Topic: How much shrapnel is too much?

[Hush]

Oil sump off and doing the old panning for gold (silver) with a can of degreaser sloshing around in it.
All good there but when the oil strainer comes out there in it's mesh are two unmistakeable shiny silver slivers?!
So as most of the engine is alloy and there are bound to be tiny bits sliding around in there, just how much is too much shrapnel?
Is it pull the motor time and strip till I find where it came from or fill with oil and hope it was some excess casing alloy that found it's way into the strainer.

[bryanj]

Hush, considering most owners rarely, if ever, clean that strainer and little goes wrong i wouldn't worry about it. Maybe have another look in 12 months and see if there is any more. Might be good to know if its steel or alloy though---try the magnet test

[Hush]

It's alloy Bryan, would just about put money on it coming from the cam area as the bike develops a bit of noise there and I think the cam chain adjuster is at it's limit now.  I wasn't really too worried as I have no intention of pulling the motor until mid winter and then she can have a new cam chain adjuster probably do the cam chain too while I got it apart.
Slight leaks in base gasket and head gasket so bonus in doing all at once.
Nice to know I'm not alone in believing that it isn't a major yet.

[dave500]

i had to remove the pans to swap the two engines between bikes this weekend,i found this in the 500 pan,i think its from the camchain tensioner?about midway the folded over tabs that retain the adjustment screw block?or part of the adjustment gear mechanism.


engines quiet and runs fine.

[HondaMan]

It is very common to find little slivers of castings in the screens. The only engines I can remember that did NOT have it on a teardown are the ones that are being gone into a second (or more) time. If you look around the edges of the cases when you have these critters apart, there are many spots where flash on corners still exists. When I have the time during a rebuild, I like to go around with a sharp blade and remove as many as I can find, just so it doesnt go a-floating later. 

[Hush]

That's exactly what I thought it would be HM, I've noted the sharp casting edges you speak of and guessed that eventually some of it would flake off and go walkabout in the sump.

[754]

 What was shown.. does not even begin to qualify as shrapnel.. its way bigger pieces than that..

[Hush]

OK so my tiny particles wont even count then!