Guess what was on my drain plug????
02-01-2008, 09:02 AM
#22
Im pretty positive that its not a lifter "spring" and I cant believe that its a oil pump sring. the pic however makes it look like that though...you'd have to have other things in your oil pan... and you wouldnt have any oil pressure...right??
02-01-2008, 10:14 AM
#23
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The thing looks like a valve stem seal spring but i dont know how it would have gotten down without messing something up on its way. I am finding it hard to belive its an oil pump spring when i still have great oil pressure. If it is a oil pump spring would i be able to contact texas speed and get a new one????
02-01-2008, 10:52 AM
#24
02-01-2008, 11:06 AM
#25
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I would think if i had a lifter problem i would know it for sure. As far as the oil pump issue anyone have anymore input????? I am getting worried
02-01-2008, 12:15 PM
#26
As for pressure. If a 99 has a dummy (on/off) gauge, then the least amount of pressure may be showing oil pressure as normal. I am not familiar w/ the gauge in a 99, but, this might explain why pressure may appear to be normal. I would expect there to be some pressure just from oil movement. If a 99 has a true pressure gauge, then it would show lower than normal oil pressure.
Good-luck
02-01-2008, 10:53 PM
#29
That's a helicoil. Maybe when you dropped your pan, someone had helicoil-ed an oil pan bolt and it somehow came out? Not sure where a small helicoil like that would be useful... unless one of your oil pump bolts had been helicoil-ed? Was it used?
02-03-2008, 01:40 PM
#32
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This is NOT what it is. He said it's 1/4 inch long. Thats about HALF the length of a quarter. This is just a really close up HIGH res pic.
I have my money on a valve seal spring. It's not a heli coli either, no bolt hole is that small. I heili coiled a bolt hole for my oil pump and it was bigger then that.
Car drives, feels and accelerates normal with normal oil pressure. chances of it being from a lifter are slim.
Check the plugs and see if one is discolored from oil seeping in.
02-03-2008, 02:08 PM
#34
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yeah with looking at his pic again I doubt its from an older oil pump.
I dont have a guess then but it looks like its been smashed and/or compressed some.
def. something I wouldnt like to see on a drain plug.
I dont have a guess then but it looks like its been smashed and/or compressed some.
def. something I wouldnt like to see on a drain plug.
02-03-2008, 02:37 PM
#36
There's a lot of "it's definitely this" from a lot of people who don't know what they're looking at, AND don't know what they're talking about.
An oil pump spring is meant to PUSH on something, so in it's natural state, it is not compressed. Same thing with a lifter spring. A helicoil isn't made from round wire...it's made from diamond shaped wire with pairs of oppossing 60 and 120 degree corners to properly work with fasteners.
I think your original guess is by far the best one, valve seal spring. Are you sure you seated your new seals down properly? Maybe they're not down all the way and a retainer hit one? Maybe you pushed one of them slightly sideways when installing it and knocked the spring loose?
By FAR the easiest thing for you to check is those anyways. Just pop the valvecovers off, use a good light and turn the engine over as necessary so you can see through all the valvesprings, as some of them will be compressed...might take some time to look, but I'm sure you can see them all.
That spring looks like it's natural state is compressed, meaning it wants to hold something in tension, like the perimiter of a valve seal, you're saying that it's small (high res pics are confusing), and it even looks to me like on it's way through a valvespring, it got smushed on one end as that respective valve opened.
It's definitely something you want to fix, but it's also not something that you should be losing sleep over. Hell, valve seals are cheap enough that I'd just order a brand new set, to have on hand when I popped the valve covers off. There's probably more of that spring floating around somewhere, it might be stuck on the screen on the bottom of your oil pump pickup...wether it's worth removing the pan to find it and remove any and all traces of it is up to you...I would do the valvecovers first, find the seal with the broken spring, and then see if maybe I could piece together the entire spring from what I find up high...if I can't, THEN I'd pull the pan down and check the pump screen and make sure it's clean...after that I'd button it up, being VERY CAREFUL to install the new seals properly, and go enjoy the car.
The only other thing I would then check, is the valvesprings themselves anywhere you find a broken seal spring. You have to remove them anyways, so thoroughly inspect them for any sign at all of a witness mark from the seals spring as it came through...a witness mark is going to turn into a weak spot and could eventually (tomorrow, or 10K miles down the road...who knows) result in a broken valvespring...so it's worth checking that, and replacing if necessary as well.
An oil pump spring is meant to PUSH on something, so in it's natural state, it is not compressed. Same thing with a lifter spring. A helicoil isn't made from round wire...it's made from diamond shaped wire with pairs of oppossing 60 and 120 degree corners to properly work with fasteners.
I think your original guess is by far the best one, valve seal spring. Are you sure you seated your new seals down properly? Maybe they're not down all the way and a retainer hit one? Maybe you pushed one of them slightly sideways when installing it and knocked the spring loose?
By FAR the easiest thing for you to check is those anyways. Just pop the valvecovers off, use a good light and turn the engine over as necessary so you can see through all the valvesprings, as some of them will be compressed...might take some time to look, but I'm sure you can see them all.
That spring looks like it's natural state is compressed, meaning it wants to hold something in tension, like the perimiter of a valve seal, you're saying that it's small (high res pics are confusing), and it even looks to me like on it's way through a valvespring, it got smushed on one end as that respective valve opened.
It's definitely something you want to fix, but it's also not something that you should be losing sleep over. Hell, valve seals are cheap enough that I'd just order a brand new set, to have on hand when I popped the valve covers off. There's probably more of that spring floating around somewhere, it might be stuck on the screen on the bottom of your oil pump pickup...wether it's worth removing the pan to find it and remove any and all traces of it is up to you...I would do the valvecovers first, find the seal with the broken spring, and then see if maybe I could piece together the entire spring from what I find up high...if I can't, THEN I'd pull the pan down and check the pump screen and make sure it's clean...after that I'd button it up, being VERY CAREFUL to install the new seals properly, and go enjoy the car.
The only other thing I would then check, is the valvesprings themselves anywhere you find a broken seal spring. You have to remove them anyways, so thoroughly inspect them for any sign at all of a witness mark from the seals spring as it came through...a witness mark is going to turn into a weak spot and could eventually (tomorrow, or 10K miles down the road...who knows) result in a broken valvespring...so it's worth checking that, and replacing if necessary as well.
02-03-2008, 10:14 PM
#39
Come on, he said it's not even but 1/4" long.
As far as damage done on it's way to the pan...the heads are the last stop for oil, then it just runs back down to the pan. The likelyhood that it went between the cam and a lifters roller on it's way down is EXTREMELY low...and it's essentially not possible for it to get to a bearing, it probably just got into the oil's stream towards the pan, and ran right down there with the oil.
Like I said though, if you can't piece the whole spring together, drop the pan and check the pump pickup screen and everywhere else until you do find it...if that little piece of spring does get through the screen it will do some damage to the pump and could possibly restrict an oil galley.
