Unknown material in oil filter?

[Liamray]

Originally Posted by Liamray

I will be replacing the ‘variocam tensioners’, the 3 screw in tensioners and the paddles that I can reach without splitting the cases. When I say I’m doing it that’s not entirely true, though I’ve removed the transmission and have the engine ready to drop out, I have a Porsche Mechanic doing the work on the engine.

Finished replacing all the Cam and Timing Chain Tensioners, the ‘Variocam’ Tensioners were very worn and the lower pad (closest to the engine) was by far the worst. I dissected the Variocam Tensioner and found that the Phenolic Seals in the tensioners had worn the bore of the tensioner and was allowing oil to bleed past so that the tensioner couldn’t operate correctly. I checked the rest of the engine and everything looked good, some slight scoring on just one of the cam journals but none in any of the rest.
After doing the work and putting the car back together, it ran like new with ‘NO’ dreaded chain rattle at start up, and the performance was so much better than before the tensioners were replaced, found that one of the O2 sensors heating circuit was dead so have just ordered 2 new sensors, but even with the sensor the car goes and sounds so much better, and now it’s not embarrassing to start when people are around, before I had people ask me if it was a diesel!
Porsche should include all of the tensioners in the maintenance schedule, I’ve heard so many people on here complaining about the dreaded ‘Chain Rattle’, and have heard others say that it’s just normal, well it’s not! Since finishing the tensioners my car starts without any hint of a rattle at all!