oil change accident

[Racincc85]

while changing my oil today, i accidentally dropped my new oil filter in the pan i had under it. There was a bunch of gunk on the bottom of the pan, mostly sludge and small particles of dirt and maybe grass. I tried to clean the filter off as best i could (i would have bought a new one but it was a mobil 1 filter and they aint cheap at $11!!!) there were a few small particles that i couldnt get because they had gone in the inlet holes of the filter. Is it bad if it was a piece of actual dirt or grass that got caught in the filter. Oil filters are not designed to filter organic particles like that, so im a bit worried my engine could be damaged. what do you think???

[MagicRat]

I believe most oil filters have dirty oil pumped through the large centre hole and out the small surrounding holes. Dirt grass etc will not cause a problem in the larger opening. However, any around the smaller holes will get into the working bits of the engine. The grass is not a problem, realistically. However, the dirt may score a bearing. This on its own likely would not cause engine failure, but won't help either. Try rinsing the filter out with a thin engine oil, like 5W20.

[Racincc85]

actually the dirty oil goes in the small holes and out through the large one in the center. The small particle of dirt/grass was right around one of the smaller holes. I didnt try to rinse the filter because i didnt have enought oil and i had to use the car soon. Im hoping the filter will hold it until tomorrow when i can buy a new filter (i'm overly cautious). I;ve got to drive 70 miles tomorrow, so hopefully it will be ok. I have to imagine that pieces of crud comprable in size to the speck of dirt/grass are naturally formed in the engine by the combustion process/wear process. I'm also running mobil 10w30, so if the dirt did get loose would this offer a higher level of protection?

[Racincc85]

also, how would i know if it scored a bearing? Could it also score the cylinder walls and cause some blowby? I'm probably freaking out over this, but i just want to know the worst case scenarios. the car is a 90 buick lesabre with the 3800 v6

[CarSuperfreak]

if it scored a bearing, you'd know. it would start knocking. If youre real worried about it, just do another oil change. Because when it comes down to it, the cost of one oil change is a lot less than a new engine....

[Doug Rodrigues]

Buy a new filter and save all the potential grief. It doesn't take much to ruin a bearing.

**Afterthought: Your rod and main bearings run with about .0005 (half a thousands of an inch to one thousands of an inch) with the .001" thickness of clearance all the way around the journals being the worn-out value. Measuring the journal and comparing it to the inside diameter of the bearing, that would be .001 to .002 (one thousands of an inch to two thousands of an inch) clearance. In a small engine, two thousands would be at it's worn-out limit. Feel the thickness of a .001" feeler gauge. If a particle of grit that size entered your engine, it would probably be smashed into the babbit material which covers the bearing of where ever it lodged. Another comparison: The thickness of the average piece of writing paper is about .004. If any debris thicker than .001" got into the center of your oil filter, that crud is probably stuck in the crank or cam bearings or hydraulic lifters now. You should never have taken a chance using any filter that dropped into debris. Your engine will probably run okay because any damage that could have been done has already occurred. To late to do anything about it now.

[Racincc85]

it was just a few tiny pieces of debris that got into the inlet side of the filter. I drove about 80 miles today with no problems. No noises, strange engine behavior or anything. I looked at the new oil filters in the store, and on the inlet side they all had small pieces of matter from the manufacturing process and whatnot. the filter is a mobil 1 made out of synthetic fiber with a 97% multipass effiency rating, so im confident the filter held the particle. I made sure to check the outlet side of the filter very carefully before i put it on and there wasnt a thing there. the particle went down into the inlet hole and was comprable to a speck of sand. With no problems 80 miles later im thinking the motor is safe

[Doug Rodrigues]

The next time you look at a used bearing taken from an engine being rebuilt, notice that there will be many particles imbedded in the bearing. It's a cumulative situation. The Babbit material on any bearing is a thin lead type coating usually .0005 to .001" thickness that does two things: It compensates for a crankshaft that isn't perfectly sized, and it also acts to absorb the occasional crud that circulates through the oil gallery with the oil such as a speck of grit. How does that grit get into the engine? The most common way is to reinsert a contaminated dip stick into the engine. The tube that the dip stick slides into is usually covered with oil that has accumulated dirt. Dirt is the most abrasive stuff that an engine has to deal with. You miss the hole and touch the dirty part of the dip stick tube. Some of that dirt attaches to the dip stick. You finally get that dip stick down into the tube, and in the process have now introduced a miniscule amount of grit. Through the years, those miniscule amounts add up to quite a large amount. That's how all that imbedded grit on the used bearings got there. Just something to think about.