Cammed L59 RUNNING!!!

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08-19-2019
neond123

Cammed L59 RUNNING!!! (metal in filter?)

Thanks to the help of some more savvy users on my last thread, the 5.3 now runs.

The good:
It starts right up, idles decent by itself, and sings up 3,000 rpm.
I got it up to temp (215*), and I'm getting about 50 psi oil pres hot at idle (800-900 rpm) (running a high pres/high flow melling pump).

The bad:
I cut the filter open...
The oil is barely dirty, since it's only run for maybe 30 minutes.
There is nothing in the oil coming out of the pan that i can see with my eyes.
However, there is a very small amount of glitter in the media...
The oil doesn't even glitter or anything, I had to search it out with a magnet for about 10 minutes.
If I spread it out over my finger it covers maybe a millimeter, and is strictly SILVER.

Maybe I'm looking for things to worry about, but I thought I would see if anyone has input on whether this is an "acceptable" amount of metal or not. Motor has new pistons, rods, rings, bearings, cam, lifters, rockers, yada yada. I am 90% sure its just part of the break in, but like I said, thought I'd ask.

Thanks in advance

EDIT: I cut the filter open with an an angle grinder, not a soup can-style circular cutter. So for what its worth this may have contributed some to the metal fragments.
08-19-2019
cobaltssoverbooster

i would run another filter on it and see what it looks like. if you have oil pressure, its not making any noises, retains compression, then this could likely be ring break in. fresh bores are ground to a range of like 220-400 grit depending on the rings and honing techniques. The coarse surface files down the ring edge so they fit to match the bore they ride in which give us the proper cylinder sealing along with microshavings of bore/ring material that give breakin oil some glitter effect.

keep an eye on it with a new filter and see if it progresses.
08-19-2019
neond123

Quote:

Originally Posted by cobaltssoverbooster

i would run another filter on it and see what it looks like. if you have oil pressure, its not making any noises, retains compression, then this could likely be ring break in. fresh bores are ground to a range of like 220-400 grit depending on the rings and honing techniques. The coarse surface files down the ring edge so they fit to match the bore they ride in which give us the proper cylinder sealing along with microshavings of bore/ring material that give breakin oil some glitter effect.

keep an eye on it with a new filter and see if it progresses.

Thanks for putting my mind somewhat at ease :D, I asked a couple friends and they said the same thing: just watch it. I honed the cylinders with I believe a 360ish grit dingleball. The rings are speedpro somethings, pretty standard, pre gapped, moly-coated ductile iron. I double checked the gap on all the rings myself.
Swimming thru various engine building/tuning/hot rod forums I've found some people saying HOLY SHIT TURN IT OFF ITS GONNA EXPLODE and some people saying that its fine as long as you dont get any gold (bearing?).

Just a little nervous, first engine built by yours truly, thanks for the input.
08-20-2019
cobaltssoverbooster

bearings are made with multiple layers. if you start seeing a gold color then you blew through the soft outter contact surface (babbit) and went to the mid layer (typically a copper alloy). The backing to provide rigidity is typically steel. a 4 layer bearing just adds another layer on top of the babbit and is either a LTC (lead-tin-copper) for endurance or a friction reduction layer (moly/graphite) stuff is all over the net. you can dive pretty deep into any singular component inside a engine.

in short, if you see the copper its time to take it apart and figure out what happened and where its coming from. if you go to the steel then it wont be long before you hear it kill itself.