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Welp, metal shavings on the dip stick of new motor...fml

BALTANAKT

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Berthoud, CO
Not sweet.

Just swapped this motor in this January. Supposedly 119K from the junk yard.

Runs good, 18mpg on 31's, but has started sounding more and more like a diesel.

Dipstick is now coming up with tiny metal shavings. Ran a magnet by them and they are magnetic.

Trying to figure out where they are coming from. I don't believe the bearings are magnetic, are they?

My last motor succumbed to crank walk. Wondering if this one experiencing the same thing as well.

If so, I think that would leave the transmission as the culprit as I installed a new torque converter.

Argggg.
 
Not sweet.

Just swapped this motor in this January. Supposedly 119K from the junk yard.

Runs good, 18mpg on 31's, but has started sounding more and more like a diesel.

Dipstick is now coming up with tiny metal shavings. Ran a magnet by them and they are magnetic.

Trying to figure out where they are coming from. I don't believe the bearings are magnetic, are they?

My last motor succumbed to crank walk. Wondering if this one experiencing the same thing as well.

If so, I think that would leave the transmission as the culprit as I installed a new torque converter.

Argggg.

If the shaving are magentic, it sounds like the cam is eating itself.
 
Ruh-roh!! Magnetic shavings in the oil are never a good thing.

Check your oil pressure. You may even want to pull the oil pan off and see how much is sitting in it.

What year is yours and what year did the donor reportedly come from?
 
Since you just put in the motor, I presume it's a 4.0. These blocks and heads are cast-iron, which is magnetic. As far as bearings go, they're likely either lead/copper or aluminum, neither of which are magnetic.

You could take the plugs out and look at each cylinder/piston with a scope, although you'd likely only see an issue if its really bad.

Cam also sounds like a likely culprit; you can take the valve cover off and see if anything up there is ground/covered in metal shavings.
 
Since you just put in the motor, I presume it's a 4.0. These blocks and heads are cast-iron, which is magnetic. As far as bearings go, they're likely either lead/copper or aluminum, neither of which are magnetic.

You could take the plugs out and look at each cylinder/piston with a scope, although you'd likely only see an issue if its really bad.

Cam also sounds like a likely culprit; you can take the valve cover off and see if anything up there is ground/covered in metal shavings.

Yeah, pulled the valve cover last week to see if anything got loose. Nice and clean up there though.
 
I’m guessing something’s fishy in the cylinder itself. I’d try a scope and see if you find anything. Most auto parts stores with rent/loan you one.

I’ve seen a valve stick down and get crunched on the upstroke (but with nothing wrong under the valve cover I highly doubt that happened). Short of removing the head you can see the valves through the intake/exhaust ports with the manifolds off, but you might try a scope first.
 
If the oil filter is doing it's job then theoretically you would not find debris under the valve cover, the oil supply is downstream of the filter.

I vote cam doesn't like it's profile and is re-grinding itself. :bawl:
 
I'd be highly suspect of the timing set!
 
Ordered a scope. We'll see how the cylinders look.

Seems like the culprits could be:

- Piston slap eating cylinder wall, but probably not because it still has compression enough to get 17/18 mpg
- Cam is being resurfaced (but why?)
- Crank is being eaten alive by some sort of forward pressure (again)

This XJ has been such a friggin basket case.

Not stoked.
 
Not really, and just to clarify: You did reinstall the old lifters, on the old camshaft, in the exact same location they were removed from?
 
...........Cam is being resurfaced (but why?)........
The cam lobes have a very small depth of hardening in the metal, and when this wears off the softer metal is exposed. This softer metal wears very quickly and a miss begins to occur, as the cam lobe wears into a circle and no longer lifts the valve.

Todays oils are deficient in anti-wear additives, and are designed for modern roller cams. This is bad news for us flat-tappet cam owners....

The way to check this is to wait until a miss develops and measure the lift of the rockers by turning the engine. Or of course remove the cam and inspect.
 
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