Fresh Build Oil Filter Inspection
Just swapped my 86 GXL last fall with a rebuilt S4 TII, large street port, external oil mod, omp delete, hybrid turbo, and running rtek 1.7. Did my first oil change on it after 1500 kms this past weekend. I'm in aviation and we often dissect our oil filters to check for debris, mainly magnetic particulate. Not sure if anyone else in the community does this, but I thought it would be a good idea given the rebuild. Didn't find many aluminum deposits, a bit of gasket material, and no magnetic debris, but considering the nature of rotaries I'm not surprised in that. I did however find about 10-20 1/32-1/16" flakes of copper, possibly bearing material. Is it abnormal to see bearing material in a rotary in it's first oil change since a rebuild? I usually expect some bearing material in a fresh reciprocating engine rebuild, maybe a bit less than what I seen in mine, but unless oil pressure was low, it would be a situation of monitor the oil and see if it gets better or worse. I can't say for sure if the bearings were replaced or not, I bought the engine already rebuilt, and all I was given was invoice for Atkins that proved all the seals were replaced. I did a search and the other thing I found was a case of a guy asking about flushing his oil cooler that had copper flakes in it, and the consensus was to keep running the engine.
Should I be concerned yet? I think I'm going to continue to drive the car for another 1500 km and see if there is still copper in the filter, but I also want to make sure if I am starting to have bearing failure that I catch it before any of the expensive parts are destroyed.
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