Yellow flakes in oil?

Yeah from my experience bearing material is almost like a shade of copper shavings, that's too yellow...

 

And here we have the OP displaying the contents of his oil pan.

 

As mentioned above do a Blackstone oil test and feel better.

 

chain guides are black or a brownish color

 

Looks like wataburger!

 

Any chance is condensation from not running the engine hot enough? Like the sludge that can show up on the oil cap? Just a thought.

 

take a magnet to it. I wouldn't think bad bearings would turn yellow.

 

This is my though as well. Almost like a varnish you'd find in a carburetor. Could have flaked off the upper part of the oil pan when draining? As others mentioned, oil analysis would answer all of your questions. Lots of options out there. LEAP and Horizon are ones that I've used in the past.

 

Maybe some excess "Form-A-Gasket" material from a previous owner?

 

Yup.

Like he said. Take a magnet to the particles.

All flakes of this engine's oem bearings will be silver.

My bet, if it is doesn't stick to the magnet, is that those pieces are from the silicone used during assembly. After the grey silicone that Toyota uses, has aged, then it becomes brittle and changes to a slight yellow/grey color. Unlike their black silicone.

 

The truck that laid the golden oil...

 

Was that from the engine? Maybe just the picture but the oil itself looks really bad, like it may have coolant mixed in it.

 

Ended up getting a report from Blackstone Labs. I'm even more confident that the yellow flakes were not bearing material now - but I'm still not sure exactly what they were.

Anyway, wanted to leave this here for anyone else who might stumble on this thread with the same issue.

 

Do this. If you have the oil keep it and take a sample if not change it again and get a sample.

 

lol

 

Never done this and not sure exactly how to interpret data, but it looks like your iron content is high no? Yours being 108 vs national average of 11.....I still think it looks like gasket material

 

So close!

 

Yeah, it is high. They speculated that the yellow flakes could be silicon (which is also high) and could have contributed to more wear on steel parts. They suggest changing the oil again after 2,000 and sending in another sample. I'll likely do that.

 

Interesting, thanks for the follow up.

 

By chance has someone used radiator sealer on your truck?