smashed oil pan and some shavings, any ideas?

[sfriesen]

I bought this 92 Talon AWD car about a week ago and it had a pretty good oil leak. I decided to pull the pan after I got under the car and saw that it had been hit from the bottom and pushed in (up). I had noticed what I thought was abnormally low oil pressure (1/4 on the stock gauge, but it NEVER moved) and wasn't sure if it was just a bad gauge. Well, the pan was pushed in far enough that you could see where it nailed the pick-up screen. There were also some remnants of orange RTV in the screen and what-not. What concerned me was this, there were some (not a LOT) metal shavings in the lower region of the pan. Some were what I'd consider "flakes", and some were pretty thick little chunks, similar in size, but thick enough that they were actualy folded over, like metal chippings.

The motor doesn't seem to make any odd noises, and compression reads 154,156,140,157 from cyl. 1-4 on the 160K motor (I assume this mileage to be correct). I first attributed the low compression on one cyl. to be a headgasket or maybe a valve not seating properly, but haven't ran leakdown or anything like that on it.

I also noticed a white pasty substance in the upper area of the pan, under where the turbo return feeds back into the pan, can anyone lead me to what that may be?

Anyhow, could this be balance shaft bearing shavings, or something worse? Like I said, motor seems to run great and I hear no knocking or grinding I would expect from a spun bearing, I'd say the low O/P was the lack of room for the pickup to get oil. I really don't have the time for a rebuild right now, as I'm down on a car to drive until it's fixed, so I wonder if there's something else on these motors that may have caused these shavings that might not be totally detrimental to the motor.

any info is greatly appreciated as I am indeed a noob, this is my first 4g63 pan-off experience, and I'm simply relying on my common mechanical knowledge to rack through this, I don't know the DSM qwerks too well yet...

 

[sfriesen]

Also, I noticed very little to no metallic "dust" in the bottom of the pan, and none of the shavings were copper colored, all silver. If that information helps.

thanks

 

[freshlane]

Before my swap I had shavings in mine. My motor wasn't knocking either. Did you empty your filter and check inside there also? Can you post some pics of the shavings and white paste? I kinda want to see how big they are. Your description is vauge

 

[sfriesen]

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That's the best picture I can get to come out. Those are really the only large pieces I got out of the pan, there were some smaller ones, but it wasn't by any means showered with metal. You can see the largest one is folded over, it's pretty thick.

This was OBVIOUSLY the cause of the low oil pressure situation...

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You can see here that it was jammed into the pickup screen...

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Pickup screen with some RTV stuck in it

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I wiped the white streak out before i could take a picture, but it was just probably a 2"X4" streak just under the turbo return line in the upper portion of the pan that had a white coloration to it, wasn't sure if that was common or what...

 

[telnut]

I"d pull a couple of rod caps and look at the bearings and crank journals. The metal is pretty serious especially the big chunks. You might get away with it for a short time but replace the pick-up because it may have damaged the flange where it bolts to the oil pump causing it to suck air. Pound out the pan, put it back together and drive easy. How are things in Wichita, I was born and lived in Pratt for my younger years, now in Nevada. I haved uncles and cousins in Wichita and Topeaka.

Telnut
"Motor oil in my veins, nuts and bolts in my brain."

 

[freshlane]

+1 look at the bearings. those are good sized chunks. change oil and filter asap. get those shavings out and get a new pan.

 

[sfriesen]

You think I can sneak away with new bearings if no real damage is done? I can probably get my hands on a new crank and have it polished, turned, or whatever else it may need, but the main concern is simplicity in this fix.

Last night I got the pan all straightened back out, so it should be good to go back on the motor.

Does the vfaq have the torque specs for the main caps? I don't have a manual handy yet.

 

[DSM_dreams]

i would pull the valve cover and look at the lobes on the cam too

 

[sawnuoff]

i would have to guess at the balance shaft bearings first because they get oil first i just tore on down with a spun balance shaft bearing