I drained the oil in my 08 Sportster 1200C and found brass flakes in the oil. I bought the bike used back in December with only 1000mi on it, drained the oil after a couple hundred miles this spring and have ridden an additional 1500 miles.

After draining the oil and finding the Brass (very fine flakes, not much bigger than the flakes in metalflake paint) I proceeded to cut the oil filter open. There were hardly any flakes in the filter media, and overall the filter and oil were as clean as I see on my other Harley at that mileage. I know the engine is not broken in yet that was my reason for a short interval change.

Any cause for alarm??

 

Brass ?? I can't think of anywhere you would find brass in the engine....that's really weird.

 

Someone trying to f with your bike???

 

Cam bushings in the cam cover are bronze/brass.

 

regardless, this is bad. Something is grinding in your engine.

Not sure if that is normal for the break in period ...

 

Your still in the break-in period and out of warranty anyway, so I'd run it another 1,000 miles and check the oil to see if it's any better or worse. Assuming of course you're not hearing any strange noises.

When you drain the oil again in 1,000 miles, send in a sample for testing.

 

Cam bosses are brass and the same thing for the crank pinion bearings.....

 

+ 1, Drain it and run it and see if it gets worse. The noise is important so kepp an ear open.

 

Change the oil and run for a few hundred miles and check it again. There are some oils that do have flake in it honda gold synthetic being one of them. Hopefully its just from your breakin period but since your outta warranty might aswell run it til something fails.

 

The ones on top are Bronze.