[461-69bird]

Look ok to me, no copper coloured bits. The larger silver bits are not metallic.
Any thoughts?

[mgarblik]

Looks like you were running Brad Penn or some other dark colored oil. That makes it a little hard to identify what the particles may be. Looks like a little chunk of engine block or iron of some type in pic 2. Pick 3 or 4 looks to have a little piece of white rag that may have been used during assembly. What I don't really see is any paint residue, which is good. Paint over spray and bits in the filter is quite common. Run a strong magnet around the filter element and see if anything sticks. If your really concerned, send out a sample of the oil to Blackstone Labs or similar for analysis. Not very expensive. Also next oil change, if completely broken in, switch to a more clear oil like Valvoline VR1 for a better view of the filter media next oil change.

[steve25]

I agree, what is that chunk of whatever in pic #2?

Many times very small silver flakes are just brake in material off of the piston skirts , or in a bad way from Aluminum roller rockers if your running such?

If I where you I would pull both valve covers and look in the pooled up drain back oil locations in the heads for signs of any Aluminum flakes there.
But even if all where to look well I would send a sample of the oil out to be checked.

A good report provids great peace of mind for the price, and if something not right is afoot you can likely correct the issue before worse things take place!

[461-69bird]

I am using VR1 20/50.

not the first oil change and the others were similar.

the chunk when cleaned up doesn't stick to a magnet and the white bits could be off the rag I used when cutting the filter open.

using HS roller rockers and solid roller cam

got to change a head gasket so I will check when taking the rocker covers off.

[Skip Fix]

Speaking of dark oil how many remember the ARCO graphite oil?

I had a box of VR 1 that was maybe 8 years old new and had some thicker "sludge" in it-kind of like cream on milk thicker. Still sitting in the box. Not sure what might separate after that many years -wouldn't think it should.

[Sirrotica]

Skip, FWIW, those are impurities that fail to get removed during manufacturing of the oil. If you think that oil from the refinery is clean, have some analyzed sometime before you pour it in the engine.

I've used Pennzoil products for decades, the yellow plastic bottles made it very easy to see the impurities that settle out of oil if it sits on a shelf before being used. Are they detrimental the an engine?
It depends what the makeup of the solids is. It isn't however only Pennzoil Products that has those fine solids in it. I've observed that sediment in most any major oil I've taken the time to look for them.

Pennzoil has taken a step recently to make their base oils from natural gas, rather than crude oils, so the raw product is cleaner to start with. Is it a gimmick, or is the cleaner raw material beneficial? I can't answer that, but I feel better about using their product.

Frantz filters had a bottle of new oil analyzed (Shell Rotella) and compared it to a sample of used oil that had run in a 6.0 Powerstroke for 200 miles with their filter. The used oil had less particulate matter in the sub 15 micron area after being run through a Frantz filter, that a standard full flow filter is incapable of removing from engine oil. The minimum size of the pores in a conventional filter media are commonly 30-40 microns, those solids will never be filtered out by a full flow filter.

Link to new oil vs Frantz filtered used oil - https://www.frantzfilters.com/science/

BTW, I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything, I just wanted to answer your question about sediment in the bottom of fresh oil from what I've observed, and researched over the years.

[Dragncar]

Yes I remember ARCO Graphite. Adjusting sbc hyd lifters running you ended up with little black speckles on your shirt that did not wash out.

[Skip Fix]

My Dad worked for ARCO as a research geophysicist so my 78 TA got a few changes with that hated the dark look so changed back.

[JLBIII]

Originally Posted by Skip Fix

Speaking of dark oil how many remember the ARCO graphite oil?

I was working at an Arco station after school and weekends when the graphite oil came out. IIRC it was later pulled when it was discovered that the graphite in the oil was actually abrasive