What components of the engine have lead material?

[UnhandledException]

Car is a 2017 GT350.

My blackstone oil reports have started showing varying degree of lead for the last 5 oil changes across 18,000 miles. It started at 5, went up to 23, down to 7, down to 2, and now back up at 5. At this point, I am a little confused as to where this lead might be coming from. Are the bearings aluminum or lead? What else has lead in it?

Lead was 1-2 up until mile 48,000. Now I am past 65,000 miles and with the age of the car where it is I dont know if I should be worried.

All other metals are normal.

Car has had the typewriter tick during idle and piston slap around 2-3.5k rpm while cold since mile 2 when it was new.

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[I Bleed Ford Blue]

Most likely the main and rod bearings.

 

[svttim]

Bearings

 

[DonnieO]

65000 miles on a gt350? First I've heard with this many miles! Glad to see you've been enjoying it!

 

[UnhandledException]

65000 miles on a gt350? First I've heard with this many miles! Glad to see you've been enjoying it!

Yep. It would have been 75000 if it werent for covid and working from home

 

[Hack]

Seems like an extremely small amount of lead, though. The first problematic sign of bearing wear would be low oil pressure during hot idle. So if you are concerned, have a look at your oil pressure next summer with the engine idling. I would be surprised if you can't get a couple hundred thousand more miles on your Voodoo with the way you use it.

 

[UnhandledException]

Seems like an extremely small amount of lead, though. The first problematic sign of bearing wear would be low oil pressure during hot idle. So if you are concerned, have a look at your oil pressure next summer with the engine idling. I would be surprised if you can't get a couple hundred thousand more miles on your Voodoo with the way you use it.

Yeah, I hope you are right. It would be such a headache (and heartache) to part ways with this car given my emotional attachment but also a practical attachment where I am like Ford parts department at this point having spare parts of all kinds of filter (engine, cabin, fuel, oil - multiple copies), belts, plugs (spark and oil), multiple spare tires (summer and winter), wheels. Not to mention all the mod work I did, exhaust, shifter, driveshaft. All of this stuff would be thrown out. I would not be able to sell any of them.

Still on the factory alignment and tracks straight, but I have to say that its my first year of keeping the car outside due to GT3RS taking its place and its a completely different experience of starting it on 20F weather. Transmission does not like it and I hear all kinds of clicking and clunking noises until the fluid temperature is in 60s. I am actually afraid it will fall apart before the engine.

I am certainly an outlier here, I dont think anyone else keeps a GT350 outside with snow tires on.

 

[Hack]

I am certainly an outlier here, I dont think anyone else keeps a GT350 outside with snow tires on.

When I had mine it only sat outside a couple times in the cold. The only major thing I noticed was once the exhaust valves froze up. This was in below zero weather. The valves were fine after the car got warm and was shut down and restarted.

One thing I think is really good is that you block off the air to the engine oil cooler. I remember my oil would never really get warm in the winter. It would top out between 150 and 170 F, which isn't enough to boil off water vapors.

 

[UnhandledException]

When I had mine it only sat outside a couple times in the cold. The only major thing I noticed was once the exhaust valves froze up. This was in below zero weather. The valves were fine after the car got warm and was shut down and restarted.

One thing I think is really good is that you block off the air to the engine oil cooler. I remember my oil would never really get warm in the winter. It would top out between 150 and 170 F, which isn't enough to boil off water vapors.

That actually has far more impact on transmission oil temp than on engine oil temp. Without it, engine oil temp is consistently 163-165 and with it 172-174. But the difference isnt 20-30F more like 8F. I could never get it to reach 190F no matter how much I blocked. Transmission is a different story, with blocking it goes up by 30-40F vs without.

 

[RichGT350R]

Car is a 2017 GT350.

My blackstone oil reports have started showing varying degree of lead for the last 5 oil changes across 18,000 miles. It started at 5, went up to 23, down to 7, down to 2, and now back up at 5. At this point, I am a little confused as to where this lead might be coming from. Are the bearings aluminum or lead? What else has lead in it?

Lead was 1-2 up until mile 48,000. Now I am past 65,000 miles and with the age of the car where it is I dont know if I should be worried.

All other metals are normal.

Car has had the typewriter tick during idle and piston slap around 2-3.5k rpm while cold since mile 2 when it was new.

Cast Aluminum contains trace amounts of lead. It’s added to the mix for machinability...

 

[UnhandledException]

Cast Aluminum contains trace amounts of lead. It’s added to the mix for machinability...

But wouldnt that also show as aluminum in this case? My aluminum has been 1-2 consistently since mile 2.

Based on my experience at looking at these oil analysis reports on BMW’s S65 engine which is prone to rod bearing failures, usually lead from bearings show up and they get worse very quickly and shoot up. In my case it has been 20,000 miles since this first showed up 18 months ago.

 

[RichGT350R]

But wouldnt that also show as aluminum in this case? My aluminum has been 1-2 consistently since mile 2.

Based on my experience at looking at these oil analysis reports on BMW’s S65 engine which is prone to rod bearing failures, usually lead from bearings show up and they get worse very quickly and shoot up. In my case it has been 20,000 miles since this first showed up 18 months ago.

It can also be coming out of the casting.. the same reason that lead was removed from copper and brass fittings. It was found that elevated lead levels were being found in water systems because lead was added to the fittings for easy of machining and forming. Bearings usually contain Babbitt and you can bet lead for machining.

Some lead content in your sample could be coming from the block and heads. The same reason they are working on getting rid of aluminum cooking pans. Lead is leaching our into your food at elevated temps.

Sorry for the rant. Just some of your lead content could be coming from the castings. Time will tell. Best Regards. I hope you find the culprit!

 

[UnhandledException]

It can also be coming out of the casting.. the same reason that lead was removed from copper and brass fittings. It was found that elevated lead levels were being found in water systems because lead was added to the fittings for easy of machining and forming. Bearings usually contain Babbitt and you can bet lead for machining.

Some lead content in your sample could be coming from the block and heads. The same reason they are working on getting rid of aluminum cooking pans. Lead is leaching our into your food at elevated temps.

Sorry for the rant. Just some of your lead content could be coming from the castings. Time will tell. Best Regards. I hope you find the culprit!

Sorry what does castings mean?

 

[RichGT350R]

Sorry what does castings mean?

Engine block and heads... really most machined parts have lead in them.

The next oil change, if you have the opportunity, send the samples to 2 different lab for analysis and compare the results.

One of the places that I do work at were getting skewed lab results on the Turbine Oil Tests (they have a steam turbine to generate electricity). They found that the company was skewing the results to sell a really expensive cleaning system for the turbine oil. Not diagnosing what was wearing out, just let us clean it up for you!

I’m not saying the results you have are incorrect, just saying you may want to compare the results.

 

[lenFeb]

Sorry what does castings mean?

It's the process of pouring molten metal into a mold. In this case it's engine block. So, the mold can contain lead in it. This is my understanding. Correct me if I'm wrong.

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