found something odd - kinda worried

sholover719 · Mar 31, 2011

well heres the story,

i bought my sho back in oct. of 2008 i think im the 3rd owner, its a 1994 mtx rust free bought it with right at 140,000 miles on the clock, when i went to go look at it. I knew it was going to need some work to get it where i want it to be, and its still in a really long working progress.
Im finally getting to the rod bearings with it now sitting at 189,390 on the clock while doing the rods im also replacing the exhaust system and the motor mounts front and rear.
i changed out the motor mounts last night and got to drop the oil pan tonight and found something very interesting in the bottom of the oil pan which has me kinda worried something else is wrong. see pics below

thos are the biggest pieces i found, ill take more pics of all the smaller pieces in the oil pan tomorrow.

the car has ran great since the day i got it. i have no known history about how the car was cared for and ive put close to 50,000 hard miles on it and never had a problem. the only work ive done so far was plugs and wires valve cover gaskets, front 60k was done. put an alt. on it and the clutch was replaced at about 168,000 miles.
i dont know what to expect with how the rod bearings are going to look, ill found out tomorrow, but right now what really worries me are the little pieces of plastic i found on the bottom of the oil pan. and as far as i know this is the very first time the oil pan has been taken off.

i was just wondering what these pieces could be from, or if anybody has found anything like this in their oil pan before. i planed to clean everything out of the oil pan so none of this goes back in the motor.

thanks for the help and advice, sorry its so long winded i hope this is nothing to serious.

HotRodKid · Mar 31, 2011

kinda looks like the plastic off one of the cam chain tensioners. if it is the tensioner is down to bare metal OR was and has been replaced.

Edit: and it would probably have to be off the front head

sholover719 · Mar 31, 2011

when i had pulled the valve cover gaskets off back when i first got it probably about 145,000 miles or so the chain tensioner looked great, that might be what its from, i might pull the front cover just to inspect it, but it wasnt making any noises when i started the work, it ran perfect and smooth like always.

NWGRN94MTX · Mar 31, 2011

HotRodKid said:
kinda looks like the plastic off one of the cam chain tensioners. if it is the tensioner is down to bare metal OR was and has been replaced.

Edit: and it would probably have to be off the front head

I concur, maybe it was replaced by a previous owner and the pieces where left in the pan?

digeronimo34 · Mar 31, 2011

HotRodKid said:
kinda looks like the plastic off one of the cam chain tensioners. if it is the tensioner is down to bare metal OR was and has been replaced.

Edit: and it would probably have to be off the front head

X2 that is what they look like to me. Especially with the curved ends.

kevinspann · Mar 31, 2011

Imagine that x5 and that's what I pulled out of the SOHC in my Explorer. Id say timing chain tensioner too.

Phoenix · Mar 31, 2011

kevinspann said:
Imagine that x5 and that's what I pulled out of the SOHC in my Explorer. Id say timing chain tensioner too.

Same here , I found huge chunks of it in my old 2002 Exploder , that 4.0 is just a POS.

sholover719 · Mar 31, 2011

thats what i thought it might have been but i wasnt sure and wasnt sure if i should be concerned that it was in the bottom of the oil pan.

i guess i can clean it all out and she will be just fine.