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In the pic with all the bearings in the metal tray, it looks like a chunk of metal that belongs to the rocker needle bearing cage. Is this the first oil change since you have owned the car?
Lol I've owned the car for over ten tears. Changed the oil 2 weeks ago and it was clean, had a gut feeling and drained it last night and you see the needles
Rocker bearings, there are also pieces of the retainer I found in the pan
Engine has 140k miles, stock rocker arms. Dual springs still look damn good for having 60k miles on them. Cam was put in at around 85k miles
Last edited by chrysler kid; 06-22-2017 at 03:34 PM.
I then used a magnet in the head to search for metal. Cylinder #4, the rear most drivers side valve spring, had tons of remnants of a destroyed rocker arm. I remember the previous owner saying a rocker arm was replaced, my gut says it was from not being installed properly. When taken back the tech didn't clean out the shavings, he just slapped a new rocker on there........ten years ago
So I'm not sure how much further to dig. I believe I will use and inspection boroscope to see if I can tell if the cylinder walls are damaged. The car ran fine, I just put in a magnetic drain plug three weeks ago and pulled the plug yesterday to find this crap.
I thoroughly inspected all rocker arms, and inside and out and saw no missing bearings or caps
You might be right about why it was sold to me though. The shop that was doing the work on this car before I bought it also couldn't get the cars idle and tune set correctly, because the installation technician stripped the bolts on the throttle body for the fast intake. I really hope they fired that technician.
Last edited by chrysler kid; 06-23-2017 at 12:41 AM.
Whoa! All that shrapnel has lived in the bottom of your mill for 10 YEARS! Only thing that saved you here is the oil pickup screen! You have dodged a bullet, my friend!!
Just in case I'm retarded and missing something major I ordered a CHE trunion upgrade kit from texas speed. But all of my rocker arms and bearings are fine and rotate smoothly, and aren't missing pieces
Yeah previous owner(or his tech dude) messed up. But you'll be ahead doing the rockers with the CHE kit. Those OEM rockers can, and have spilled rollers before anyone had a clue it happened.
My plan so far is to just upgrade the trunions on all the rockers, and then change the oil once a week for a few weeks to see if there are any other needle bearings somewhere
My buddies are giving me **** about paying double compared to a btr kit, or trunion bearing upgrades, but from what I've read the CHE is a strong product and more importantly in stock
I'm chicken the pan would hit the ground tomorrow..
That debris has been in the system for ten years. I can't see a reason to drop the pan now, my oil pressure has been fine and my oil usage hasn't changed.
Originally Posted by 99 Black Bird T/A
Your lucky it seems! That's a great case for a magnetic drain plug.
We shall see. The car was acting a little stranger than usual, it sounded like it was back firing from only one cylinder into the exhaust. The shrapnel may have been beaten up by the valve spring and eaten up the valve seal. I should atleast pressure test or compression test that one cylinder
Sorry I'm not familiar at all with the top ends of these cars, I know there is a seal on the end of the valve, I need to check if its damaged. The dual spring looked fine, all of the top spring retainers have scratches, appear to be from installation though
Any advice or two cents is appreciated
Last edited by chrysler kid; 06-23-2017 at 10:07 AM.
I think the one thing that saved the overall picture is the screen on the oil pickup. Major bits (like bearing rollers....) won't get through. Usually....
So the damaged rocker happened with the previous owner (10 years ago) and the needle bearings and chunks of the retainer and bearing are just now getting stuck to the drain plug? That seems crazy. Has it all just been sitting on the bottom of the oil pan all this time? If its been sitting somewhere this entire time and all of a sudden it made its way to the drain plug and the engine started acting weird I would be pulling that pan for sure.
So the damaged rocker happened with the previous owner (10 years ago) and the needle bearings and chunks of the retainer and bearing are just now getting stuck to the drain plug? That seems crazy. Has it all just been sitting on the bottom of the oil pan all this time? If its been sitting somewhere this entire time and all of a sudden it made its way to the drain plug and the engine started acting weird I would be pulling that pan for sure.
With all of my rocker arms fully intact, that's the only explanation I can think of. I just started using a magnetic drain plug about two weeks ago, but I've owned the car for what will be 9 years in November.
Two days before this I changed the water pump, after the water pump the low oil light came on, in the dark with my phone it appeared low. I started the car after that and the low oil light stayed off. I added 2 extra quarts that night, and the next day it was over filled and I could feel a slight vibration, more than usual with the solid mounts. The oil pressure is still normal, I drained the pan because I had over filled it and that is what I saw on the drain plug.
If I'm being honest the whole motor should be pulled not just the pan. I would expect the lifter and the camshaft to have some pretty substantial scarring. There's no way it couldn't have sent some broken metal through the engine.
Pulling the pan really doesn't show me anything at this point. Over 9 years with this garbage in the system, it's not like they just dropped down there last week, this trash has been in the motor forever.
Last edited by chrysler kid; 06-23-2017 at 11:33 AM.
The difference is you've stirred things, pulled rockers fished around in the galleys, you may have been in a neutral state but now you've opened the box.. Like I said just call me a chicken, my worry circuits would not let me sleep, it makes sense, at this point what could go wrong ?? it should all be in the pan by now.. I'd use a camera to peek inside just to see or put it all back together and have a beer..
06-22-2017, 06:05 AM
Needle bearing failure, now CHE trunion kit install 
