Metal Particles in Oil Filter

[c70Pete]

Probably not a bad idea at all. I hope it turns out to be nothing. :)

keep an eye on your oil pressure readings here... if you have abnormal oil pressure readings that is a sure sign of internal wear and you may want to retire that engine...

[scubadawg]

I have one of these on my SUV, I was thinking of tie wrapping one of these to the plastic oil filter housing, getting the adapter to a spin on filter is pricy, when you only drive the car 5-6 months a year, and only do 1 change a year.

http://www.shopfiltermag.com/

I did purchase a magnetic oil drain plug.

Edited April 5, 2009 by scubadawg

[blitzkrieg]

Forgive me here for my potential lack of knowledge on this motor - I've never rebuilt the motor on my 996.

However I have rebuilt the motors on numerous other vehicles and multiple high performance inline four Japanese motorcycles and the bearing shells on those are primarily made of a copper/tin/lead composite core with an alloy aluminum/nickel coating. The bearings contain very little magnetic steel based materials if any.

Additionally, I've had oil analysis done on my highest output bike motor since it had 600 miles (now at 12K).

My experience has been that bearing wear will generally show up initially as high aluminum readings mixed with progressively higher copper/tin/lead readings.

If you are showing high iron or chromium levels IMO we are most likely talking crankshaft or camshaft surface wear. Of course this is not good.

Also, FWIW in all of the samples I've sent in for analysis if you scrutinze things closely enough you WILL find little tiny shiny particulates. Its called engine wear. The critical factor is WHAT those particulates are made of and the concentration, and for the life of me I've never been able to determine that by just looking at them. ;-)

I have used Oil Analyzers Inc. for years and always been happy with their service.

[perryinva]

HMMM, every bearing and race on any car engine I've worked on has always been magnetic. I've not taken apart any Porsche engine. (just BMWs, VWs and some American iron. I know nothing about motorcycle engines.) Any tiny particles that can be seen are most likely machined residue or something coming apart. Acceptable normal machine wear, whether bearings, cam or crank shafts should not be easily seen visible particles, but near inviisible increased metal particles in suspension. Race cars, ultra hi performance, etc are different. Now, it may be that the M96 engines have normal wear that is mechanically engineering wise, unacceptable, which would then be the most likely culprit of their oil based observed destructions. Shame on Porsche if that is the case, but it is not unprecedented. Visible metal particles will cause advanced wear and oil passage clogging, and this, of course, is not normal. AFAIK, a cars life is still defined as 100k miles, an dif it is totally worn out at that mileage, there really is not much to be said, but we've come to expect a lot more, though, from almost all makers. I've only done one oil change myself on my 996 (at 41k miles), and the analysis from Blackstone did not show anything unusual, (knock on wood) and my filter pleats had no obvious particles of any kind. I wish now I'd kept the old filter and back flushed it through filter paper, but at the time, I wasn't thinking along these lines. I always have inspected the pleats on this type of filter, ever since I've owned BMWs.