OT Metal in oil - newer engine

Oil change, Ford 3.0 Duratec

I was changing the oil over the weekend and got a big surprise - lots of visible metal flakes (extremely small - like the aluminum stop leak - actually suspended by the oil) in the oil drain pan and a few visible "chunks" big enough to pick out (about the size of the ball in the ball point pen). I know it’s not good, but how bad is it? The 2006 engine only has 70K on it and had oil changes every 3K miles with five quarts Motorcraft Synthetic blend and one quart Mobile 1 synthetic, with a Motorcraft filter and no abuse (no towing and very little city driving).

Any part on these engines that anyone"s aware of that might go early or have some issues? I"ve found metal in the oil from this vehicle in past, just very fine flakes and I wasn"t too worried about it since the next time or two there wouldn"t be any. This time it was noticeable to the extreme - the only time I"ve seen anything comparable was when the 302 in my F150 was eating the cam sprocket on the timing set.

Trade it in, a ford is going to start nickel and dimeing at 70 thou anyhow!

That one started at 0 miles.

Is that an overhead cam engine? I reworked the heads on a 3.0 in a 2000 ranger and it wasn't, but I'm not familiar with one that new. Just wondering if the timing chain might be loose and rubbing somewhere it shouldn't.

dhermesc, i'm sure it has nothing to do with metal in your oil but i am curious as to why you add 1 quart of synthetic oil? call me old fashioned, but i have never been a big fan of synthetic oil. i remember when it first came out.....10,000 miles between oil changes. guys took that to mean they didn't even have to check their oil. i had a taurus with the 3.0 dohc engine,85,000 miles, motorcraft filter and napa 5w30(made by ashland oil co.) changed every 3000 miles, never a problem.also never understood the advantage of semi synthetic oil. napaguy

I wonder how much was trapped in the oil filter, too...
May be loaded...

Ron..

Would have thought the filter would have taken the lion's share out. Maybe the filter is defective. Most engines today use a full flow oil filter so there shouldn't be much metal in the oil. Based on that, I'd be suspicious that this engine has serious problems.

My biggest concern would be the screen for the oil sump pickup. That gets clogged, no oil to anything. I'm not trying to scare you, but been there, done that. Scrapped a 427 Chevy that way. Crank, rods, cam, all let go because the oil flow stopped. When I opened it up and took it apart, metal flakes clogged the oil pump sump pickup screen. Even ended up with metal particles in the oil passages in the block. Scrap, scrap, scrap.

Of course though, I blew up a guy's fresh 402 because I gave him a cam from '65 through '68 BB without thinking about it, and the rear bearing and journal changed in '69 for BB oiling and his was a '70. Oops, that was a big mistake. He called me and asked if he could borrow a cam, and I GAVE him the cam for free fresh out of the box to get him going, he put it in, Zero pounds of oil pressure, and meltdown within minutes on its first run. As I helped him take it back out of his Chevelle and apart, a lightbulb went off...last journal changed in '69, don't interchange the cam with an earlier model unless solder the oiler shut in the rear bearing, and redrill to much smaller 3/16", or will lose all oil pressure...and that's what I forget to tell him to do. I never did tell him what happened, but I rebuilt it for him at cost, no labor, and used a correct cam and bearings.

Mark

Be careful.

Mark

Cut open you oil filter. It should be a pretty good show. All those metal flakes have been acting like sand paper. I wouldn't expect too many more miles out of that engine.

The Motorcraft oil is a synthetic blend, I add the one quart of "full synthetic" to help prevent thermal break down as the oil is only 5W20.

Is it aluminum or iron?
Either way I'd say you're soon in for a heap of misery.
I'd say you might as well just pull the engine and find out what's wrong if this has been going on for some time. You can't get the sump off a Ranger 3.0L without pulling the engine up anyway... so you might just as well haul it out and find out what's wrong...

If it's been that way since new then I'd wonder if they ever cleaned the block out properly after machining...

Rod