Wood splitter oil contamination

[Enplater]

I have a low hour champion 27 ton splitter, I’m the original owner and have split around 2 or 3 cords with it.
I did a routine oil change the other day and noticed the bronze colored glitter in the oil that was drained, not chunks but very fine glitter.
If I remember correctly, I ran some conventional oil 10w30 initially then changed to synthetic 5/30 after a few hours of break in and that was the oil I drained.
Are there any small engine experts that can tell me if the bearings are toast or could this be a normal break-in thing? When I worked at Subaru this usually meant the car would need a turbo and short block but I’m not a small engines expert and I don’t know if there could be another explanation. The splitter runs fine and sounds normal, it works 100%.
Has anyone ever experienced this?
Thanks for your replies.

 

[salecker]

Run it and check for a duplication of the glitter in the oil.
You could add some oil treatment for some insurance, like slick 50 ....

 

[Whitenuckler]

I have a low hour champion 27 ton splitter, I’m the original owner and have split around 2 or 3 cords with it.
I did a routine oil change the other day and noticed the bronze colored glitter in the oil that was drained, not chunks but very fine glitter.
If I remember correctly, I ran some conventional oil 10w30 initially then changed to synthetic 5/30 after a few hours of break in and that was the oil I drained.
Are there any small engine experts that can tell me if the bearings are toast or could this be a normal break-in thing? When I worked at Subaru this usually meant the car would need a turbo and short block but I’m not a small engines expert and I don’t know if there could be another explanation. The splitter runs fine and sounds normal, it works 100%.
Has anyone ever experienced this?
Thanks for your replies.

I guess it can't be leftover manufacturing debris if you changed the original oil, unless there was still some original oil that didn't drain.
Run it hard while it's under warranty.

 

[Enplater]

I’ll have to see if it’s still under warranty, it’s on my to do list, if not I need to find some wood to split and see if the next oil change has the same results.

 

[Whitenuckler]

I’ll have to see if it’s still under warranty, it’s on my to do list, if not I need to find some wood to split and see if the next oil change has the same results.

Ya, to be honest since that came out after the second oil change, and those particles are non magnetic (assuming you even have a mag drain plug) , with no oil filter, single cylinder (I'm guessing here) then that crap was splashing around. Check your warranty and I'd see about reasonable cause to claim. Probably a hassle I'm sure.

 

[Enplater]

Ya, to be honest since that came out after the second oil change, and those particles are non magnetic (assuming you even have a mag drain plug) , with no oil filter, single cylinder (I'm guessing here) then that crap was splashing around. Check your warranty and I'd see about reasonable cause to claim. Probably a hassle I'm sure.

Everything you said was correct. I took an oil sample in my ratiorite and swirled it around while holding a magnet to the side and nothing stuck. I’m pretty sure I’d have noticed this on the initial oil change.
Looks like I got the splitter almost 2 years ago, I’ll have to check on the warranty, maybe Home Depot will take care of me.

 

[Whitenuckler]

Everything you said was correct. I took an oil sample in my ratiorite and swirled it around while holding a magnet to the side and nothing stuck. I’m pretty sure I’d have noticed this on the initial oil change.
Looks like I got the splitter almost 2 years ago, I’ll have to check on the warranty, maybe Home Depot will take care of me.

You might be OK if the oil stays clean. You should hear noise and see smoke if the engine is failing. Find out how you could replace the engine if you need to. Synthetic oil is so much better than conventional oil, so you might be OK. I use synthetic oil in all my 4 strokes and every time I check the oil it looks clean. Even my lawnmower.

 

[John Mc]

Looks like I got the splitter almost 2 years ago, I’ll have to check on the warranty, maybe Home Depot will take care of me.

Home Depot has a 2 year warranty on their Champion Splitters. If you have concerns, get it in there before the 2 years is up. At the very least, make sure to register a complaint in writing before the time runs out. If you saved the shavings, hold on to them in case you need some proof. If you change the again, save what comes out.

You may also want to have a small engine shop look at the internals. Some of this might be done with a borescope without disassembling much, but they may not be able to see everything that needs to be seen. (you also might be inviting HD to deny the claim if it's disassembled by someone they deem "unqualified".)

 

[Enplater]

Home Depot has a 2 year warranty on their Champion Splitters. If you have concerns, get it in there before the 2 years is up. At the very least, make sure to register a complaint in writing before the time runs out. If you saved the shavings, hold on to them in case you need some proof. If you change the again, save what comes out.

You may also want to have a small engine shop look at the internals. Some of this might be done with a borescope without disassembling much, but they may not be able to see everything that needs to be seen. (you also might be inviting HD to deny the claim if it's disassembled by someone they deem "unqualified".)

Looks like I’m about 2 weeks from the end of the 2 year warranty. I plan on contacting champion tomorrow and I already registered it. Hopefully the warranty process isn’t a nightmare.

 

[John Mc]

Good luck. As someone mentioned earlier, there is some chance that the shavings were just left over from the manufacturing process. I would have thought the first oil change would have taken care of that. However, if you did not have many hours on it at that point (and if it was not run enough to thoroughly warm it up and mix things up) it's possible some of it did not work its way out at the first oil change.

I'd be rather suspicious of it at this point. If things are starting to fail, it could easily keep running fine until well after the warranty runs out. The fact that this is a low time machine with two oil changes on it and is putting out shavings is a real concern.

If they replace the engine (or the whole splitter) I hope they give you some time under warranty to get it broken in and determine that this one is working well.