So I finished doing 2 helicoils on my oil pan and I was cleaning my mating surfaces for the pan and a a tiny piece of rtv might of fell in the engine (might of) the size of less than half the size of my pinky fingernail...

I had the bottom of the block taped up with paper covers for when i drilled into the old threads for the helicoil kit, when i blew all the metal flakes off I think maybe a tiny tiny piece might of gotten in somehow, and when I ripped off the paper covers a corner of a piece of paper the size of a piece of rice flew in and was sitting under my piston... I took the windage tray and pickup tube off and looked around and tried to fish the piece of paper out but couldnt find it and I didnt see any other debris.

Im just paranoid

My question is how much debris is normal when rebuilding engines? I know some of you engine builders must encounter some type of tiny debris when building engine!

But how much is too much debris? and I was thinking of heating some 5w30 on low heat for 5 min so it gets thinner and pouring it down the lifter bores and letting it drain out through the drain hole...

anyone else encounter this

 

Small debri from a paper towel is something I wouldnt be concerned about. It will disolve.

As for the piece of RTV, I would be looking for it very well. Obviously it has to be pretty small to make it past the oil pick-up screen. I wouldnt freak out about that either. It will make its way out on an oil change.

Thats just My Opinion.....

 

Paper towel is nothing to worry about, the RTV I would want to find if it was me. It can block up some things if it somehow gets its way past the oil pickup screen which is very very unlikely in most cases. Like badazz81sz28 it will most likely come out with the next oil change.

 

Some of the ls3 guys find a broken pos tensioner in their pans, does that count

 

How much debri is too much ? ,,,,,,,,Any ! ,,,,,,,,The paper towel and the RTV are for sure You're least worry but that small piece of drilling steel can potentially kill You're engine in a hurry . There is a very small chance that the RTV could clogg something preventing oil from getting to where it needs to be but as stated , very unlikely . Maybe find something that breaks cured RTV down and flush some of it through and something to clean that out . Try a magnet to get that little piece of steel out . Like the little pen magnet . Good luck

 

Ok so I couldn't sleep because that **** was bothering me I flushed oil through the lifter bores to clean everything out..

I just took the oil pan off again and and the oil pan baffle and there was a tiny ball of rtv that was near the drain plug but wouldnt drain, I found the piece of paper too, whewwww!!

what a pain in the ***! a tip to anyone trying to do this is don't assemble an engine outside with wind,,, and if you do hose the driveway down an hour before you do..

well got everything back on and torqued down and now I feel good, time to go to sleep now and rest..

 

Burken just checking to see how the trunion upgrade project went?

 

Trunion went smooth, I did it with a big c clamp... Took maybe 2 hrs