I will get in on the act too. Thoughts. Still trying to get the lead out!!!

 

I don't mean to alarm you but I truly believe your engine is going south. Lead bearing wear is overly excessive. Do you recall ever running low on oil any time in the past ? as that is the main cause of bearing damage. The damage will likely rear its ugly head sometime down the road unexpectedly (feel free to ask me how I know )

I only had one bad UOA report after a dozen great reports and then the motor failed by puking its main bearings on a leisurely drive one day. When lead wear exceeds copper wear by such a large margin something is wrong with the bearings. The million dollar question is how much longer it can run like that, and which bearings are failing - either rod bearings or main bearings. Hopefully it is the rod bearings.

I am not sure what thrust washers are made of , but it could be a thrust washer if they are constructed the same as the engine bearings - copper/lead ?. When main bearings and thrust washers expire they can take out the entire block, failed rod bearings can fail without killing the motor sometimes. Do you have an overly stiff aftermarket clutch ?, that can lead to thrust washer damage in some instances.

Something may be causing flashpoint to drop slightly, not a huge amount but it has dropped, but I can't see anything obvious. It might be fuel if Blackstone's calibration of fuel dilution is very inaccurate. Fuel dilution can cause increased bearing wear. Viscosity is a bit low but not crazy low, then again not sure how accurate blackstone labs is for viscosity calcs. Every lab is a bit different. The sodium spike can be from some engine additives, did you use any engine additives in the past oil change intervals ? I know when I used Redline's additive it caused sodium levels to increase substantially.

Just my casual observations here, hoping for the best with this one.

 

This is a salvaged engine so it only has 16K miles that I DON'T know of. The first oil analysis was done on the engine and it showed as you can see Lead of 1.

I do have an ACT-PP with OEM Clutch but that's normal for our cars.

I have thought about pulling the pan this winter and checking the rod bearings but people say that could just introduce the possibility of messing things up MORE.(or just messing them up period)

I thought about doing a plastiguage on the rod bearings only. If any out of spec then seek/follow the proper and exact way to change w/o damaging anything. Installing new bearings of same spec as original then re-checking clearance.

It's the copper that has me scratching my head going if there are NO OTHER wear metals showing up in concerning amounts. So am I catching this early or is it something else?

I will find and post the PRIOR engine that puked less than 3K after a Blackstone Report that said there was bearing wear!

 

Original '00 S2K Engine at 110K less than 3K before spun bearing!

 

I would pull the pan and check, if it is the rod bearings you may be able to save the crankshaft if soon enough. I can't see the harm in that. You may also see chunks of bearing in the pan, the chunks don't drain out they remain trapped in the low spots of the pan most of the time. I had a ton of metal in my pan, not a single chunk drained out.

The bearings are tri-metal or at least bi-metal, so copper only comes from the bearings along with lead. No other source of copper in the engine. Some people say copper can come from oil coolers but I say it is all bearing material.

 

Pinky and Doc, your oil has sheared down to a 20w oil. Don't use that oil or move up to a 0/40 or 10/40. Some of the oil you have used sheared down to a 20w in less than 2000 miles. Any time the cST is below 9.30 then its classified as a 20w. I run a mix of two oils in my S but when I'm on a long trip in our S and have to change the oil while on vacation, I put straight Mobil1 0/40 in it and it also has sheared down but only to a mid 30w and never close to a 20w oil.

Pinky, you have something going on with your bearings and you should pull the pan and take a look. You might get lucky and be able to fix it before it kills the whole engine.

ROD

 

Hey Rod. I have hit up at least 2-3 people on this and they all said messing with the bearings is almost asking for trouble but to up my oil type and change in shorter intervals..........and do another oil analysis to see if I can finally GET THE LEAD OUT!

I have already pulled the pan to tap it for a SC so pulling it again won't be too bad since I know I can do it again easily enough. So pulling it over the winter might be in the cards to just assure there are no larger particles hanging around in there.

She only has 40K on her and I already had a prior engine spin a bearing so if I can help it at all I WON'T go through that again!

 

What kinda oil pressure are you measuring?

 

In my experience bearing wear does not stop on these engines once it starts, it is just a matter of time when the damage finally gets to the point of the engine being unusable. If you feel comfortable driving the car then keep doing so, if you don't mind the risk of it happening some place away from your home. When my engine puked I was on a leisurely drive about 1km from home and I was able to nurse it home.

At some point in the past the crankshaft has knicked the bearings - either rod bearings or the main bearing - or vice-versa. Over time that knick gets bigger and bigger and the bearings eventually give up the ghost, the question is whether or not they take out the crankshaft and the resulting damage and low oil pressure takes out the block cylidners (scoring). So someone saying not to mess with the bearings is taking a risk with the potential being total engine failure. I am not suggesting opening the engine up and taking the bearings out and putting the same ones back in. I suggest having a look a the road bearings, if they are damaged then replace the bearings with new and fix any crank scuffing as Billman has done for many engines. If the rod bearings are good then you will know that it is the main bearings that are failing, and that leads to an entirely different scenario.