I found a treasure in my oil pan!!!

[jthod]

I found this little peach in my oil pan.

http://s270.photobucket.com/albums/jj85/jthod/

This thing is going to go on the top of my cake for the week.

I just got home from picking up plastic grille pieces and glass off the gravel road from the deer that I absolutly creamed last night with my grandpa's '84 Toyota pickup that was my loaner car while the SHO was under the knife, AGAIN!!!

I pulled the car into the garage on Friday. It started doing the old rod knock in town and I babied it home, all 17 miles. I got it up on jacks and got the rod bearings ordered. Just this afternoon I pulled the pan of and found it^^^. Other that the pieces in the picture, there was just a little sludge on the bottom of the pan, and a little on the pick-up screen.

The car was still running great, it just started knocking a bit. I have not removed any of the rod caps yet. I wanted to get this up before I go to work.

 

[1993MTXSHO]

Ouch... id say your crank is toast. Make sure you check it, I went to do the bearings in my old 93 mtx (it wasnt knocking) took them all out and one was so bad it scored the crank. If theres any nicks on the crank it will eat through the new bearings in no time and you will only waste money and time replacing your bearings.

 

[jthod]

I was afraid of that. So much for throw the bearings in a go. We'll see though.

 

[hawkeye18]

ohh man. That sucks so much . I almost thought that was a screw... that definitely looks like it was too much material to have come from a single bearing... and I've never seen a crank shaved like that. Perhaps if it was the entire length of the bearing? I'm also assuming the nut didn't come out from there too... there's a pretty straight score mark up the spiral of the shaving. Damn. This needs to go on the "this is why you need to change your rod bearings" faq... if there is one. Sorry for the loss!

 

[SHObill]

Joe, I highly doubt that metal spiral came from the crank! Only a hardend 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.

 

[93rev2sev]

that aint from a running engine.

 

[jthod]

Joe, I highly doubt that metal spiral came from the crank! Only a hardend 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.

Exactly what I was thinking Bill, and thanks for being optomistic, I'm trying my best to be. Just going off how the engine ran, I think if this piece were missing from the crank, I had to have had more of a knock, or grind. This thing is scaring the S#$T out of me. But, I pulled one of the rod bearings and it looked great. Judging from all of the pics I've seen of rod bearings, this one I MUCH better. No copper, and still mostly dark.

The other puzzling thing it there is absolutly no shavings in the pan, other than this jewel. I'm going to wait for the bearings to come in before I take the rest of the caps off to see what I have.

As far as I know this thing has never been apart, 104k. And I just did it's first top 60K. There was a ton of RTV on it, but **** never skips on the chep things!

P.S. I love my macro lens!

 

[AREA 91]

Those bearintgs look great. As far as the "spiral" piece of metal, well that's a shafing from cutting or drilling. Was the top of the motor ever opened up before you? Someone could have stripped out a camshaft cap , and that shaving was produced when drilling and installing a heli coil. It's possible.

 

[PAracer]

That chip looks about as varnished as the rest of the engine. Both sides, right? It finally broke loose after all these years. Nothing to worry about. The screen on the pickup kept it away from causing trouble.

 

[SHObill]

Joe, I have pulled many a ****** valve cover off & never found a 'ton' of RTV! Only small beads in the corners & sharp edges! Just where it's supposed to be! Someone must of been in there before! Always plug the head ports & oil return passage as soon as the VC's come off. It looked like a steel chip-check with a magnet- if so it was not from the heads. Could of been caught in someones sleeve & dropped of as they worked on the top end- or- got past Yamaha QC as they machined the block!
--OT--Thanx Brian!! Got the dampener!

 

[hawkeye18]

yeah, I'd have to agree after seeing those rod bearings. They look pristine. I'd change them anyway, since you're in there, though I kid, I kid. Or maybe not?

Anyway, that does look like a drill bit shaving or helicoil. Sounds like the magnetic thingy at the bottom of the oilpan was doing its job!

 

[jthod]

Funny thing is the shaving is very shiny, like its fresh. No other gunk, or oil sludge in it. Oh well, on to the fun part of the job. The bearings do look good enough to put back in, but that would be a waste of time, EFFORT, and maybe 200k miles before the next set. I still havn't taken any more of the caps off, so I don't know how the rest look, but I expect them to be pretty close to the one above. I'll post the results when I'm done, hopefully sunday. I'll also try to post a pic of the whole set, just to do it.

Thanks everyone for there input!

FYI, just to be random, '84 Toyota truck parts are cheap and easy to find, except the hood of course.

 

[92inPA]

SHObill's replies x 2. He already gave you the correct advice. Go ahead and finish the bearings swap.

 

[jthod]

that was the plan.

 

[hawkeye18]

sweet.

 

[adidas_kn]

Yeah I bet your heart stopped when you found that. And then your brain started working overtime to figure out where it could've come from. Good luck with reassembly.

 

[hawkeye18]

lol, too true. I would've shit a brick. Literally, a brick would have come out of my pants. I might would've cried a little, too. :cry:

 

[HotRodKid]

a shaving like that probably WOULDNT have any sort of gunk on it, because its always at the same exact temp as the oil its sitting in, where as things like the bottoms of the pistons are screaming hot, and oil that hits THEM can bake into place

i wouldnt be surprised if while they had the valve covers off someone was doing something on a lathe nearby, and this piece wt flying ... or it was on a shop rag that they used while they had the valve cover off

its definantly from a machining operation OTHER then drilling, the spiral is to tight for it to be from drilling

 

[hawkeye18]

I'd have to agree. It does look like it was lathed either off a small diameter object, or with a fairly aggresive bit.

BTW, I like the suicide smiley lol.

 

[jthod]

BTW, I like the suicide smiley lol.

I've become addicted to this site: http://smiliesftw.com/

I literally almost , and then .

HotRodKid

I wouldnt be surprised if while they had the valve covers off someone was doing something on a lathe nearby, and this piece wt flying ... or it was on a shop rag that they used while they had the valve cover off

The thing is the valve covers have never been off. I just did the top 60K in my garage, 10 miles from any lathe, and the only metal work I've done in my shop was drilling simple holes, such as for the fog lights.