curly

iTrader: (25)

Looking for further opinions

Attached Blackstone's results below. Test from 8/8/20 was after I heard some audible rod knock. Didn't even wait to get results back, by the time I did, rod bearings were already in my hands with visible wear. My fault for putting race bearings on a less than ideal 150k crank surface.

Fast forward to a few months ago, I had ground the crank, verified .0015-.002 oil clearances, and installed new King race main and rod bearings. I also installed a new BE pump, removed all oil galley plugs in the head, and put dozens of cans of brake clean through the entire system. and put a known good water/oil heat exchanger in. My only regret is I didn't remove the crank plugs to truly get them cleaned.

Results on 4/7/21 show even higher Iron/Copper/Lead content, however Blackstone says it's not uncommon to see this even after a rebuild, it's the trend I should be concerned with, whether those values are trending up or down. No audible sounds from the engine currently, and knock hasn't changed from when I first broke in the engine and tuned it. Both samples were in Driven 5-30 break in oil.

Here's their answer to my concerns that this second set of bearings is also wearing out:

Anyone else see these high values after fresh bearings and see them trend down?

Xaendeau

Hi Curly,

When I've done it, I take break in oil for a couple hundred "city miles" of driving, then switch to normal stuff to flush everything out with full throttle, high boost, etc. My "third" oil change is when I've used Blackstone to check what levels are at.

First oil change after a rebuild is going to always be horrid. Second one is going to likely still look nasty, but by the third...metal reminants in the oil should drop down to normal.

I'd be more interested to see what the next oil change shows. That's going to be more important to make sure the metals are trending down. I don't really "learn" anything from the first and second oil change. I'm not as experienced as other folk here, so their opinion might be more valid.

-Bob

curly

iTrader: (25)

Any experience helps, I appreciate the response. I've put a tank of gas (200mi) on it, Low boost only, trying to stay out of it as much as possible. I'll do 1-2 more tanks and send in another sample. I'm only hoping to see the levels trending down.

I'm logging every drive to/from work (16 miles), and looking at knock input. So far none of the cylinders have increased beyond baseline, I just wished I had tuned my gain a bit, as 2&3 seem to have the largest jumps over 1&4, but only by a percent or two. I'm trying not to change anything for now, so I can always compare to equal figures.

curly

iTrader: (25)

Following up on this. After the bad King bearing analysis on 4/7, I drove the car for another 2 months, and sent in another sample. Results were much better, but then a couple hundred miles later while still inspecting the knock input and oil filters, I decided to inspect the bearings again. They weren't worn horribly, but more than I would have preferred. No more race bearings for me. I reassembled with a new MSM oil/water heat exchanger, OE rod bearings, Mahle main bearings, and a good condition, unground crank.

Good news! Iron/copper/lead is down to almost nothing, I'll continue to monitor from here, but I'm happy with those results.

Also interesting to see the detergents change when I switched from Driven break-in oil to Total 5-30.