yellohvette

hey folks,

dropped my oil pan today (the ENTIRE oil pan) bec i'm paranoid and i THINK i was about 6 psi low on my oil pressure at idle (29-32psi at idle, 62psi max at WOT). I also have a vibration in the driveline/engine (unsure!) at specific RPMs. here is what i found. It is plastic, and it looks like it was once a ring or some type of snap collar, dunno!

any help would be pretty freakin helpful at this point. I thought it was possibly a spun bearing, but i pulled off a few rod caps and so far so good...thanks for the help!

- Jeff

djsanchez2

iTrader: (14)

No pic

yellohvette

hmm, they seem to work fine for me and from other machines...anyone else having trouble seeing the pictures?

Thanks for the heads up

chromeplated500

iTrader: (10)

nope.... awesome pics... the only rubber thing that would be aboiut that size that I can think of would be a valve seal.under the rocker arms..... and it would be pretty easy to check i would think.

2000Hawk

iTrader: (5)

For some reason it looks like something i have seen before, but i can't seem to make out what it is. Hopefully its nothing serious, TTT for you.
-Joel

yellohvette

To be clear, it is more of a plastic piece than rubber. But it is very soft plastic (ie it can be squished a bit)

yeah, after i took those pics i thought to myself..."Hey, maybe this happened when my valvespring snapped in two pieces. Fortunately, it never kissed the piston, so i just swapped in new springs.

What has me concerned is that i found this in the UPPER part of the oil pan. If it was a valve seal, i would have thought that would have gone right into the cylinder and then out the exhaust. could that still end up in my oil pan, however?

I was too tired last night after posting up the pics and tearing down the car so I will look at the engine some more tonight...any ideas on where else to look for this "missing piece"?

ALSO, there are some VERY thin pieces of plastic in the oil pan. I'm assuming these are what is left over after the rest of this plastic ring was smashed between two pieces of metal (lifters, cam, whatever). I don't see any scoring on any cam lobes, and i'm pretty certain that this stuff wouldn't be small enough to get into the cam bearings/rod bearings. i'll get some pics of that stuff tonight.

Thanks!!

The Alchemist

iTrader: (19)

About the only thing I can think of that's plastic in the motor is the lifter retainer cups.

It then makes sense that you'd find that on upper part of the oil pan since it would fall through the center of the block.

I guess it's time to pull the heads and check on the lifters.

nesikachad

could it be a piece of something used during the assembly of the engine?

The Alchemist

iTrader: (19)

What else is plastic inside the engine??? Other than the lifter trays, I'm drawing a blank.

yellohvette

i'm waaaay ahead of ya on pulling the heads

yellohvette

i would HOPE that GM wouldn't use anything during the assembly that would come off in the engine and be able to run around inside the engine. Remember it was hanging out in the top of the oil pan - where it could find its way into a million different places that it didn't belong - very odd!

Yeah, i know what you mean - i am still thinking valve/lifter related, i just haven't had time to realllly inspect those two areas yet. I just found it last night at 2am. I don't want you to go crazy thinking about it - i just hoped someone would say YEP, that's "X". lol (wishful thinking).

Possible answer: Anyone have any pics of a NEW/good oil level sensor to compare? I wonder if this piece used to be part of that?

Thanks!

bczee

iTrader: (12)

What about those Dog bone restrictors for the Oil system ? the Oil Level sensor ? I have the sensor at home, will look later when I get home.

8a8mfh

iTrader: (3)

My vote is a valve seal, especially since you broke a spring, that could easily have cut it so you wouldn't be able to see it, then after running it fell off and made it's way to the pan. There are oil return holes from the heads down to the pan.
There is no way in hell it would ever end up going out the exhaust, if something could make it from the top of the head to out the exhaust what do you think would happen to all your oil?
It's either a valve seal, or a squashed up ring off an oil bottle.

8a8mfh

iTrader: (3)

Google image search results for LS1 valve stem seal. One pic.

yellohvette

^^^ i think you (and two others) nailed it! that looks very very similar and it WAS the intake valve spring that let go. that has to be it. To answer your earlier post, i don't know what i was thinking - def wouldn't fall INTO the cylinder and out the exhaust

Thanks for the help - can't wait to go home and rip apart the assembled head...

I wonder if this seal going to **** would cause the car to have a shudder/vibrate/etc at higher RPMs...kind of a rhetorical question?

yellohvette

welp, all my valve seals checked out just fine! very odd. I'm still pretty sure it looks JUST like a valve seal, however. I wonder if this isn't the results of something from the previous owner. Would it be possible for that little plastic piece to hang out in the engine for 15,000 miles?! I would think it would have made it's way out during at least ONE oil change...hmmmm

BCZee - did you get a chance to look at your oil level sensor?

Thanks!

DRCE

It could easily of hung out in the pan, its too big to get sucked in the oil pick-up past the screen. If its rubbery it will be boyant in oil, so I don't see how it would have harmed anything per say. Agreed its not the best idea to leave a foriegn object in an engine, but if you can squish it with your fingers I don't see it hurting anything.

50chevy

iTrader: (2)

I also had an idea that it could be a piece of the grommets that are around the valve cover bolts. I know that those things can fall apart after time especially if you remove the valve covers several times. They are about the size of what is in the pics.