Metal scales in oil.

[LuisLAN]

Just did an oil change (6,150 miles) and these came out in the oil.

The filters where fine, the front facing screen was spotless, the plug magnet had what you would call little to none shavings attached but the side screen had a lot of these scale looking pieces of metal.
Any ideas on what to look for?
The bike runs great, has no unusual noises, no smoke, plugs look ok?

The metal in the running oil came out when I poured oil on the engine to see what came out.

 

[monkeynuts]

Has it had the valve check and rocker arms looked at ?

 

[LuisLAN]

I just did right before the oil change. Rockers have no marks on them and valve clearance is within spec. I changed the shim on one intake port because it was right at 0.15 mm.

 

[DWB]

To me, it looks like a coating that is coming off, as the flakes are very thin, it appears. It's either that, or small parts of metal are being shaved off. Either way, it's not good, I'm afraid. Even if it is "just a coating", it was there for a reason, but, also, those particles are large enough to plug ports, and there are a lot of them. I'm assuming on previous oil changes, there were no particles seen? If it was mine, the only real decision is to take the engine apart and find the sources and clean all that crap out of there. Sorry man.

 

[LuisLAN]

To me, it looks like a coating that is coming off, as the flakes are very thin, it appears. It's either that, or small parts of metal are being shaved off. Either way, it's not good, I'm afraid. Even if it is "just a coating", it was there for a reason, but, also, those particles are large enough to plug ports, and there are a lot of them. I'm assuming on previous oil changes, there were no particles seen? If it was mine, the only real decision is to take the engine apart and find the sources and clean all that crap out of there. Sorry man.

I can't really say what was on previous oil changes, they were made by a dealer. But yeah, it seems your approach is the right one.

 

[Alexandru.k_24]

Wow, this sucks! I wonder what happened there? Is it a common problem and should we all expect this? Or is this an isolated case? If somehow you find out what happened there, maybe you can keep us updated! Good luck!

 

[bobby]

Hi guys, I'm curious to know if you were able to find the problem? I also had a lot of metal flakes in my oil. For information, they are not magnetic, which indicates that it's aluminum and therefore likely pieces from the engine block. My first theory is that a bearing has seized and that the outer ring of the bearing is rotating in its housing and shedding material. Otherwise, it could be related to the many times I had false neutrals.

Additionally, I noticed that cam cover was quite worn at the timing chain area. However, I did not observe any damage to the timing chain.

What did you think about it ?

See you