This was in my oil, found it after draining the old oil through a strainer.

Tiny pieces of plastic, they are very thin and very fragile, I broke one of the pieces in half just by touching it.

Any idea what this is? Cause for alarm?

 

Took it to my local shop and they said they have no idea, which means they are sure it isn't off the chain guides or IMS seal.


They said it could be sealant of some type but they aren't even sure on that. Basically so far it's a mystery.

 

Based on other "wisdom" I've gathered, you may want to drop your sump plate the next time you change your oil. Clean out the plate and cavity. Inspect what you find.

The purpose is to "zero out" any debris for the next time after the cleaning, when you drain your oil so you can judge whether any newly found detritus is new or old. Old might be from the engine build and break-in process, for example. And I've read that Porsche engines "shed" minute quantities throughout their life (the implication of what I've read is that the shedding is more than, say, a regular non-Porsche engine, since all engines are slowing eating themselves up in a micro kind of way).

 

The 'plastic' I found was extremely brittle and easily broken up into smaller pieces. To me that means it wasn't plastic to begin with rather something that became liquefied then hardened. The bottoms of the pieces were flat but the tops of them were rounded and globular looking. Like a small blob of something that dried on a flat surface. Apparently the only plastic inside an engine is the chain guide, so if its not that then hopefully its nothing serious.

 

did PO use high quality synth. oil?

maybe stupid question, but are you sure this is not residue off the oil pan you used to drain the oil into?

 

More than likely that is sealant that used use to seal various parts of the engine. The oil sump plate is one part and the camshaft covers another.

If the sealant is applied a bit too heavily excess squeezes out and over time can harden and become brittle enough to break off from the violence of the oil inside the engine.

Engine timing chain rail guide covers are a composite plastic and are a bit lighter in color than black and can even be caramel colored. This composite plastic is quite hard and not broken by just touching.

 

Wonder why the filter didn't catch the debris.

 

Thanks guys yes I am thinking now it has to be sealant, what else could it be.


I don't know exactly where it was, either in my oil or filter, but I emptied both into a bucket and when I was emptying that bucket I found it.


My local shop mechanic said the pieces may of remained low in the engine due to the size of them. Two of the three pieces you see were joined together forming a sort of L shape, when I touched it they snapped in half easily.

 

Interesting.
I have nothing great to add here but maybe inspect the oil filler assembly. Not sure if it s the same as the 997.2 which telescopes out. Never liked that for some reason. Mine is black plastic.

 

Well I need to change the title of this thread to identify the metal in my oil.

Cut open filter found metal specks. A few dozen. pretty tiny, the biggest were about 1mm wide.

Filter had been in engine for 11 months, done about 6,000 miles. It was changed a few days after a non competitive track day last year - would this suggest the reason for the flakes?

Pics. Normal? Panic?

 

I think I just dodged a bullet, out of every single metal flake in the filter only 1 turned out to be magnetic.


Good sign?

 

Don t know, that may just help you identify the part by type of metal. Someone with internal engine parts metal will chime in I hope.
Didn t look like a lot, hope your OK. Plus you still have that plastic substance .

 

I read that only magnetic flakes are a worry. That non magnetic flakes are normal & are off the engines aluminium housing. Can someone confirm?


There were tiny blobs of that plastic substance on the inside of the filter, Im fairly sure it's a sealant of some kind. There wasn't a lot of it.

 

When I last changed my oil on a 47K miles 2005 C2S, I had similar results in my oil filter medium. I asked some good folks at Mayo Performance to review the medium. They said that they would not worry about that level of metallic contamination. I too had mostly non-magnetic metal. They suggested that at the next oil change (they recommend more frequent changes then the factory) I clean the internal oil sump area so that at the next oil change any new contamination is likely to be attributable to new activity rather than residual just "trapped" and randomly released from the sump. I have a few more months to go before dropping the sump plate.

BTW, when I first got the car in July, I added the LNE spin-on adapter - I wanted the protection of full-time filtration. I also added a MagFilter and the magnetic drain plug. (All old as a kit from LNE) I also switched to JGR Driven DT40 oil. The engine clatter when "cold" is significantly reduced.

FWIW, when either the engine or trannie gets dropped, I will, at a minimum, remove the seal from the IMSB, if it's the larger revision bearing.

 

My shop also said that amount of debris isn't cause for alarm especially if its not magnetic. The oil filter that was just pulled out was put in after a track day, that may have contributed to a few extra flakes. I've also sent some oil away for analysis I will post the report here when I get it back.


Had a look at the LNE filters, do they really make a difference? My paper filter seemed to do a good job of trapping particles. I have the LNE magnetic sump plug though.


Interesting LNE recommend oil changes every 6 months. I've always used Mobil 1 0W-40 fully synthetic oil.


Check out the DOF kit thread where I am asking around for people who have had their IMS seal removed.