What did I find in my oil pan?

[VetteMed]

I dropped the oil pan today, to swap out the gasket, and after removing the baffle, I found 4 or 5 chunks of hard material, with a brown-tannish color. I can't really tell if it's metallic, but it's definitely not magnetic. The pieces are rounded on their edges, kind of as if they bounced around and got chewed up a bit...I was thinking it might be pieces of a timing chain guide strip that got loose? Is this a significant issue?

BTW, I was able to see up into the cylinder liners, those that I could see still had all of the crosshatching visible, even after 188k miles.

[phrogs]

Its pieces of your timing chain wear guides

Since your into the motor a little bit I would investiate I found the small one that is in the top of the cam cover on my last car to be completely broken and the chain was rubbing on the METAL plate that sits under the wear guide!



ok what do I win???

[VetteMed]

Originally Posted by phrogs

timing chain wear guides


ok what do I win???

That's what I was figuring -- does this mean I need to pull the front cover of the motor?

[phrogs]

Originally Posted by VetteMed

That's what I was figuring -- does this mean I need to pull the front cover of the motor?

I added to my post, I would inspect and find out whats torn up, I think mine was caused by chain slap at start up.

[VetteMed]

The strips in the cam covers are intact, and look perfectly fine. Peeking in the chain area on the front of the heads, the RH side appears intact as far as I can tell, but I think on the LH side, the upper/outer end (perhaps an inch or so), of the upper guide strip, appears to have broken off. The chain is not contacting the backing plate, at least not now while everything is stationary....

Whatcha think?

[phrogs]

Are you planning to freshen this motor up sometime in the future?

If the chain isnt hitting I wouldn't worry about it for now you know its there and can't be suprised if something happens but If you dive into this there will be a ton of while im in theres that will pop up.

[VetteMed]

Originally Posted by phrogs

Are you planning to freshen this motor up sometime in the future?

If the chain isnt hitting I wouldn't worry about it for now you know its there and can't be suprised if something happens but If you dive into this there will be a ton of while im in theres that will pop up.

The plan is to run this motor for as long as I can, then do a 368 or even a stroker if funds allow. I bought the car with high miles (188k) with the intent of needing to do a motor in a month, a year, or 3 years... A bit of a gamble, perhaps, but the price was right.

Since there were only a few pieces in the pan, it looks like the amount of material that would have been created when that one-inch-long end section was broken off... so I'm inclined to assume that the other strips are intact.

[Huntingbigun]

No LT5 expert but built lots of SBC, aircraft engines and here is one small thing, you will always be thinking about it and "going is it slapping ? " maybe just go in deep enough to replace the strip and freshing up later. Bring that sucker to my hanger in Lakeland and we will have a eng party like them boys up North. I love helping someone spend their money

[VetteMed]

Originally Posted by Huntingbigun

No LT5 expert but built lots of SBC, aircraft engines and here is one small thing, you will always be thinking about it and "going is it slapping ? " maybe just go in deep enough to replace the strip and freshing up later. Bring that sucker to my hanger in Lakeland and we will have a eng party like them boys up North. I love helping someone spend their money

Yeah, that is a realistic point there... Guess I need to sleep on it

I wish I had a hangar to work in, especially with a lift

OK, to those of you in the know -- How much extra work is involved to swap out the LH upper chain guide?

[VetteMed]

Here's a pic:

You can see the guide, and the space where the wear strip used to be located, and then the chain. From the sharp edge visible on the guide, I'm inclined to say that there hasn't been any contact by the chain.

Any input appreciated.