Rod knock after 500 miles

[Arith2]

I'm super annoyed that my engine is knocking after almost 500 miles. The initial start up of the engine had no rod knock. I would listen for any issues on startup every single time and no knocking. Heck, I barely had any flywheel chatter. Either way, ACL Race bearing were used with the M10 BMW bolts. The torque spec was following to the letter. Liquimoly was my initial oil I used for the initial start up. I drained it after everything warmed up up and sounded fine. I changed to TWS for driving along with the filter. When I cut open the second filter, there were a couple little flakes and glitter as expected. One thing I didn't expect was black chunks of what maybe looked like carbon. I'm hoping an oil gallery isn't clogged or the valve in the filter housing isn't messed up. Anyone have experience changing those?

What I've inspected so far:
Oil which had the bearing glitter in it
Oil filter was the same with larger black chunks of carbon
Valve clearances which were all good
Cam bolts, none had backed out
Timing chain was tight
Knocks even with clutch engaged so that rules out chatter
No oil leaks whatsoever
No engine light, pending misfire code on cylinder 4
Static compression was all around 170

Here's the video:

[enjoy_m3]

How do you know it's bearing glitter? There are a lot of factors that can cause mistakes.
- Did you check bearing clearances with at the very least a plasti gauge to make sure you had the correct bearing clearance?
- Did you install the rod caps in the correct orientation when intalling them back in? They are forged cracked so you have to install in the correct orientation they came out.

Pull the oil pan out and re-inspect. Make sure the oil pick up pipe is installed correctly with a good o-ring to prevent loss of oil pressure and with locktite on the 10mm bolts so they dont back out.

I also have ACL bearings, no issues.

[HassanEido]

Oh man. Sorry for ur loss. I hope u didn't use a lot of rtv on ur oil pan. I have acl in mine. No issues

[Arith2]

All is not lost yet except maybe my patience. Old bearings were pretty unscathed at 85k miles. I expected more wear. Sadly I didn't plastiguage them but I'm ordering some.
When I cut the filter open, I find some small pieces in the filter that may have snuck in from the previous engine. The cornerning part to me was the large chunks or carbon that couldn't have come from the bearings.

Copper glitter is a telltale sign of bearings failing. I could clearly see this through the oil on my black glove. I'm hoping that the crank is ok because I'm in quite a bit of money on this. The people I got the engine from are willing to still honor a warranty. I'm going to try to save this engine because it seemed solid. The oil pump never got touched while doing bearings so at this point, I don't think this is an assembly error. My theory at this point is oil starvation.

[stash1]

Sux OP, I know that you just got a new engine in your car...let us know the outcome.

[HassanEido]

That's why i said i hope u didn't use a lot of rtv. I've seen engines suck in rtv thru the oil pick up screen clogging it and causing oil starvation. Keep us posted

[heinzboehmer]

When I cut the filter open, I find some small pieces in the filter that may have snuck in from the previous engine.

From the previous engine? Did you reuse the filter?

[Arith2]

From the previous engine? Did you reuse the filter?

Oh heck no. That filter was thrown out 8 months ago. I put a fresh filter in for the 20 minute warm up and then changed the filter again so this was the second filter. If I change oil, I change the filter, period. Hassan may be spot on with whatever that black crap was. I took that video with a THIRD filter and new oil yesterday. That has yet to be looked at but it's going to waste. Here's my reference diagram for oil flow and places to check. After looking through this, I'm leaning more towards a clearance problem. I'm just hoping I don't find a loose bolt. I called Lang and he said check for torque consistency between removing the bolts.

[heinzboehmer]

Oh heck no. That filter was thrown out 8 months ago.

Okay good. I thought you meant you had reused the filter from your old engine lol.

[Arith2]

Okay good. I thought you meant you had reused the filter from your old engine lol.

Oh man. That takes a special kind of stupidity 😂

[Inizes]

I’m sorry for your loss definitely interested to see what happens.

[Arith2]

I appreciate you guys. Thankfully I have a supportive wife.

[Icecream]

Those chunks you speak of. I had them in my oil cooler . They were large and appeared to be blavk, graphite like plastic. This was discovered when I pulled the oil cooler off the old engine (that blew) to send off for cleaning. I have no idea what it was or where it came from but I think it contributed to my spun bearing. Anyway, sorry dude. I just went through the swap and would legit push the car off a cliff if my bearings spun in 500 miles. I used ACL too, so far so good 4k in.

[COVID-19]

Did you clean the oil cooler prior to installing the new engine?

[Arith2]

Did you clean the oil cooler prior to installing the new engine?

Clearly not well enough. Looking at oil flow and considering my engine ran for maybe a second or two when blown so metal didn't circulate the oil system very much. Also, the oil filter blocks the cooler and nothing made it through the filter.