I found a treasure in my oil pan!!!

[93rev2sev]

I know what that shaving is!

It's part of the block. When the block was originally machined, the main oil galleys had to be drilled. As the drill comes back out, it drops all of the shavings. Well...the bit is still spinning when it's coming out so whatever is on the bit will get flung.

My guess is that the spiral got jammed in the hole and did not come out when the block was washed. Many miles later and lots of oil later, the spiral got "unjammed" and fell into the oil pan for you to find.

 

[SHObill]

I already covered those two options in my first posts here:

Joe, I highly doubt that metal spiral came from the crank! Only a hardened bit on a lathe could produce that. That piece must of come from the original machineing of the block if the oil pan has never come off before! OR some one working on the car in a machine shop, droped it in a head & it went down the oil return holes. I bet you will be OK.

Could of been caught in someones sleeve & dropped off as they worked on the top end- or- got past Yamaha QC as they machined the block!

Now with a 'Sam' attitude -Don't you guys read!! LOL

 

[HotRodKid]

I know what that shaving is!

It's part of the block. When the block was originally machined, the main oil galleys had to be drilled. As the drill comes back out, it drops all of the shavings.

but its not a drill bit shaving...

 

[jthod]

the bits that they use to machine blocks will make a little different shaving than your typical drill bit.

p.s.- post #100 :woohoo:

 

[HotRodKid]

2 points others have made so far:

due to its brittleness, cast iron tends to turn to dust when its drilled or machined

the width of the ribbon times 2 will tell you the minimum diameter of the hole (if this is a result of drilling)

if this is a shaving from something like a lathe operation, the width of the ribbon will tell you that the bit used was "no narrower then XX.***"

so whats the width of the shaving ? (measured as if it was stretched out flat, were not talking about the diameter of the coil)

 

[jthod]

DONE!!!:woohoo:

Got it running this morning only to find that it is smoking. From the hood, not the exhaust. Light smoke, and doesn't seem to smell like oil, but I do have a cold, so I may be wrong. It is coming from both sides of the motor. It smells almost like burning acetone, don't ask why I know that. I'm thinking that it's just the oil pan heating up and getting any of the acetone residue off of the outside. The engine sounds great, much smoother.

Any Ideas???

The shaving is about 1/4" wide and 3/4" long. I'm not going to flatten it, just because it's so damn cool, but I'd guess the hole it came from is between 3/8" and 5/8", going off your ratio.

The rest of the bearings were in pretty good shape too, but the first one I pulled is the best.^^^^^ (pic) a couple of them were starting to get shiny spots old the top half, right in the center, as usual. And no damage to be found, so it looks like Ford just wanted to give my a present.

As for what its from, who knows. The shaving looks like it's aluminum to me, probably from a head. Why it didn't F anything up, I don't know. But it's out of there now. Also on the bottom of the oil pan, it had been there long enough and moved around enough to make scratch marks, but only on about a 1.5"x1.5" circle on the pan.

 

[HotRodKid]

if its aluminium it could be from them cutting the valve bucket recesses, or from cutting the flats for the head bolts, theres plenty of spots in a sho head for something like this to get caught

 

[Lightning]

The shaving looks like it's aluminum to me

Try picking it up with a magnet.

picks it up == steel/iron

doesn't pick up == aluminum, possibly (but highly doubtful) a stainless steel

Why it didn't F anything up, I don't know.

nothing for it to hurt in the bottom of the pan. Besides, if it's aluminum, it wouldn't be tough enough to harm steel or cast iron

 

[jthod]

It's Aluminum.

BTW, the smoke went away, I thought it would burn off.

 

[HotRodKid]

nothing for it to hurt in the bottom of the pan. Besides, if it's aluminum, it wouldn't be tough enough to harm steel or cast iron

aluminium is actualy a highly abrasive material capable of wearing out saw blades faster then steel

ever see what pistons can do to cylinder bores ? or what happens to cams in an aluminium head when they are oil starved

aluminium shavings WILL destroy an engine just as fast as steel shavings

 

[Sho-N-Go]

I have actually seen that. The first time was 5 years ago on a customer car. I was fixing an oil leak the car had 90,000 on it. I was so paranoid that I pulled both camshafts and basically stripped the heads on the car. The shaving was alum in every case I have seen it. I finally decided that it was there from the beginning as no damage was found anywhere. In fact I now own the customers car I was speaking of it has 156,000 on it now. I have seen two others and just ignored it. Probably from Yamaha drilling oil drain backs.

 

[ViPER1313]

Sorry, the current picture is down, but does it happen to look something like this?

Found that in the oil pan of the 92' when I did the rod bearings. Have no idea where it came from.

 

[jthod]

EXACTLY like that.

 

[K-Dawg]

I guess Bruce Malachuk is no longer allowed to post here, but he read the thread and posted to one of the SHO mailing lists. He something about he's seen it before on a number of cars and its nothing to worry about.

 

[ViPER1313]

This should be a sticky. I would be interested to know how many people have seen these shavings and why they dont get flushed with the oil during a change. I can only assume that shaving was sitting in the pan for the first 135k miles of the car's life.

 

[AREA 91]

I have been in about 3 dozen V6's and I haven't vcome across that.........yet.

 

[jthod]

Should make a poll!

a) aluminum shaving (such as the pics)
b) allen key (in the other thread)
c) quarter
d) finger
e) other