Oil filter debris… what could this be?

Hey all! Doing an oil change on my 08 cayman s after 7 months and about 2700 miles. Upon taking my filter apart, I noticed a lot of particles I didn’t see on the last change. The first ones I noticed were small red rubber pieces that look like red sealant. The second are a few black hard plastic pieces. The third are just a few very small metal flakes and a thin shaving. Then there are these green colored flakes that are metallic when I put a magnet to them. The magnetic drain plug had a smearing of fine metallic sludge on it. I collected a sample to send off to black stone, as my last oil report came back clean. I wasn’t sure how many miles were in the old oil though as I had just bought the car. I’m thinking of dropping the sump and checking it out. If I do that do I need a gasket, or just sealant? Here are some pictures. Any help would be appreciated. This engine has about 78k miles on it, but was replaced at 37k by Porsche for bore scoring. I’m not burning any oil and there is no smoking at startup. I’m not sure what was in it before, but I ran 0w40 Mobil 1 without any additives for this run. I was planning on putting 0w40 again with ceretec this time around. Thank you again!

Pics I've seen of bore scoring had quite a bit more deposits than yours. But that does look concerning.

First of all, kudos to you for actually paying attention to what's going on in your engine. Not seeing anything there metallic of significant quantity, personally I would not be concerned. Look again at the next oil change, and see what Blackstone has to say. I open every oil filter I pull off our cars. If something bad is happening, it's likely to show up there.

Thanks! Yea, there’s a lot more debris than I’m comfortable with. Going to pull off the sump plate and start pulling some plugs to see if I can see anything

Here’s some stills from a scope of cylinder 5 and the plug . It’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s reflection with the 90 degree lense on the scope for me. I do have injector cleaner in my tank right now. Not sure if that could cause some of the oily spots on the piston? Like I said I’m it smoking or losing any oil.

Other than the plug looking a bit oily, I don't see anything obviously alarming. The pink debris might be sealant particles, perhaps adhesive from the filter itself. Did the other cylinders look the same? Disclaimer - I'm new to Porsche , but am not new to piston engines and their problems.

The pinkish stuff could be crystalized coolant. An oil analysis would tell you.

Def getting an analysis, but the pink stuff is stretchy and rubbery like gasket material

Are you burning oil between oil changes? What about coolant levels?.. Check the tail pipe fo oil on/in pipes, or knocking on startup, I would run it and have the oil analyzed next oil change. I use 4000 miles as my change time. Jake Raby has a series on Bore Scoring that you may want to look at. He also could advise you from your pictures. Not knowing the history of your car's engine, Miles, oil change intervals, other details, I really could not read those images. Jake's web site is flat6innovations.com

It's very minimal, keep the oil at level and run it. If it is something that develops into a real issue the engine has to come apart anyway. If it's not anything but over reaction, then you're all good, keep checking the filters for any progression or cessation of what you found.

So no weepage I’ve seen so far on the water pump, although it’s in my list of things to replace. The engine was replaced by Porsche for bore scoring once already with a previous owner at about half the miles it’s at now. I’m pretty familiar with Jake’s series preparing my self for the worst case scenario and taking it as an opportunity to make things better on a car I know I love for way better value than just getting a newer version. Unfortunately I’m not sure how long the oil change intervals were from the last owner or what it was at when I changed it and did the first oil analysis. This oil and filter only have 2100 miles on them and I did a 6 month interval because of how often I get to drive it. Here is my first report with unknown mileage in the oil. I only put on about 350 miles before I changed it so at least that many.

Going back through the filter and found this chunk. Black and white plastic, and that thin greenish film on the back. Chain tensioner guides? Could this cause all the plastic and metal flakes?

So dropped the sump plate and only found these 4 pieces. Two bottom are rubber and the two top are hard plastic.

My first thought is timing chain guide. Is anything else exposed to the oil system made of plastic? The cooling system and pump I would assume are completely isolated from the oil system, so that would seem an unlikely candidate.

I agree the plastic is most likely the timing chain guides. Now to see if that can cause the metallic metal pieces in the filter too… I’m going to have a peek from the sump with the scope just to be sure it’s not from scoring. Since the oil analysis will most likely take over a week to get back to me.

So here’s a couple of cylinder pictures from the sump.

The Porsche experts can chime in here, but I simply do not see anything unusual. I'm not sure what cylinder surface treatment they used, but those surfaces seem undamaged. I'm wondering if the cam chain guides can be photographed without significant disassembly. I'm not qualified to offer expert advice, but if this were my car, I'd be looking at the option of buttoning everything back up, running it another few hundred miles, and having another look at the filter and sump. You found trace amounts of sealant, metal and plastic. Well, maybe a bit more in the plastic department, but that may have been in the sump for quite a while. Perhaps waiting for more symptoms before exploratory surgery would be prudent. I certainly will be watching and hoping for the best.

Picture #4 looks like small scoring at the bottom (right side of photo). I think most of M97 engines have some of this slight scoring with mileage. Do you have any idea how many miles are on this replacement engine? Also did the previous owner say that the whole engine was replaced or just a short block, If it were a short block, these plastic and rubber items could be part of the motor re assembly. Not sure though. The idea from others above is to note all this physical wear patterns, plastic, rubber and simply move on as there is actually not much you can do or undo. Just find the best motor oil going forward and change it often. Since you are familiar with Jake Raby's group, I would review the video on how to prevent bore scoring and move on if you have no other symptoms.

Thanks for sharing your progress! Last year, I also found a small amount of tiny dark-red plastic bits in my '08 CS oil filter with only about 2000 miles and 12-months-old. Fortunately for me, that was it, there were no metal bits or black/white hard plastics or purplish strands. That was the very first time I found such contaminant; every year for the seven years prior to last year, the oil was completely free of such debris. I was thinking that the dark-red plastic bits came from the timing chain guide; which started to deteriorate with time and would eventually lead to catastrophic engine failure. The majority of the people on this forum also thought that it was from the timing chain guide. However, most do not think it's a major problem until larger chunks of such plastic are found. I am going to do what you did by dropping the oil pan for further inspection -- if the oil filter shows an increase in quantity or size of such debris.

Noisy chain oil is a problem that is solved with Motul 300 V Competition 5W-40 oil. I have been using this oil for a couple of years now and my timing chains are completely quiet. I am a M97 engine guy. Keep in mind that there were many more M97 engines in 987's than 9A1 in the 987.2 later cars by a ratio of 5 to 1 due to a recession during that sales cycle. These two engines behave differently to oils and should be thought of different oils needs as LN describes in their new letters.

So I briefly spoke with LN about what was going on as well as sent some pictures. I do have some light bore scoring going on as well as some small pieces from my timing chain tensioner. Still waiting on the oil analysis from blackstone. I changed the oil with Driven dt40 as I was running the Mobil 1 0w40 before without any additives. I know I will eventually have to rebuild my engine, but I’m not sure if I should drive it until then. No crazy noises or burning oil yet. It’s crazy Porsche would replace the short block and not any other components like the pistons. Don’t really want to break down while I’m out because my garage is at an extreme angle and uphill with no space to roll backwards or tow in (city row home on tiny street with parking directly across). Not ready for an engine out so feeling pretty stuck.

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OK, we get where you are with your jewel of an engine even though its damaged. Dr40 may help you for a while. I really think that many of use with 987.1 have some bore scoring that we do not recognize. So now what do you do? Well, I have follow a number of potential bore scoring members as they progress. Its like cancer. May not manifest it self right away. Many member just sell their drive able car to some unsuspecting customer. I really don't think this is the correct way to do business. So, my best bet is to use either DT-40 or Motul V-300 Competition 5W40. Its an ester based product that quiets the engine significantly. Just one persons opinion. I used both their racing oil Xp9 and DT-40. I just felt that the Motul product works better with the cylinder walls and a plastic coated piston skirts. That about it at this point. You can also ask Jake Raby at flat6innovations.

Definitely going to get it fixed properly. Just hoping to get another year out of it if I can. I will give flat6 a call though too. I know you can replace the cam guides with the engine in, but I wonder about the timing chain guides. I’m not seeing the brown plastic bits, but black with white ones. I know I’ll have to drop the trans to get to the bolt that holds the guides, but I wonder if there will be enough clearance to pull them out with the engine in. My second thought of prolonging the inevitable would be to replace the chain tensioners. With 78k on them, I wonder if they are starting to fail which is leading to the guide wear?

mkempo590, I would just use the DT-40 for 1500 miles then change to Motul V300 competition 5W-40. If for no other reason is that it will quiet the cylinder walls to piston skirts. Also, the timing chains will quiet down and you will find less debris in your filter. Try to keep good start up technique and keep you foot out of heavy torque applications. Please let us know your results.

Drove it about 150 miles today. Going to pull the filter and check. Also thinking of replacing all chain tensioners.

This activity is exactly what I am using my car for these days. Even with RE71RS's just installed. Many back country roads to enjoy life off the beaten path. This setup is useing the Porsche Tequipment crossbars and a Yakima bike rails. Good to go up to 120 mph and roof mounted tents.

Dang nice car! Did you have some shops do all those customizations or did you do it yourself? If it was a DIY, I hope you had it documented on youtube to share.

Cantrell Motor Sports did most of the work. This was in the time when we 987.1 owners still felt that we could reverse engineer all the changes that went into the 9A1 engine to prevent oil starvation. Currently on ********, there is a thread going about how to monitor and develop methods to measure oil pressure drops around high G cornering. Luckily, I never pressed mine to either bore scoring or rod bearing #6 scaring. The Ohlin R&T coilover kit for the 987 was released during this time 5 years ago, so they had the laser alignment stand and other tools to install and adjust for corner balancing. They projected my needs pretty well with camber, castor, and installing a Wavetrac LSD as well. The Tarett CUP race spec LCA's started off with -2.5 f snd -2.2 r but then I needed more to save the outside shoulders of the tires . So, we increased the camber to -2.9f and -2.5r. The caster was 8.9. I also had them install a 996 coolant/oil heat exchanger, which is about 40% larger than the 987 one. The Numeric short shifter kit and steel cables as well as a Sachs clutch kit when the Wavetrac LSD was installed. I finally just stopped the mod slippery slope as I could see from other racers stories, who pushed their car were blowing up their motors. I had a couple of other mods ready to go, But the fear of a $20k engine rebuild finally just was too much risk going forward. So, now I'm just happy I escaped with an intact motor plus all the other mods that work extremely well. No more 10/10 events for me, as I want to drive it home not on a flat bed truck.

Thanks for sharing your experience! Nice mods! After some modding so that I can push my CS hard on twisty country roads, I decided to reduce the risk of death, injuries, and/or jail by spending $15K to build a motion SIM rig so that I can satisfy my need for speed safely in a virtual world. Call it a safety mod. Other than a lack of G-force, I get 75% to 80% of the real experience, which includes wind speed, steering feel, road rumbles, bumps, rumble strips, air born, body lean, understeer, oversteer feel, etc. and can get all that on different cars and different tracks all over the world. My CS now is for coffee runs and occasional road trips with other sports car owners. In other words, I can stop the slippery slope of modding. However, my clutch is due for a replacement. I want to consider some of the mods similar to yours while the engine is apart. Mods such as LSD and the 996 coolant/oil heat exchanger.

I did have a chance replacing the dual disc flywheel, but Cantrell talked me out of it due to the transmission rattle. Seems when going to a light weight flywheel, you get vibration through the flywheel and into the transmission when not in gear. When the shop pulled out my motor, the old flywheel was in perfect shape, just needed the Sachs clutch kit . While the transmission was off the car, they added the Wavetrac LSD . I bought the LSD and gave it to them to install. They had to heat up the old bearing and pull them off because at that time there was no Porsche replacement bearings so, I just went with the flow. That trip to the shop also included the 996 water/oil heat exchanger. So, I tried out my new LSD when ever I could to get a feel for how best to use it. I thought that the Wavetrac was actually slowing me down through the corners in auto cross but that was because my impression/senses were off, I had to relearn to throttle vs slip angles because you can use a lot more throttle. The LSD takes all the drama out of tight corners, pulling full power from the apex without any issues, no wabble with theshold braking or trail braking. When running street tires , the LSD is even more useful as it pulls a lot of torque to the wheel with the most traction. So rarely do you get wheel spin. I find it one of the best mods I have done to the car, yet to put into words, its just makes the car that much better in canyon and old back country roads getting the power down. That heat exchanger works well in heating up the motor/oil faster and keeping the hot oil cooler. Not exactly sure why Porsche put a dinky heat exchanger on the 987, when they already had one that is about 30% larger and works better.

Those red bits may be the pieces from the seals from the valve timing system. I don't know the details, or even the proper name, but don't think it is an easy remediation. The cylinders look good to me but just a DIY Porsche owner who tries to read up on this stuff. My preference is a thicker oil at least a 5w40 and lately trying something with some Moly. Trying M1 5w50 since it is a very thin 50 weight but waiting for my UOA to come back before I make up my mind. Not sure I would jump to a full race oil like 300v that doesn't have a lot of detergent and isn't designed for longer intervals and street driving

Agreed, I switched to Driven dt40 for the time being. Going to put some miles on the car and keep checking the filter.