Next is the filings themselves, do you know what kind of metal they are? Clean them up, what color are they? If they are silver then run a magnet over them, if they stick then they are steel, could be any number of things including pieces of the piston skirt, if they don't stick then they are likely aluminium, the list for that is a bit smaller, could be the connecting rods among other things. The main concern is your oil pressure and the sound the engine makes, if the oil pressure is low then you could have a bearing with pieces missing (the main bearings are where the oil goes first and they like lots of it, if they wear then the pressure drops), if the oil pressure is high then there could be a blocked gallery and the oil might not be getting to the cylinder walls, possibly damaging the piston. Then comes the sound of the engines, give it a listen, if you hear grinding, screeching, knocking, rattling, anything that shouldn't be then you need to start digging until you find the problem. The metal may be bits leftover from some previous work or even when the truck was built, you won't know until you find out otherwise.
Finally, the coolant in the engine oil. Often this is your head gaskets though it could be your oil cooler (if you have an exchanger system, generally the leak is from the higher pressure oil into the lower pressure coolant though). A sure fire way to tell if the coolant is leaking into the oil is by foam, if the oil is foamy then you have coolant, and trouble. Other options are cracked head, cracked block or eroded coolant channel in the block (which might also explain the metal chunks but don't get ahead of yourself). put a pressure check on the coolant system and see/hear where it is coming out.
if that pan has not been down yet, you may not have a problem at all. the materials that you see may have been form the assembly of it in the first place. metal filings will get stuck in places in the block and then as the oil flows through it, they get pushed off of the surface and fall to the lowest point really.
Best pull the heads off & make sure there's nothing broken.
Have you ever hears of a rear main seal leak?
no but i will look into thank you
in the middle of fixing engine knock and head gasket, drained out all the oil and found metal chunks inside the hole of the oil drain plug. it is a 2005 ford e250 4.6l v8 engine... removing the oil pan requires to remove the engine... if i fix what broke do i still need to still take out the metal chunks in the oil pan?? i don't have the tools to take remove the engine....Also what do you think broke? so far i have removed the valve covers and the timing chain and camshafts looks great.... the truck is leaking coolant in the oil, also i noticed oil leaking in between the engine and transmission, why is that?
any help is appreciated
