Bits in engine oil What would you do?

mad-dawg

mad-dawg

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Afternoon Peolpe.
Just changed oil and filter on my 96 1100GS, and the pictured chunks of alloy were in the oil.:(

The 5p is for scale and was not in the engine.

My question is;
Do I forget about it and just ride the dammed thing till it either lunches itself or does another 50K with no problems, or run it for 100 miles change the oil and filter and repeat reguarly to ascertain whether there is ongoing damage. OR strip the engine and investigate (bearing in ming its spring, I have only had the bike 3 weeks and I sold my other bike yesterday.:blast
 
I take it kicking the previous owner in the b0ll0x isn't on the agenda?.:augie
How many miles has the bike done,how is it running,are there any other symptoms and is it making nasty noises?.
I would ask about any strange noises but they all make strange noises.
Crankcases,pistons,barrels and heads are all the alloy components.
 
If it's running OK at the moment, I'd hazard a wild guess that this is the result of an earlier malfunction which has been rectified (i.e. the motor has been rebuilt once already.)
 
run it, could be just a piece of casting, check the oil a bit later if u really want to, if it sounds ok, could be nowt important:thumb2


but, then again?.......................................................:augie
 
Measure your oil pressure & drop your sump plate & inspect. If possible, ask the previous owner the history of the engine. Don't plan any long trips until you find out WTF is going on...
 
If it was mine I think i would most likely crap mesen, how does the engine sound? are the camchains noisy?
Stewart
 
I've had worse than that out of the donkey.I thought I'd try and kill it,but that was about 200k ago,and I'd forgotten all about it until I saw this:tears

You have to make your own mind up I'm afraid.That might have been in there from new,and just decided to come loose,OR,it might be just about to let go bit time.It's your bike and money at the end of the day,so read what every one says,then do what you think is right.
 
Ouch :eek
I couldn't bring myself to ignore chunks like that.

Are you sure they're all alloy - could the darker ones be plastic?

My best guess would be camchain tensioners and alloy being knocked around by camchains.

If it were mine I'd pull the heads and take a look at the tensioner blades - it'll only cost you a couple of head gaskets. Failing that I guess it's a stripdown (edit: or as Vern says - ignore it and trust to fate)

However perhaps others will have some ideas - Steptoe or one of those who take BM's to bits for a living may well have seen something similar.

best
Matt
 
I did find a very interesting thread on ADVrider where a chap managed to replace his plastic tensioner blades without splitting the cases, I will have a look tonight.

Stewart
 
Stewart H said:
I did find a very interesting thread on ADVrider where a chap managed to replace his plastic tensioner blades without splitting the cases, I will have a look tonight.

Stewart
Click to expand...

I think I recall Steptoe saying this was possible....
 
Vern said:
I've had worse than that out of the donkey.I thought I'd try and kill it,but that was about 200k ago,and I'd forgotten all about it until I saw this:tears

You have to make your own mind up I'm afraid.That might have been in there from new,and just decided to come loose,OR,it might be just about to let go bit time.It's your bike and money at the end of the day,so read what every one says,then do what you think is right.
Click to expand...


I believe you're right.

I have never examined the oil coming out of this or any bike I've owned. bits in the oil is what the filter is there for.

I trust my gut feeling and actual riding experience - if the bike starts to behave in an odd manner. strange noises (stranger than usual) then react... but otherwise. just ride the thing.

maybe this is what you should do.. maybe it isn't. BUT if the bike is behaving exactly as it always has - then there is probably a reason for this.

as you can tell I was never good at paranoia.
 
The good news is that the bits are no longer in your engine, so can't get into your oil pump.

Obviously the bad news is that you don't know where they came from.

If the bike survives the next few weeks use, it'll probably be OK.

I'd be tempted to run for a month, drop the oil & filter, check & refill then rag the tits off it to see if she breaks. If not, relax.

I'd also be tempted to confront the previous owner and gauge their reaction to a few difficult questions......
 
Bits and Pieces

Thanks for the advice chaps.
The bike is new to me and came from North Scotland via the well known Yorkshire BM specialist,and was bought as seen so its buyer beware.
The engine is quiet except for throttle body tick on RHS, its done 49K and the oil I dropped looked fairly recent. I dropped the gearbox and Fd oil to get a feel for how its innards might have been cared for and gearbox oil was clean but FD oil was black, small collection of fur on both drain plugs did not concern me.
I will cut open the old filter and check for pistons and bearings and report back, the swarf is definataly alloy (i have a magnet) I have no fears about stripping the engine but dont want to miss biking season if it can wait. I know its impossible to identify where it came from without a stripdown, anybody got a view on cost of stripdown/re-build against SH engine?
Just checked £400 for bottom end SH so that might have to go on birthday list, along with the stripper of course.
 
I have read the advice you have got and my 10p worth is change oil again just to see what else comes out. If it is clean and no more bits in it I would put back the oil cross fingers and blaze away JJH
 
MattW said:
I think I recall Steptoe saying this was possible....
Click to expand...


It is do-able and fairly simply, and saves splitting the engine. :thumb

Carefully take a piece out of the end of the tensioner blade so it has to be forced onto the mount, instead of splitting the engine and sliding it on.

And take the section out from the part that is opposite where all the pressure is applied. If you know what i mean.
 
Brewers Whoop said:
Mad-dawg -

Was the swarf attracted to the magnet? If so, it's not alloy. Or did you mean it's metal, but NOT attracted to the magnet?
Click to expand...

Hi Mr Whoop
The swarf was in the drain pan with the old oil and the drain plug was clean, Its alloy but the photo does not show the silver colour very well on some of the pieces.
I have the surgeons gown on and am off to dive in the bin and retrieve the old filter and perform an autopsy. I will report back later
Thanks for your advice
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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