Re: Found this in the oil pan.

Posted by Owen_Dyneto On 2011/3/20 17:25:00

At first I thought it was a fragment from valve keeper that were commonly dropped into the pan by fat-fingered grease monkeys. But they don't look like the ones I found in my pan.

You don't have to be "fat fingered" to drop one or more, many of us (myself included) have done it, especially on the two center valves on an engine with the 4-bbl carburetor - pretty close quarters in there if you're doing it with the manifolds mounted.

Good lesson for folks contemplating their first valve job with the oil pan still installed - use small corks or rags to plug the oil return holes so you can't loose them into the pan. Also installing the springs/keepers on the two extreme end and center valves first gives you a bit more room to work.

Sure looks like JD in KC has identified the item in the crankcase. Not certain but I'd bet that if you mount the tube 180 degrees turned from the way it should be, you could run into clearance problems with a crank counterweight which could have broken it off.