Hey guys, so I was on doing some maintenance on the car my Infiniti G 35 2006 manual with a vq35de rev up and I drop that oil pan because I need to remove the timing cover and the one I did so I looked inside the pan and there was some bits of what appeared to be metal and very sparkly oil. The car drove completely fine before but it had been sitting for about seven months without starting, no signs of any of problems before hand. I am identified a metal spring in the oil pan to be the one that seals the front crank shaft as well as rubber in the oil pan which I presume is part of that seal. Please let me know if you guys think my motor is toast.

 

Actually I'm less concerned with the chunks, could very well just be pieces of the timing chain guide that wanted to quit playing for that team.

Cut the filter open and look in it as well, if it's full of glitter the motor is probably toast. Or if the oil you drained out had a bunch of glitter in it as well it's probably time to go motor shopping. The glitter in the pan though is concerning but it might have been just sitting in the bottom of that pan for a very long time.

If the filter element looks fine then wipe the pan down THOROUGHLY, put it back on, refill the oil, drive for 1000 miles then drain the oil into a very clean container and inspect it thoroughly.

If after 1000 miles your oil looks ok then cut the filter and see if it was catching glitter, if it looks ok then just keep driving.

 

That lower piece closer to the bottom part of the image is a piston ring… right!?

 

That’s what I thought but it’s a rubber material and the spring looking stuff is from the crank seal

 

Looks like most of the metal in there was deposits smaller than a tenth of a millimeter and some could be attributed to me using a dremel to cut it.

 

Inside the filter? Take that paper element and cut it completely off, stretch it all out and look at it very closely, especially at the bottom edge that was away from where you dremel cut it.

I'd still put the pan back on, refill, drive for 1000 miles and then make a decision. Use an actual oil filter cutter so you aren't introducing metal to the filter.

You're almost always going to find SOME metal slurry in a filter if you look with a magnifying glass, that's literally what it's job is and motors wear out over time. If you are rapidly eating a bearing there will be a pretty significant amount though, and it will be suspended in the oil that you drain out. You should never actually see it suspended in the oil.

 

 

I found that the front crank seal was intact, including the little spring that sits inside. So I don’t know if it could be the rear seal, or where that spring came from because it is definitely a spring.

 

Found these look like dowels 😬

 

Looks like steel, a magnet will confirm. Look up in the engine with a flashlight and see if you can see obvious damage on a connecting rod or piston, you'll only be able to have good visibility at 4/6 pistons without using a borescope.

LOOK FOR DISCOLORED METAL! It's usually fairly easy to spot a spun bearing or other damage because things will be discolored where they got hot.

Did you rev out the motor really hard last time it was driven? All those combined pieces sort of look like the lands on the piston that should be holding the rings in place. You should see scraping on the piston wall if that was the case.

Regardless, with those chunks, and there is DEFINITELY a lot of metal in that filter, you are DEFINITELY looking at getting a new/used engine.

Did the engine sound hurt last time it ran?

 

Nooooooooo! I’ll look and no I haven’t reved it out hard. I’ll post when I lift the car up. Have done all this with it sitting on the floor.

 

And it was still running fine the last time it was driven?

 

Yes it was funny huh? It just sat for a bout 7 months tho but I don’t imagine anything happening to it while it’s sitting

 

Hard to say yeah, I'm guessing that damage happened before it was parked.

Unless you're planning on rebuilding that engine there's no harm in putting the pan back on, putting some oil in it, new filter. And letting it run for a while to see how it behaves.

I think you should pull the timing chain cover though, there's a small chance that all that metal came from the timing chain guide. I'm not so sure about the metal pieces though but it would be worth taking it off just to look for something obvious.

If you can find the actual culprit then at least you know the how/why, and it's possible the engine is still ok if that metal came from the timing chain eating something up.

 

I don’t see anything obvious yet I will check the cylinders with a bore scope . also considered pulling the heads