Your mini and the weekend

[u09521]

So miniMini (Mini is a Bini in our house) got a oil change this weekend. I almost had a heart attack when I pulled the plug out. This is after 4000km of mostly hard running. The oil started as monograde, became High Milage at 1000km (together with the blown head gasket replacement) and is now Delo400 as per forum. There was only one metal chip in the tree which I could feel between my fingers, but there was more metal which you could see if you smeared the gunk. (Obviously else it wouldn't stick to the plug) Not nice, but what can I do? It would be interesting to know how much metal one can expect to pull out of a rebuilt engine. Any experience to share? Its actually very hard to get a phone photo of it, 'cos there's no focus reference point!
Apart from that; reset the rocker gaps (were out on 3), washed the filter, checked the dashpot, put a screw into the sill trim strip which keeps popping off, checked the head torque (one nut moved a little), checked the plugs (nice & brown), and skipped the wash as there was rugby to be watched. Total cost R477