Gold flakes in oil...

[CoupedUpSubie]

Changed my oil today and inspected the pan after and here is a picture of what I found. Some of the spots are dirt from under my car.

I have thousands of what look like gold flakes sitting in the pan. I did leave the car sitting for a couple months with older synthetic oil, maybe 3000 miles on it. Should I drive it for a while and do another oil change and see what I find?

 

[drvsdwz]

gold flakes mean bearing wear

and if there's more on your next change, you might want to source another engine.....how many miles do you have on your car?

 

[IBratmanI]

Yep, that's the signs of a spun bearing! And if that happens, it's definitely cheaper and easier to replace the entire motor.

 

[CoupedUpSubie]

The car just rolled over 170k miles.

 

[Legwagon]

!!I was gonna say you're rich!! haha, sorry I'm no help but It's good to see that others are and gain some knowledge.

 

[CoupedUpSubie]

!!I was gonna say you're rich!! haha, sorry I'm no help but It's good to see that others are and gain some knowledge.

I was contemplating getting cheese cloth and getting as much as I can.

 

[Chris]

Grab a cheap ej22 and swap it in

Should be a complete direct swap, just bolt the 1.8 manifold onto the 2.2

 

[CoupedUpSubie]

If I find more flakes on the next oil change I will be buying a 2.2. But right now isn't optimal as I just bought a ton of stuff for school.

 

[Meyagi]

i have a good 1.8 u can have for 150

 

[CoupedUpSubie]

Any idea on the mileage?

 

[Meyagi]

was the original motor from my winter beater impreza, prob had 150k on it when it was pulled like 6 years ago. ran good tho, just replaced it with a 2.2 at the time

 

[CoupedUpSubie]

As far as taking an engine that has been sitting that long and using it is there anything I should do? I would really hate to swap an engine only to have the same problem again.

 

[Chris]

I got a 150ish k mile 2.2 from mike. It had sat for 2 years or something. I pulled the plugs and sprayed fogging oil in the cylinder. Cranked the engine over by hand a few turns to make sure nothing was seized up or sticky. Then I cranked the engine over with the starter until the oil light went off. Cranked it over for another 20 seconds. At this point I was pretty certain there was oil in all the bearings and the cylinders were lubricated.

I connected the coil pack and the injector plugs and it started right up on the first crank over. Sounded awesome, no knocking or anything you'd hear if you were just to fire it up dry.

Only warning with engines that have sat for a long time. The oil leaks will have dried up and it will look like it doesn't leak any oil. Mine weeps at the crank or cam seals (ok, I should have done all that crap before I installed it, but I was in a bind to have a working car). And the oil pan was completely rusted out. It leaked huge amount of oil out of the pan. Fortunately I have enough blowed up motors I just cleaned an old pan and threw it on.