shootsmcgee

So I'm doing an oil change, air filter and accessory belt to the girlfriends toyota corolla today and come across something that makes every guy cringe. When dumping the oil from the catch pan into the big bucket I notice a lot of brassy looking metallic flake in the bottom of the catch pan... I think this can't be good, so I cut her filter and press it in the vice. The filter element comes out perfectly clean and I can't find a trace of anything on it. Then I start to panic and realize I changed the oil in the truck (2012 ecoboost) last week! I still have the old filter sitting next to used oil jugs for recycling so I grab it and cut the thing open. Upon inspection I notice no metallic flake whatsoever but lots of what appears to be carbon deposits?? The truck has 160000 kilometres and I'm assuming that the infamous direct injection carbon buildup is rearing its ugly head. The only thing I can think of is that small carbon chunks are coming off the head and being ground up in the turbo and making their way into the engine oil. Any of you guys with ecoboosts cutting the filters and finding the same thing?? Truck runs strong, no turbo or lower end noise, never had a CEL code. Bit of a rough idle for a minute when its cold but other than that it runs like new.

cscott900

Send in for an oil analysis on your next change. Definitely worth the 25 or 30 bucks to know what is going on inside there for sure.

antony1103

This. Blackstone Labs will give you a report with (almost) everything you need to know. I get one every 25k miles to watch for trends. If you are worried about wear and insolubles, it will definitely pinpoint it if that's a problem. If you still have the oil separated and you're really worried, send that in as a sample. If not, just wait till the next oil change and send a fresh one.

Tothemax

X3

shootsmcgee

Oh yeah I'll be sending a sample into Fluid Life when I get off work in a week. In only a week since changing the oil I have put on 3000 kilometres so whatever is in there should show up pretty good. It has to be carbon from the heads as I can't think of anything else it could possibly be. Always run the top flight full synthetic from Pennz, Castrol or Mobil (whatever on sale at canadain tire) and a synthetic Mobil or NAPA gold filter (wix). Premium fuel and OTI are at 6 or 7K (kilometres). Engine itself runs like a top although it chugs fuel. 2.5 levelling kit and 275/65r20 duratracs which are heavy give me about 17/100kms or 14mpg.
Love the truck and I drive it hard. If I have to do a midlife and pull the heads and totally spit shine them then so be it. Wish I would have done it in the summer though, it's getting cold up here and the new garage is tiny and not insulated...

mass-hole

Amsoil does oil analysis too, and from the threads ive seen lately Blackstone gets poopoo'd.

Blackstone told me my Jeep Liberty CRD had extreme upper end wear even though I just replaced the rockers with brand new ones and run Rotella T6 with an Amsoil dual bypass 2 micron filter system. 10,000 miles later and its running better than it has in a long time lol.

Tones

The carbon deposits are normal. I've seen them on other vehicles in the past on conventional oil. However, I haven't seen these since I switched my vehicles to Mobil 1 synthetic oil about 15 years ago. Its probably anecdotal--I'm not saying they aren't present but they certainly aren't obvious. These carbon deposits are extremely hard and abrasive to the engine. I'm pretty sure they're formed around the rings and can scour the the pistons on the way out.

shootsmcgee

Thanks for the reply Tones. Crazy wind went through the province the last couple weeks and I spent all days off cutting and dragging out some large balsam fir the blew down at the cabin. Anyways I didn't have any time to drop the oil and get a sample so it'll have to wait another week until I'm off. I run mobil 1 synthetic probably 80% of the time as it always goes on sale with the bonus 1 litre jug. I'll have to pick out some of those particles and give them the "crunch test" on a solid, smooth surface to see how hard they actually are.

George Ficken

I’ve looked everywhere for this, thank you for posting. I have the exact same thing and no one can give me a clear answer as to what it is and why it’s there. Also, everyone I’ve talked to says don’t worry about it but it can’t be good for the engine to have these crusty gritty flakes floating around.

I took a magnet to it it’s definitely not ferrous metal and I can break most of them up so I’m pretty sure it’s carbon deposits.

I just want to know if this is bad and how I can stop it from happening.

I change oil every 5k miles with Penzoil Platinum Full Synthetic and use Motorcraft filters. I also put in a can of Gumout Tuneup every oil change to the fuel tank.

George Ficken

Just an update, I have switched oils from Penzoil Platinum Full Synth to Mobil1 Full Syth and I am seeing MUCH less of these deposits on the filter. I have changed the oil twice (10k miles) with Mobil1 and not only are the carbon deposits subsiding, I counted on average 7-10 metal flakes in the media with the Penzoil and I am getting 2-3 with the Mobil1.

I did my most recent oil change with Amzoil Signature Syth, going to see how the filter looks after the next 5k miles. Very impressed with the results from Mobil1 on this issue, I have to say I would recommend it. The Amzoil is suppoed to be really great, I saw a guy on Youtube (link below) testing these oils and the Amzoil SS had the most Molybdenum and Boron with the least contaminants. Also, Project Farm on Youtube scored Amzoil one of the highest on all of his tests. I'm getting about 1.5 mpg better with he Amzoil so far.

Will post results of Amzoil Filter cut also when I change it.