took off the oil pan to fix a leak today, and look what i found inside:



of course pic sucks cuz i still don't have digi cam, but it's a broken piece off something. Has the same texture and color of my rods. This was the only piece in there too.

Do you have a stock bottom end??? I think it looks like a chunk of a ringland personally.

nope, i just did my rebuild 1400 miles ago with forged internals.

wow, id really dig in and look hard man, you ant to find exactly wtf that is befor you bolt that shit back together....good luck

Hmmm.....I guess I would check ringlands, rods, bedplate. In the pic it looks like it may be kind of big?? So it probably originated not far from where it is.

Definitely scary to find things in the oil pan :eek

it's about an half an inch in length. My compression came out good at 180 on all cylinders. I checked around inside just from the bottom tho, and couldn't find anything. I'm guessing i'd have to tear it down to really inspect this shit. :(

Did you rotate the engine and look at the piston skirts as each one came down? Crank? Just trying to spark some ideas. Of course the best inspection would be tearing it apart, but with a piece that large yo should be able to find its home.

i'll rotate it tomorrow and check. It was too dark to check. i just bolted the pan up with 3 bolts to avoid any debris from getting in there over night. Looking at the piece again I can't see it being part of a piston. Wouldn't know what part of the rod it would come of off either. Definitely not from the crank. The piece has a flat side to it and there seems to be some black stain that i can easily scratch off with my nail. It has absolutely no roundness to it, just straight. By looking at an H-beam rod and je piston, I can't see where this piece my might be from. I'll try and snap better pics.

*edit* just found out where it came from. From my cam gear. When i was rebuilding, the cam gear chipped, and i'm guessing fell inside the head while the VC was off. geez...

YAY.

At least you don't have to tear it apart now :P

Originally posted by Blizare
YAY. At least you don't have to tear it apart now :P

Word.

I've got a buddy down here in Phoenix who lost a SS bolt for his valve cover and the washer while putting his motor together. Lucky for him, he sprung an oil leak and decided to pull the entire engine to redo the seals. When he took the valve cover off, somehow, the bolt was sitting in the valve train. Thinking, "HOLY SHIT! WHERE'S THE WASHER?" He quickly dropped the pan next. Sure enough, there was the washer, stuck in the pick up filter.

Talk about dodging a bullet.

OMG it made it from the head to your oilpan? Howtha...