Combat Medic,
As Getty-up-Go mentions, there shouldn't be any grit in the oil, be it sand, metal shavings or pumice. I'd suggest a used oil analysis to see if there is something else going on that you can't see. There are a number of companies out there that do this, one that I know of is Blackstone Labs.
Bogatyr
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2001 Nissan XTerra XE 40k
1984 Honda CRX 1.5 83k
1970 Land Rover IIa 88" 41k
1966 Land Rover IIa 109" 35k