I came across something I've never seen before. My friend was taking apart his head (more specifically the vtec solenoid.) He asked me a question I couldn't answer for him at the time so I'm asking y'all.

There was quite a substantial amount of fine gold metal flakes in the vtec solenoid screen. Could someone tell me what this might be? Anyone seen this before???

 

bearing material possibly.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by non-VTEC &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">bearing material possibly.

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ditto. my buddies sr20 had gold flakes in the oil when it developed a rod-knock. culprit: rod bearings.

 

Yup - if it looks like Christmas, its almost always the bearings.

 

the only time ive seen gold flakes in the oil is when my rod bearings ate it....but wouldnt the filter help out there, howd they get all the way to the head?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by philafelman &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">the only time ive seen gold flakes in the oil is when my rod bearings ate it....but wouldnt the filter help out there, howd they get all the way to the head?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Will the metal rip the filter open causing bearing matter to go through???

 

the oil is not allways passed thru the oil filter at all times. and there are some particles that the filter cannot catch.


you can pull the oil pan off for inspection or just leave it and drive it.....it may last longer than you may think if it's not abused.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by LastGenEK &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Will the metal rip the filter open causing bearing matter to go through???</TD></TR></TABLE>

No, but if enough bearing material clogs the filter, the bypass valve will open and it will go into the engine.

 

Thanks guys.
Luckily there's no other surprises. He's completely rebuilding so no worries.

 

That's funny... I just found some flakes in my solenoid this morning. Faawk!