argument
 

please can i have your opinion as to the following .....whilst at work last week i got into a heated discusion over what you would expect to find when draining the oil......yep i found it hard to understand as well.... here are the examples given..... nowt but oil or your lump is goner go bang, small pieces of swarf. small pieces of gasket material, thread swarf, smurfs ...no actualy i made that up....but the discusion got almost to blows between a harley rider and in his opinion a..... plastic rocket rider,, made me think to have a real good look next time i change

Your opinion is about right.

imo
 

i think very small pieces of mentioned would be o.k. its when there is a lot and it gets bigger its time to worry ...am i wrong????

Yes. Although it's often quoted that if you spot lots of bright silvery shards or shavings in the oil strainer then you may be suffering from the infamous rockers problem. It's quite normal in my experience to get small amount of debris in the strainer or on the magnet with almost any bike over time.

There's a good reason why there's a magnet fitted to the drain plug.

Indeed. SO you can hang it on the garage door when changing the oil ;)

I did'nt think you needed a reason to slap a Hardley Ableson rider:lol:

You may find also :-
water deposits (from condensation, or internal leak,ie head gasket)
White metal from your main bearings
silica deposits...from sand left in the castings of the crankcases
Carbon deposits...from the products of combustion (blow by)
Sulphuric acid formed through the combination of carbon deposits and the water (although very small amounts)
Varnish like deposits from oxidised oils

Plus a load of toher constituents !!

Blimey, i only get oil!!

I've never yet owned a car or bike that hasn't left bits of swarf on the sump plug at every oil change.

the leftovers of my last oil-change contained swarf, chrome, gasket sealer and a fly.

btw: only one rocker needed doing and the motor is still going strong!

Many moons ago when I changed the oil screen on my old DR750 (no really), I found a complete cam chain tensioner, in bits, resting in the bottom of the engine.

I checked, and there was aonother one up top tensioning the cam chain.

Spin

Anything curly is generally machining swarf. But any con rods, bearings, gear teeth etc stuck to the magnet could mean significant wear! Look out for holes in the side of the casings or barrels accompanied by difficult starting with probably a dark liquid (almost oil like) in fairly large quantities inside the fairing, around the engine cases and on the floor.