Oil change debris and startup rattle

[Zordrack]

Hey guys,

I have a sinking feeling that I ran into one of those landmines and figured I would ask for a sanity check.

Last oil change (81k miles) I found a few things.

First off I had replaced the drain plug with a magnetic one and when I pulled it I found a ferrous film on the magnet. Almost like a ferrofluid. No metallic debris, but definitely "something" ferrous in the oil.

Secondly. I found plastic flecks in the oil filter. No chunks but flecks. Roughly 2x2x0.1mm in size.
Probably about 20 or so in total.

Thirdly. On startup there was a distinct rattle for a few minutes until it started warming up. Then it slowly went away.
Now my girlfriend daily drives this so I don't really know how it sounds at startup on a day to day basis. And the ebay exhaust that the previous owner stuck on it rattles a lot, so I wouldn't necessarily expect her to hear it and recognize it as a distinct sound.

Camshaft deviation, according to durametric, is 3 and 6 degrees respectively.

So my concern is that I have bad tensioners, worn guides, and a dying IMS.

Am I correct in that assessment ?

And if I am then am I correct in the following conclusion ?
If I'm pulling the engine then I might as well replace not just chain tensioners, chain guides, IMS, RMS, but also also AOS, clutch, water pump and oil pump.

Anything else WYIT that I missed ?

Please let me know.
Any and all input and/or corrections are more than welcome.

Thank you

[Novas1but74]

Might as well do plugs and coils…… it is that time…. Hairline cracks are highly likely in on the coils and the while your in there plugs for good measure as your doing so much work already and this is easy to do and can ck the gaskets when pulling the plugs….. then your good for many more trouble free miles!! Sucks but works doing…….. my experience has been pre-emptive is best with these engines rather than fix when broke!!! That has been more expensive for me…….

[Zordrack]

Did plugs, coils, tubes, MAF, air filter and a bunch of other little stuff last oil change.

But am I overly pessimistic in my assessment ?
And if not is there anything else I've left out ?

[elgyqc]

What colour is the plastic? I just changed my tensioner pads and the old ones looked like this at about 90K miles:



You can see the plastic comes of in little chips so that could explain your "flecks". My deviations were a bit higher than yours.

From what I have read on oil filter analysis you should expect to have some metal, engines shed metal as someone said somewhere. I just installed a magnetic drain plug and have not looked at it since so don't know if it can be expected to have the ferrous particles that you describe. Has it changed since the previous oil change?

I tend to be an IMSB sceptic based on examining 3 bearings in engines from 90K to 120K miles. On two I pulled the bearing seal, verified that the bearing turned smoothly and had no play and left it like that. Both these bearings had no grease in them but some reasonably clean oil drained out. The IMSB in the third engine, that I am presently working on, seems to turn smoothly and not have play but there was no oil in it. Most worrying was that there was what looks like dried grease on the seal and in the bearing. See post #5 of this thread.
http://986forum.com/forums/performance-technical-chat/80969-going-through-my-original-engine.html#post637944
I still haven't decided what to do with the bearing, but looking at the pictures again is pushing me towards changing it.

Good luck with your engine.

[Zordrack]

Thank you for the reply.
I just really need a sanity check from someone more knowledgeable than me before going full hulk on this on a gut feeling.

The plastic is definitely brown.
So from what I've been able to read that indicates the guides rather than the pads.
Although if I'm changing one I figure I'm changing all.

As for change over time, that's a little bit more complicated.
We recently bought this car so this is my second oil change.
And honestly, from the workmanship I've seen elsewhere on this car, the previous owner wasn't the greatest.

So really. All I can say is that I did not notice anything on the first oil change where I also installed the magnetic drain plug.
Now on the second oil change I do.

So that could mean something or nothing.
A point that I'm fully aware of, which is yet another reason I'm looking for a sanity check.

But as far as I can figure out, the only ferrous wear components in this engine will be ball bearings and chains.
Hence my concern at finding ferrous material on the plug.

I do wanna take care of this car and do what needs to be done to keep it in good running order.
I do not wanna "fix" what ain't broken coz of ignorance.

But I'm a very slow wrench turner.
So if I'm pulling the engine then I wanna make sure I get everything that needs to be done to maximize the possibility that I don't have to do it again anytime soon