A few question, does the engine still run? How did or does it sound? How did you cut the filter apart? Pulling the oil pan is pretty straight forward and would only cost a pan gasket set. You should be able tell if something is wrong or if it's shoddy cleaning. If it's in the car, the pan won't come off without a fight if it's in a factory frame. The small amount of metallic oil would bother me to much, it depends on the cylinder wall finish. How much oil pressure did it have?
I don’t know Man I’ve seen some crazy stuff happen,,, Like short block on an engine stand for a few days maybe parked near a drill press,,, or under the area electricians we’re working. Maybe short block standing up on the floor waiting to go and the guy hits his machine with an air hose and chips go flying. The last goof up I saw was a 62 Chevy with a new motor that got hot within 5 mins of running. The shop doing the install bitching at the engine builder. The engine builder bitching at the install shop.... finger pointing, puffy egos and all these super smart ego maniacs don’t spend 10 mins diagnosing anything for over a year. My buddy begs me to look at the car and i do. I talked with the builder for few mins. Talk to the shop for a few mins before I do anything. Takes 10 mins to figure out there’s no flow thru the engine. Call the builder,,, we eliminate gaskets then discuss rags, mice, and crap possibly in the radiator because he capped the water pump. Pull the lower hose off the water pump and there’s the cap the builder put on under the hose the shop shoved over the cap.
I see some good points. I concur it looks like debris from preassembly. I also like the idea of pulling the bearing caps. Also talk it over with the machine shop is good advice. let us know what you figure out when you run it to ground
Gulp... got a Melling on my 355... it came with the pan kit. I pulled it apart to check the innards and see how clean it was. Dunked it in solvent anyway, blew it dry, assembled it with fresh oil. It turned nicely even before I took it apart.
They may have chased the threads using a tap, my best guess. The tap cut a little at the bottom and they didn't get all the chips out. A cutting tap also cuts a little off the threads themselves. In an engine shop, the nasty ass chore of block cleaning goes to the low man on the totem pole most of the time. If nobody checks his work, crap like this happens.
^^^^ that's where I started. Clean and clean, then the boss would check it, then I would be cleaning it again. It amazed me how he could still find crap in it.
LOL My first real boss, Red Mayfield, showed me how 'smart I was' with the same lesson. Made me really think, instead of just 'breezing through' such a menial task of cleaning. "Not clean 'til it's clean, Son... Huh?" Red always ended an observation with "Huh?" Taught me a lot. Taught me to 'think'.
sloppy machinist/rebuilder. That's just chips from the machining process and should have been washed out before assembly. But it happens more than you would suspect. There was a shop here in town that would do the machine work on your short block and for an extra 35 dollars they would assemble the short block for ya. that was what you got for the 35 dollars.
Sir, The engine sounded FANTASTIC on its last start up with proper oil pressure. I cut the filter open. 1-2 small soft flakes that broke in my fingers.
I agree with beaner, looks like sloppy cleaning to me, our students usually clean blocks 2-3 times again after they tell us it’s spotless. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Bearings looked fine. No metal found anywhere except in the oil pan. 60lb of oil pressure. Runs at 205 before being tuned, have the timing set at 8 BTDC for the break in.
I had one brought to me recently that looked about the same, some of the crap was ferrous, some not. Once i started looking, they had guide plates with stock pushrods. There was a little of both in the pan.
As Scooby Doo would say, Roh Roh ! I would also take builder the oil & say "what ya gonna do about it"? Good luck!
Revisiting....IMO there should be no debate. That is an enormous amount of trash none of which should be there. Motor needs a careful forensic tear down and careful inspection. ( to be sure it was not self distructing on its own and why or it just wasn't cleaned....or some asshole deliberately put the metal in the long block). From the looks of various metals I would point the finger to the machine shop or whom ever assembled the long block. Sent from my XT1710-02 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
here's another thought. what happened to the motor that made it need a rebuild? I did a motor than ran out of oil and killed the bearings. machine shop built the shortblock and did not remove the giant bearing pieces from under the baffles in the oil pan. the guy tried to tell me it was not his fault because I put the heads on and the pieces probably came from the heads. he couldn't explain how big bearing chunks got from the crank to the head. I did two more motors after that with another shop. now he is out of business.
When I had my engine shop, 30 years ago, I used a hot tank. Always cleaned the oil passages with a wire brush. So fast forward to 3 years ago when I had a 460 block cleaned and bored by the engine shop in Atlantic, Iowa. I trust no machinest, so I dug out my old gallery brushes and ran it in the main oil gallery. It was full of sludge, was never touched. That was done by a certified tech school machinest.
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