings the main bearings and the oil pickup . if there is no problems in this area. your problem is most likely in the heads, which sound like they need rebuilding anyway. due to having milky oil, the more you drive it with milky oil the more damage your going to do.

a set of main and conrod bearings are not that exepencive and if the crank has no dammage it is possable to just replace them in the car,

lol man im thinking the same thing!!! I have had a complete engine reconditioned and the other day the head went grrrr,,, costs me about $800 i think hopefully i'll get it back 2moro or the next day! I miss my car! im thinking nothing else can go wrong costs me about 3g as it is now... The way i see it is that it wont break down for agessss so that should be a good thing and if it does i'll kill someone lol

sorry make that $1229 and i dont have time to pick it up 2day so picking it up 2moro, bummer eh! :(

I'm thinking it may be what happened when my head went. The thing warped enough to cause the camshaft to cut into the head, causing flakes of aluminium alloy to appear in the oil. What you could try doing is a head swap, doing a full flush of the oil(just use cheap ****ty bilo oil, you're only using it to clean out the metal) with a clean filter and see if that works.

Well, I spoke to HM GEM or whatever they call their self on a change over motor... they told me trade price $2,250 for a change over 3ltr V6.... and I've gotta get it installed...

Magna Wreck quoted me $1,900 and that's me getting it installed....

Both places said they could rebuild what's in mine, but it's not going to be work it $$$ wise, they said with what's mostlikleyt wrong it will be around $3,500 - $4,000 to get it rebuild, so change over I'll get.... rather hm gem motor than magna wreck... a few more bucks but better quailty, they replace everything apart from pistons...