Never found anything like this in there before… seems they are grit? Very brittle some rounded some sharp edged shards, non.metallic.
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what was the oil like ,any discolour floating on top after draining
Nothing unusual otherwise about the oil, like very dark toffee -a tiny bit of condensed oil but that’s what I usually find
broken dipstick?
No, I use a metal thermometer dipstickk. The pieces are very much like grit, black and some red-brown or grey once cleaned, biggest bits about .75mm across, and some fine bits. There was less than 1/2 a teaspoonful altogether, the bike’s been running fine except for occasional pops which I’ve been putting down to the crack in the H pipe opening up again.
Just guessing here could it be carbon? OR fuel crap what oil do you put in it? take a close look at the oil filter and if fitted the oil gauze screen in the sump. The only other thing I can think of is some sort of gasket type sealant.
if it was me I would jack the bike up and have a look inside the engine to see if there are any clues
Timing chain tensioner ?
Quite a good possibility. Have you done anything to the engine recently?
first thought would be the tensioner
Were these found in the drained off oil or did you have the sump off and they were in there?
Sump off, I left the oil stand overnight and drained it into an old bottle, didn’t notice anything unusual, until I dropped the sump to change the filter. Once I’d found the bits there I removed the gauze but there was nothing in that. This time it was AC Delco Semi synth 10/40, previous times Fuchs fully synth 10/40, under 5k miles between changes. This is all I can see of the internals, I think I’ll take the timing cover off tomorrow and see if the tensioner is crumbling.
I think thats Gasket material phil,thats been chewed up.
Maybe nothing to worry about,But put a hacksaw through the oil filter to make sure
Or as Ken suggested gasket sealant that’s gone hard and flaked off.
If it wasn’t dark and no lights in the shed…! Beloved wouldn’t be pleased if I sawed that up in the kitchen… Ray has suggested crumbling breather pipes too, so I can get really messy tomorrow. Thanks all for thoughts so far, I’ll let you know if I work it out!
have you got a spine breather on the cali?after the first long run my oil was full of majonaise and chunks of rubber hose that was breaing down from the inside outgood call on the tensioner face wearing
AHA! I think this was perhaps just a little too obvious for my fertile imagination… this is the first sump removal since the restoration, when I had the frame…
wait for it…
sand blasted…
(giggles in a mixture of relief & embarrassment)
Doh!! Well your oil filters work anyway, which is good Have to confess I’ve been struggling to think how grit or sand could get in from the outside, I was even trying to imagine it being sucked up the breather vent hose, but I think you’d have to be tearing up a beach and even then it probably wouldn’t do it. Anyway mystery solved(?)
would it be worth using flushing oil ? before refilling with oil
A trusted mechanic told me that flushing oil (thinning stuff) can cause crap to recirculate, and it’s better to just get oil very hot and drop or suck it out.
Going on the principle that the grit has already been in the sump for a little under 10k now, and that a bath in old petrol and blasting brake cleaner through the oilways didn’t get any more out, I could use cheap oil and change it very very early, but will likely just use good stuff and carry on!