Valvoline vr1 20w-50, 300 miles, Pontiac WS6, LS3 6.2, New motor

[KEVINK0000]

This does not look like a successful rebuild. The builder should be involved in diagnosing. At least you can reuse parts when it’s opened up again.

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

At least you can reuse parts when it’s opened up again.

Hopefully!! I’d be pulling the pan sooner rather than later, and checking stuff with my own eyes and hands. Keep driving to 1k miles and depending on what’s wrong, you may have a rotating assembly that can be turned into some fancy yard art with a HF mig welder, because something’s been damaged beyond repair.

That much metal has to look like sickly silvery glitter when draining. I don’t care if it’s 5 minutes after startup, you’re talking in the low 1 THOUSAND ppm/1k miles right now. Get that thing back to the builder and make him fix it or buy it back!

 

[Hohn]

Personally, before I did anything else, I'd drain the oil, cut and inspect the filter, replace the oil with the same VR1, run it for 15 min at 2k rpm or so no load and then send in that 15 minute sample to a different lab. Look for sparkly oil or anything metallic in the filter.

Especially at smaller shop a fresh build is almost never super clean. You can't trust the first sample, and in your case especially so since Blackstone was used.

If the engine is sick, it will be throwing metal into a fresh batch of oil enough to see in analysis in only 15 min or so.

The metals values are concerning, but it's really the combination of high metals and low oil pressure with 20w50 that to me are the main red flags.


Before reading the riot act to your builder, make your case a bit stronger with a second sample.