Itinerant Air-Cooled

What are these bits of metal in the oil strainer? Bearings? It seems to be running fine. Anything I could or should do?

looks like bearing material to me. But, has anyone been drilling in the motor - say installing gallery plugs? A couple look like drill shavings.

sgkent wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 18, 2017 11:09 am

looks like bearing material to me. But, has anyone been drilling in the motor - say installing gallery plugs? A couple look like drill shavings.

Not since I bought it three years ago. I cleaned the strainer then and found similar bits. What is the black piece with square edges sitting on top of the lower right hand rib? Valve stem seal?

Mike

Happyfolk wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 18, 2017 11:14 am

What is the black piece with square edges sitting on top of the lower right hand rib? Valve stem seal?

Mike

A bit of cork valve cover gasket that got knocked off by a rocker arm?

Clean strainer plate and check in 2,000 miles. We need to assess when your engine is likely to grenade.
Colin

I checked the pieces with a strong magnet and they aren't attracted to the magnet at all.

Looks like some babbit (bearing surface) and some leftovers from tapping the galley plugs to me. Check at the next oil change. What oil are you using?

Castrol GTX 20W50.

Is this a high Zinc oil? All modern oil now are low or no zinc as it fouls the cats so since VW's need zinc to lube the cam lobes to lifter faces please use those oils instead. Your cam will love you for it.

Bleyseng wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 21, 2017 7:28 pm

Is this a high Zinc oil? All modern oil now are low or no zinc as it fouls the cats so since VW's need zinc to lube the cam lobes to lifter faces please use those oils instead. Your cam will love you for it.

OP says the particles aren't magnetic, so the wear is not cam/lifter related. Because of that, I'd say the oil is irrelevant. (Source: I had a cam/lifter failure last year with the high-zinc racing oils for the life of the engine.)

Robbie

asiab3 wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 21, 2017 10:34 pm

Bleyseng wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 21, 2017 7:28 pm

Is this a high Zinc oil? All modern oil now are low or no zinc as it fouls the cats so since VW's need zinc to lube the cam lobes to lifter faces please use those oils instead. Your cam will love you for it.

OP says the particles aren't magnetic, so the wear is not cam/lifter related. Because of that, I'd say the oil is irrelevant. (Source: I had a cam/lifter failure last year with the high-zinc racing oils for the life of the engine.)

Robbie

Thank-you, yes, crackerjack differential analysis there.

Found a nice photo of dhoch14's #2 main bearing failure (c. 2008) that would have left chunks in the strainer:




The Road Warrior hit 220,000 miles on the camshaft before I replaced it, It was the replacement lifters from Bus Depot that kept failing along the bottoms at barely 70,000 miles two times in a row.
Don't remember any magnetic metal flakeage in the strainer. Here is May 9, 2009:




I have 110,335 miles on the BobD, and it is Castrol GTX from the get-go, camshaft and lifters are FINE.
NaranjaWesty's factory camshaft and lifters are FINE at 72,350 miles.
Pluck's factory camshaft and lifters at 55,500 miles are FINE!
Chloe's new craptastic lifters and camshaft I think are fine.

What we have here with the zinc-fortified oil brigade is the same misattributions that lead people to synthetic oils as a "cure" for hot oil temps that should not be so hot in the first place. We have had some real problems with metallurgy in the lifters and camshaft lobes, that is the issue, not the composition of the oil.

You know, Robbie, I photographed the box that my lifters from Air-Cooled.Net came from . . .

So I should just dump some Slick 50 or STP in there and it should be fine right!?

"What we have here with the zinc-fortified oil brigade is the same misattributions that lead people to synthetic oils as a "cure" for hot oil temps that should not be so hot in the first place. We have had some real problems with metallurgy in the lifters and camshaft lobes, that is the issue, not the composition of the oil."

This comment flies in the face of real scientific testing vs seat of the pants gosh O'golly it works for me.

Bleyseng wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 22, 2017 8:27 pm

"What we have here with the zinc-fortified oil brigade is the same misattributions that lead people to synthetic oils as a "cure" for hot oil temps that should not be so hot in the first place. We have had some real problems with metallurgy in the lifters and camshaft lobes, that is the issue, not the composition of the oil."

This comment flies in the face of real scientific testing vs seat of the pants gosh O'golly it works for me.

Until we get an actual scientific test on the sheer environments on vintage flat-tappet cams, we only have anecdotal evidence to go on. High-zinc oil didn't do anything for my acute cam/lifter failure last year, and the lowest zinc oil of all time gives Colin decent engine life. So we have the highest mileage Volkswagens in the country flying in the face of "conventional wisdom" and the OP's parts are STILL non-magnetic.

HappyFolk, have you carefully cut open your old oil filter yet? We should get a look at the inside.

Robbie

No it went in the trash and is gone. I'll have to wait until I drop the strainer again in 2000 miles as Colin suggested.
I was running high zinc Valvoline Heavy Duty Diesel 15W40 the first two years I had this bus, then switched to Castrol 20W50 a year ago.

that strainer is holding sgt. kent's drilling shards & the overlay from the camshaft bearings.
non-issue(s). Type IV camshaft bearings 'flake' it's what they do. : (