Aluminum chunks in oil pan?

[Daveed]

Finally got the oil pan off tonight and among a bunch of other crud I found three aluminum chunks in the bottom. I'm guessing they are aluminum cause a magnet wouldn't pick them up. They are sort of shaped like a bullet...flat on one end and rounded on the other. Like a miniature dowel pin.

Anyone know what these are?

 

[tlikethedrink]

cant be good. makes me wanna drop my pan to see what, if anything is in there.

 

[BUCK]

Removed my cracked (what a shock huh?) exhaust manifold on my 1G turbo talon and inside where the two sides of the manifold become one I noticed that chunks of the manifold were falling off (like pellet/bb sized) I found two down in the turbo with a magnet.
The view into the turbo from above doesn't show any damage to the turbo wheel but I think I'm only seeing part a small portion of the wheel.

Would these metal chunks be pretty likely to toast a turbo?

Maybe they took some Aluminum 'with them" as they passed thru ? -WTF

& looking thru your past Posts we all know Daveed LOVES to grind on things....

 

[Defiant]

See if your piston oil jets are broken.

 

[HIGHPSI4]

The thin steel is bearing material from a spun bearing. The round pieces are from where a valve stem from a broken valve has punched some holes in the piston, top center.

 

[Daveed]

See if your piston oil jets are broken.

I'll be pulling the rods tonight. Where are these piston oil jets?
Edit: Found what they look like and the part numbers. I'd guess they should be easy to spot with the pistons removed.
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/newbie-forum/253791-oil-jets.html

The thin steel is bearing material from a spun bearing. The round pieces are from where a valve stem from a broken valve has punched some holes in the piston, top center.

If so then the PO put more stock pistons in it. When I got it two of the exhaust valves were burnt really bad (not broken though) and not holding any compression. Car still ran, surprisingly.

 

[Daveed]

Took a closer look at the pieces tonight while I was procrastinating on working in the cold garage. They can't be oil squirters cause there are no openings in them for oil. They have a perfectly flat back and are definitely round on purpose (not by accident). Sorta stumped at this point.

 

[GVR4592]

I don't know the name for them but they appear to be the "buttons" that hold the piston pin in place when using a floating piston on a pressed rod. I've only seen them used once before, and the results were the same. At least that's what they appear to be to me, I could be wrong though.

 

[ROOKIE1]

Put something next to them for size reference and repost pics .

 

[Defiant]

They're far too small to be gudgeon pin buttons. They're about BB-sized. Don't the oil jets have check valves in them? I'm not coming up with any other guesses. I can't think of anything else in the motor that could have shed those. They don't look like bearing rollers, do they? Is there anything like that in the rocker rollers?

Maybe you should ask Hoagland about alien implants.

 

[HIGHPSI4]

Now that you have closer pictures it looks like the pieces are steel. Hold a magnet to them and check. All three are the same and show shear stress. I am voting for the valve stem tops above the keepers.

 

[black91awdturbo]

He already said that a magnet wont pick them up so they must be alum. You should as some one said put some thing by them so we can get a better idea of size.

 

[99gst_racer]

They do look alot like valve stem heads.
What is their diameter?

 

[Savage Talon]

I don't think a magnet will pic up stainless either.

 

[Daveed]

Put something next to them for size reference and repost pics .

Just got some pics done. Micrometer, pencil, and stock valve from a 4g63.

He already said that a magnet wont pick them up so they must be alum. You should as some one said put some thing by them so we can get a better idea of size.

Yep, magnet no worky on them. As for stainless being magnetic...I don't know

They do look alot like valve stem heads.
What is their diameter?

0.186" across. The stock valve in the pics is 0.259".

Thanks for the input so far. Finding crap in the pan makes me wonder if there is some hidden damage I need to address.

 

[SOADweskey]

I regular house hold magnet will not attract stainless. If a magnet won't pick them up they could very well be aluminum, stainless, titanium....... any number of metals that are lacking magnetic properties.

 

[DKneble]

Looks like SOADweskey already beat me to it but to confirm, there are a number of metals that are not magnetic including SS and aluminum which are common in our motors. Are the longitudinal(spelling?) sides perpendicular to the round flat side or is there some inconsistency there, ie distortion, necking?

If its aluminum it should have some distortion (not 90 degree break) since aluminum exhibits a macroscopic (spelled correctly) elasticity before failure, assuming that they have been sheared off of somewhere, and if there is necking instead then it was actually tensile forces that broke them free.

Or you could just see how easily it dents with a hammer...easy=aluminum, hard=ss, breaks hammer=alien material

Dave

 

[project_tsi]

Damn, I've been scratching my head at this for a while now. I've dug though tons of pics, and parts laying around, and I can't find a single thing that fully resembles that. I had a few ideas, but they got shot down.

 

[90laserRSfwd]

connecting rod cap bolt ends? oil pan bolt ends?

 

[Daveed]

Yah, definitely has me stumped. For all I know it could be something critical or maybe something that just fell into the motor when someone had the valve cover off

btw, can anyone tell me exactly where to look for the piston oil jets? On the crank or bottom of block pointed up or? Thanks.

 

[ROOKIE1]

Bottom of cylinder , above the crank . May need to rotate crank to see them .

 

[ROOKIE1]

Here . Should be able to see them here . Just took pics of my church block .

 

[ROOKIE1]

How is this for crazy ? What are the chances of something getting overtightened or to long of bolts that may have pushed through .

 

[Defiant]

I have it. Look at the bottom of your valve cover and see if there's rivets missing from the splash shield.

 

[marcmsj]

Good call defiant... that might be it!