Ugly break in oil in Pontiac 455

[romulus]

OK, I am officially freaking out! Drained the oil on my fresh (250miles)455 with Comp Hyd Roller camshaft and took a nice long look at the oil. I realize that during the break in process things get seated and polished but the entire pan of oil has the appearance of metallic paint. Dark brown and sparkly! Not happy, especially since I changed the oil and filter after the first hour of break in and this oil only has the 250 driven miles on it . The particles are obviously micronic since they are suspended in the oil and the filter had only a small amount of debris in the bottom. The sparkly oil is not affected by a magnet so I suspect it is non-ferrous in nature. It also leaves a swirly "tracer" when I drag my finger thru the drain pan. Geez, this seems like a freaking lot of metal!! Also, there were no unusual engine noises during the drive time. Compression is 9.5:1, timing is set at a conservative 9 initial with 20 mech, 8 degrees vacuum adv.
Any thoughts or comforting advice? Before I severely beat my engine builder, I have sent oil out for a spectral analysis. Anyone out there had a similar experience? How bad should break in oil look? BTW, the oil was 15w40 Rotella T.

Kevin

 

[MolaKule]

1. Why such a high viscosity of oil for break-in? What were the machined clearances at assembly? Even for a 455, I would have used a dino 10W30 with moly for run-in. AT only 250 miles, I really don't see any need for panic with a muscle car motor. I would reconsider the viscosity, however.

2. Glad to see you are doing an analysis. Please list it if you can.

 

[romulus]

Molakule,

Thanks for the reply. I should have clarified, I did indeed break the motor in with Pennzoil 10w30 with a total of approx 1 hour garage running time (3 different sessions) before I changed the oil and filter and switched to Rotella T. Before I run the motor again, I plan on inspecting the bronze distributor gear(required with roller) and evaluate the oil analysis. And yes, I will post these results. Praying its not bearing!

 

[TheLoneRanger]

Romulus, that should be an "interesting" analysis.
Since the particles are non-ferrous, I wouldn't worry. It sounds like the piston skirts are polishing themselves on the cylinder walls a little. This should stop after a while.

I'll bet the analysis will show 10 billion ppm of Al......

 

[userfriendly]

Romulus;
The glitter
your oil is quite normal for a new engine.

 

[userfriendly]

Something happend there...Romulus, you mentioned that you broke your engine in by running it in your garage for an hour. Could you explain that method of breaking-in an engine. I can't see how the rings could seat properly without loading the engine.
Are you sure your hyd roller cam needs a bronze distributor gear?

 

[outrun]

Dark Brown?

residual cam break in compound + mixed with oil?

 

[userfriendly]

Why would this engine need cam break-in lube?

 

[Hirev]

Pull you distributor out and look the gear over for wear. I'am with userfriendly does that roller need a bronze gear? Also, is there a gasket under the distributor? For proper gear engagement.

 

[cryptokid]

i had awalys thought it best to break in an engine by driving it around. i have heard its bad to just let a new engine sit there idleing or blipping the throttle.

is this what you did by your break in method?