fresh stock shortblock with an f cam and fresh heads and headgaskets... reason for pulling the motor was that it had a couple freezeplugs leaking that were never replaced and a leaking timing cover gasket which i think could have leaked some coolant into the oil... but normally that looks tan in color. i changed the oil after about an hours run time and it came out with some normal shavings from the new bearings but the oil was of a normal color. this time while draining it, it started coming out gray in color, then had some normal oil separated from it, i would say around half and half of oil and gray oil. wtf? it was also thicker and almost pasty. whats the deal?

 

Does it stick to a magnet?

Did you change it cold? Stuff can settle and separate when it sits a while and you drain it.

 

Almost sounds like water in the oil.

 

x2 on water. is the car throwing off any smoke when running? overheating?

 

This is not normal, you should never find "shavings" in your oil.... especially from the bearings! I also suspect coolant in the oil is causing the grey color.

Brad J.

 

i think it was a little bit of water mixing in the oil from the leaking timing cover gasket. and it sat for a couple weeks while i was on vacation til i got to change the oil then. oh well... put in fresh gaskets and oil... see what happens

 

Like everyone else said. The gray milkshake is only caused by one thing. Coolant and oil mixing. I built Cummins Diesels in the Marines, and I saw this once a week.

I would also say that if your car ran with the milkshake going on, that would be where the shavings came from. Shavings aren't normal, no matter how new the engine is.

 

i was always taught when building engines, the reason you change the oil after 20 minutes or so of runtime is to clear out all of the fresh bearing material.

 

I recently had an experience with a cam that had .035" runout right in the center journal. It was a new roller cam too. I should have checked the cam for being straight during engine assembly, but have never had this problem before. I ran the engine 200 miles this way and torn it back down to upgrade some different parts when I found alot of grey pasty material in the oil pan and throughout the block. Turned out to be cam bearing material. Not saying thats it for sure, but it's possible. Otherwise an engine with all new parts is going to deposit some fine metal shavings is the oil mostly from the valve train.

 

Yeah I was gonna say check the distributor and cam gears.

 

you have water in it...either from the radiator or a enemy

change it and drive thenn ck again to see if its clearig up...if it does someone nneeds to be dealt with

 

yea i do have to change it again. the car has been smoking pretty good upon first start up now(billowing white smoke, spitting a little coolant), but once the engine starts to warm up it runs great.

 

sounds like a real problem then
investigate a little further.......stay away from the bars block restorer

 

What headgaskets do you you have on the car?

 

felpro 9333s. still does it periodically. its really strange went to the gas station today. started it up at home and let it warm up. smoked a little bit here and there til it was above 100* on the gauge. drove 2 miles to wawa and somebody snaked my spot so i had to pull into a parking spot, and i shut it down cuz it was getting warm... still have to put in the new fan. its been cranking really long before it starts also, then once i started it up to pull up to the pumps it gave out a puff of smoke, then was fine. got gas, and drove home with no issues.

 

After a normal run wait 5 minutes and check your rad cap to see if your cooling system still is pressured up ? If it is not I would say a leaking timing cover gasket or cracked head on the intake side check your plugs too. If they aren't consistent a compression test will show it.