Metal Shaving in Engine Oil.

[FujiwaraTofu86]

So the last 4 oil change I did on my car.

there are a lot of metal shaving in the engine oil, most of them are small but a couple of them are as big as 5-6mm.

brief history of the car:

I bough it used around 20,000miles

I did a full season of autocross and a dozen track day.

used 5w-20 Mobil 1 for performance driving

Always check oil level before I go out onto the track

NO oil cooler - this is probably why my engine is showing sign of failure.

Posting here to see if anyone have a different opinion on any other reason why beside not running an oil cooler.
and before pulling the motor does any know which engine component is failing?

[jasonojordan]

What are the shavings of. IE brass, aluminum, and so on.

[mav1178]

Only answer you should get is via an used oil analysis from Blackstone or another lab.

Visuals won't tell you anything.

[FujiwaraTofu86]

Originally Posted by jasonojordan

What are the shavings of. IE brass, aluminum, and so on.

they look to be gold in colour. almost all of them are gold

[jasonojordan]

Originally Posted by mav1178

Only answer you should get is via an used oil analysis from Blackstone or another lab.

Visuals won't tell you anything.

Do this.

[FujiwaraTofu86]

Originally Posted by mav1178

Only answer you should get is via an used oil analysis from Blackstone or another lab.

Visuals won't tell you anything.

yeah you're right,

I'm just curious,

Without an oil cooler I never stay out on track longer than 10-15 minutes per session.

I always top off or check the oil level before I go out and Im up north so we don't get temperature here like California or other places.

[venturaII]

Originally Posted by FujiwaraTofu86

used 5w-20 Mobil 1 for performance driving

I also suggest going to at least 0W-30 if you're going to track it. 5W-20 isn't helping things one bit once you're at operating temps, and is likely increasing the warmup time compared to the 0W-20 factory fill.

[mav1178]

Originally Posted by venturaII

I also suggest going to at least 0W-30 if you're going to track it. 5W-20 isn't helping things one bit once you're at operating temps, and is likely increasing the warmup time compared to the 0W-20 factory fill.

Hard to suggest a heavier weight without knowing what temps the oils were at under track conditions.

One can run 20 weight oil and still be fine if they were babying the car, or keeping the oil temps below 250F. Or they can totally destroy the engine by redlining in daily commutes and letting the temps float above 265F.

Without temp data from engine oil the guessing game can never end. I got my oil up to almost 270F just by redlining it slowly in 2nd gear in ~30MPH traffic.

[venturaII]

Originally Posted by mav1178

Hard to suggest a heavier weight without knowing what temps the oils were at under track conditions.

The recommendation was based on the fact that it's not hard at all to overheat the oil in this car, as you point out. Additionally, my point was more that going from 0W-20 to 5W-20 isn't doing squat for protection, and likely doing more harm than good when the oil is cold.