I found I had a used OEM filter lying around coming off my 245 and decided to do a teardown. About 15 years ago, I had torn one down before and was curious to see if anything had changed. That was indeed the case, but I also found something potentially worrying. I was taking photos, so I could make and album and post a link for those interested.

Had I not done so, I would have remained unaware of the crud that was inside. I thought at first that it was just iron filings from my sawing open the can. But then I looked at this photo below, and I noticed that the crud was also on the dome of the can, and that worried me. When I took the photo, the can had not yet been set upright, I had removed the filter element sideways. That means that that stuff cannot possibly be iron filings from my sawing, they could only be near the edge.

When I run this crud through my fingers, it doesn't feel like metal filings (sigh of relief) at all. It feels more like a softer crud of years of dirt build up that was released into the engine oil. I can only hope that it went straight down the bottom of the oil pan and was picked up and filtered before it could reach vital components. A recent compression test showed a healty engine, BTW.

What could this crud be? Could it have come from the PCV, and if so, how?

Thanks for any insight you can give...

http://i.imgur.com/PS1u6QL.jpg