Ummm is this bad?

[BigPoser]

Long story short, I was replacing my rear main seal last night, which is the last piece to the puzzle and I would have been driving my truck again after a couple of months of working on it, to find these little gems in the oil pump screen.

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The pic isn't that great, but there are 5 metal pieces that look to be piston ring chunks, there as a small leaf, and I'm not sure what the other black bits are, but they are very brittle and NOT metal.

I'm no engine guru, but I'm guessing that I'll have to rebuild the motor very soon, or find a new block since the previous owner had it rebuilt quite a few years back.

It did run and drive really well though prior to me finding this.There was no smoke from the exhaust and no strange noise coming from anywhere.

Any thoughts or comments that you all have is appreciated. Not sure what to do that this point as this is to be my daily, and time is of the essence.

Thanks in advance.

Brandon

 

[Jarhead79]

Id say that's not a good sign, a former friend had something similar to this and had spun three main bearings. Maybe someone replaced these already once and didn't clean out the oil and filter etc?

 

[BigPoser]

Id say that's not a good sign, a former friend had something similar to this and had spun three main bearings. Maybe someone replaced these already once and didn't clean out the oil and filter etc?

That's what I'm hoping for, but not sure exactly. Would a compression test determine anything?

 

[hatzie]

oil rings? Not good any way you slice it.

 

[Jarhead79]

Can't hurt to do a compression check, but if its main bearings having spun, you might as well pull the motor and tear it down, you can replace main bearings but that would just be a temp fix, especially if the mounting surfaces are scored or not smooth anymore.

 

[BigPoser]

Can't hurt to do a compression check, but if its main bearings having spun, you might as well pull the motor and tear it down, you can replace main bearings but that would just be a temp fix, especially if the mounting surfaces are scored or not smooth anymore.

I'll do it just to be sure. The motor ran awesome before I started working it. No knocking, pinging, or any other noise coming from the motor and no smoke of any kind from the exhaust.

When I changed out the rear main seal, the bearing on the main cap was smooth. There was some slight variation in color, but I couldn't feel anything with my finger whatsoever. That of course doesn't mean that it wasn't there, just that I couldn't feel anything.

Been checking out long blocks on Summit and Jegs and will more than likely go that route if something happens. I'm planning on driving it for a while longer. I have a feeling that when the PO had the motor rebuilt they didn't change out or clean the oil pump and that it's been in there prior to the rebuild. I am hoping this is the case anyway.

 

[PrairieDrifter]

The motor definitely needs a rebuild! Don't be so quick to just ditch that motor, depending on how much the cylinders have been bored out you may be able to use it again. If its bored out .30 and it doesn't have a terrible lip you can still bore it out to .60 and be able to get another life out of it.

 

[foamypirate]

Doomsday folks in here...

I'd drive it until it dies, especially if it was running fine, not consuming oil, or smoking like a freight train.

 

[bucket]

Doomsday folks in here...

I'd drive it until it dies, especially if it was running fine, not consuming oil, or smoking like a freight train.

Words of wisdom here.

 

[PrairieDrifter]

Doomsday folks in here...

I'd drive it until it dies, especially if it was running fine, not consuming oil, or smoking like a freight train.

Id definitely run it till she goes! I mean it is a small block chevy lol
Just don't grenade it!

 

[Georgeb]

A sure way to make sure it runs forever is grab a spare motor and tuck it under the bench LOL. I wonder if that is bits of oil control rings but how did they got down there without a skirt broke off a piston. Unless the previous owners "rebuild" was due to some disaster like a broken skirt and those bits are leftovers from then. Like they dropped the pan pulled the piston and rod out and replaced the busted piston and those bits were hung up somewhere or in the pan then. I can't imagine them not cleaning the pan out before putting it back on. It's a crap shoot from here and would drive me nuts. If it were mine I would have a hard time trusting it without at the very least a dissassembly for inspection. A set of gaskets is cheap. Actually I would wish I hadn't found it and could just continue on all dumb and happy.

 

[BigPoser]

Doomsday folks in here...

I'd drive it until it dies, especially if it was running fine, not consuming oil, or smoking like a freight train.

Yeah I'm of the same opinion. I think that i'll drive it until something happens. The parts were actually tucked up in the screen and you could hardly see them. I just happened to see a tiny part of one of the pieces hanging out and was like WTF? Something tells me that they didn't clean out the screen of the oil pump when they did the last rebuild. At least that what I'm hoping for. Time will tell.