Uh oh, metal in oil pan

Bought a used Tacoma SR5 4x4 about a year ago. Currently has about 80k miles. Runs great, but has a pretty steady oiled pan gasket leak so had a shop repair it. Well, when they got the pan off, they found some metal pieces (picture attached). But they didn't see anything that indicated where they came from. The dark one is ferrous, the other is not. No other shavings or anything else. We put it back together and I'm not sure what to do now. My though are the one piece is from a piston skirt. The puzzler is there's no bad noises, shavings, etc. Thing runs like a top. Possible remnants of a past repair? I'm tempted to keep driving it but with a cautious ear and more frequent oil checks. Thoughts?

 

uh oh!

 

looks like gasket material and a piece of the block. id say if there is no obvious shavings it should be fine.

 

I wouldn't worry about it. You might install a magnetic drain plug and keep a watch at oil changes. That stuff could have dropped into the pan when the engine was new, and that's the end of it. Besides that,...what can you do but just drive it??

 

Could have come from casting? My guess is if it made it this far without any major hiccups, it's probably good to go. It's always scary to see shit like that in the pan though.

 

Welcome to TW...
If you want to know whats really going on....I highly recommend that you send a oil sample to Blackstone - http://www.blackstone-labs.com
They will identify all the elements in your oil, and provide a report with the acceptable range of each element plus a review from the technician.
Costs about $28...roughly the price of one oil change.
Good luck...

 

Drive that sob until it don't run no mo

 

I would just drive it and try not to worry to much, but I would always ware good walking shoes as a back up plan.

 

Yep

Agree, especially after doing........

this

 

I really wouldn't worry about it if it runs fine

 

Don't worry about it....Drive it like you stole it!

 

Drive it, but also would suggest sending a oil sample to Blackstone Lab, just to be on the safe side.

 

Where did you get the work done? Maybe someone is looking at doing a little engine work for you.

 

I wouldn't do this....simply because I don't want to know. What can be done about it anyway? It'll just make you feel bad about your purchase.

It's probably fine, drive it 'til it dies.

 

The worst that he learns is that his OCIs need to be shorter, *if* there is a wear issue (betting there isn't).

Or, he may learn his OCIs can be way longer, 'cause he's looking good.

A compression test, including leakdown, combined with an oil analysis, is like getting your physical.

Don't be skeerd.

 

That ferrous metal looks like it is rusted. That wouldn't be the case if it had come from the internal parts of the engine that has been running with oil in it.

Do you trust this shop? Seems funny to me.

I wouldn't worry about it if it isn't making noise or running badly. Get the oil specs checked as suggested above and see what it tells you.

 

You could change the oil every day; if a friction part of the engine internals is damaged it will self destruct just as quickly.

Pretend you never found out and drive away. Ignorance is bliss. If it is a fatal wound there's nothing you can do about it anyways.

 

You can tear apart a working engine now looking for potential problems or you can maybe tear it apart later if a known problem starts. I vote for the latter.

 

Got a lot of validation to what I thought. I trust the shop. They were as puzzled as I was. I'll send off an oil sample and either the thing'll blow up on me or it won't.