I am disassembling a motor with suspected bearing failure due to glitter in the oil. I inspected for crankwalk with no issues. I pulled the crank girdle, rod caps and balance shafts. The rod bearings and mains look beautiful and as far as I can tell the balance shafts look decent to .... aside from seems to be a slight indent in the bearing which I assume is normal since it shouldn't wear that way. I'll attach some pics to show you what the bearings look like.

If all those bearings are healthy what the heck else could create a glitter like substance in the oil. I thought for sure I saw some copper flake mixed in as well but I can't seem to locate the source of the metal. Could it be the oil pump? This engine has less than 40k miles on it but they were all hard miles. Any info would be appreciated.

BS

 

Got closeups of the thrust washer?
The BS sleeve shows some wearing for sure.

 

everything pictured looks fine.

 

Maybe send your oil for analysis?

 

That balance shaft bearing looks to be the culprit. It looks like heavy scoring based on the pics and the lighting. What does the balance shaft bearing surface look like? Also, that looks like the rear shaft so you should probably delete it anyways. Also, if you bolt up the oil pump cover and turn the balance shaft, is it hard to turn?

It may have been mis-timed causing the rear balance shaft to be out a tooth. The vibration could have taken out the bearing and shaft. This would make sense on a highly abused engine.

 

what turbo? could be a brass bearing cartridge

P.S. I am at work and can't see pictures...

 

glitter in oil is the outer layer on the mains entering the oil. usually from difficulty getting car restarted on fresh build, or oil pressure not building quickly when it does start. some removed that outer layer on purpose during a build. its a soft babbet material that doesnt harm anything. few oil changes before driving and you are good to go. it looks to me that the engine may have been taken apart for no reason.

 

This doesn't look like a fresh rebuild. It still has the stock rods. It looks like a stock motor was taken apart after they found metal flakes in the oil. If you look at the pic of the balance shaft bearing, you can see bearing material building up in the groove. It looks like the balance shaft made contact with the bearing taking some material away.

 

I agree.. plus it says in the first post that the motor had less then 40,000 miles on it so it wasn't a fresh rebuild.

 

there isnt any material removed from the balance shaft bearings. those bearings look great and completely normal for the mileage. only changes on my diagnosis is when the mains saw low oil pressure. engine likely just ran low on oil. silver glitter is main bearing material. bottom line is nothing pictured so far was a good reason to take this engine apart.

 

I would guess 94AWD is right. I only pulled the motor because I saw the glitter in the oil and every thread on this forum said "stop driving the car and get ready for a rebuild". I didn't want to smoke the crank, turbo, head or even have a rod sticking out my block.

Now that the motor is apart should I install new rod bearings or reassemble with the existing ones? Also how can I be 100% certain that the BS bearing wear is normal and healthy? Should I just eliminate them now?

Lastly there was one question about the turbo. This was a low mileage old school green turbo. Is there a way to tell if the turbo is healthy? There is zero shaft play and no sign of smoke or damage of any kind.