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What's in my oilpan?

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406_Talon

Supporting Member
116
13
Jun 30, 2014
Kalispell, Montana
Well I pulled the pan as part of some work and as I got it off I could hear these fellas rattling around in it. Any idea? Not sure if I should start pulling the block. The car ran smooth and sounded fine til it blew a head gasket between 2&3, I was just pulling the pan while I did the HG cuz i had a gasket and I figured why not. Now I have these chunks. Chunks of frustration. Any help appreciated.
 

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I would definitely pull the engine. Those almost look like chunks from a cast metal piece, but to me, look almost like the surface the thrust bearing sits on. To check that properly, the crank has to be removed, so all the other crap needs to be removed as well. It could be nothing if your engine is really running smoothly, and could just be debris someone forgot in the pan. Hope I'm wrong, but you won't know without looking.
 
It definitely is not iron, I checked with a magnet. Its bronze, brass or copper. I'm just trying to figure out where to even look. Crank looking at another thrust bearing I had laying around I'm pretty sure it's not thrust bearing. I'll update tomorrow.
 
Can that even make it down the oil return on a 16g, presuming the line is stock? The big piece I would think would get jammed up, especially in the flex section.
That being said, a thrust surface there does appear to be and its pretty small so that would be my guess as well..
Perhaps there is a history here. Did the car have a previous owner with a different setup?
 
After googling it I think it is indeed pieces of a (t25?) thrust bearing. The previous owner put this 16g on the car when he had the bottom end rebuilt, I'm wondering if this is why. If that's the case these have been in my pan resisting draining out for, let's say 8-10 oil changes. And that's just since I got it haha. I'm gonna crack my 16g and check it out just in case but is has no end play. Assuming these are bits of a years dead turbo and it's been running ok, do you think I'm ok to put it back together? I intend to rebuild it with forged parts soon anyway.
 
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Oh I forgot to mention I have a big -10 (I think) AN oil return right to the pan on the 16g, no idea what the previous owner did with his stock turbo oil drain, maybe this was there. The pieces fit easily, Its big.
 
I had a gst years ago and it had the exact same pieces in the oil pan. I was able to mostly put it back together to see what it was, and It was indeed the bearing of the turbo. I would just clean the pan really good and check the pickup. You should be good to go.
 
Cut up my filter and its clean as a whistle, no metal at all. I change my oil at 3kor so and it's always the same and fairly clean. A while ago when changing it I found one or two flakes of similar material to this, the size of a grain of black pepper, and I thought I had a rod bearing headed out. I thi k that was just some of this. I think these have been there for like 5 or 6 years unless my 16g is bad. That's crazy to me.
 
As soon as you said non-magnetic, and not looking like aluminum (cam bearing), I also though turbo bushing, but was curious how it was running fine with a turbo that thrashed. Makes sense if it was a previous one, and all the more sense with an upsized oil return line. I would suspect that some chunks of bronze would not have caused much mischief sitting in the pan for years. The pickup screen likely kept them from doing too much harm. Nice mystery!
 
I can't believe you had those pieces in your oil pan. You must be one of those lucky dsmers that don't have any oil leaks and have to reseal the oil pan often LOL. Also now that you are there you might want to check your rod bearings just incase you want to replace them now is the time.
 
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