Couple of tiny iron filings

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Hey there,

I drained the sump yesterday after two or three weeks without a ride. When I did I noticed a couple of very tiny iron filings on the magnetic plug. There were small enough that they were almost undetectable, but I looked at them very closely and could see what they were. There were maybe 2 or 3. Should I be concerned, or is this pretty normal?

Thanks!
 
Awesome! Thanks Torontonian - so you're saying that this is an indication that I should replace the layshaft bearing?
 
If you haven't, you should. Though......when I did, I removed a perfectly fine Portugese layshaft bearing with 24,000 miles on it.

I have gotten the occasional fleck of metallic bit along with a minute amount of metallic fuzz on the magnetic plug going back
15 years. Could be from rings, cam, followers, rocker arms. if it increases I will be concerned.
 
Couple of tiny iron filings
 
Thanks Lazyeye. I haven't done the layshaft bearing, but the PO may have. I'm planning to check in with him over the winter to see. If he didn't do it, it'll be a good cold season project.
 
Thanks Concours!! It was much less than is visible in your photo, but I didn't put that many miles on since the last oil change.
 
I got rid of my regular oil change magnet fur by changing to fully synthetic oil. Magnet how comes out clean.
 
Hi Kommando,
Which oil(s) did you use historically ?
Which fully synthetic oil ?
How do they correspond to Comnoz's excellent study ?
 
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I changed to this

https://www.millersoils-shop.co.uk/cfs-10w60-engine-oil

I went into a local rally car workshop and got them to do some alloy welding for me, they had this oil on the shelf and I asked what its use was. They explained it was the fix needed for souped up Ford Escort MK2 engines that had been suffering from oil blowby then suffer low oil level and ruin an engine in one meeting despite top up's after every stage, this was the only oil that did not do the oil blowby and engines survived and never over heated either. Thought that was worth a punt in an air cooled engine and have stuck with it, once my last can is empty I will be changing to something off Comnoz's list and the magnet test will decide if I stay with the Comnoz oil or stick with the CFS.
 
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