Thought I should share this here.
My 97 Z28 developed an internal squeak, after a little bit of poking around. I figured out it was a cam lobe and lifter not playing along. When I took it apart, the front 2 cam lobes and rollers were pretty chewed up. Since I had it that far apart. I decided to swap out the pan gasket as well. When I removed the pan, I noticed an excessive amount of silicone was used. There was quite a bit of silicone chunks at the bottom of the pan and stuck to the screen.
Heres a pic of what came out of tje pickup.

 

Ugh,, bummer.

 

The round plastic piece looks to be a centering pin for an intake gasket. How it and gigantic pieces of silicone got into the p/u screen would make for an interesting story.

 

Some sloppy work at some earlier point in its life Im guessing haha.

 

There used to be cam stall threads galore of those who would experience spun bearings immediately afterward. Only explanation was a sloppy install. Once the timing cover is removed the front of the oil pan is exposed and if not protected by rags, acts like a catch all for anything that drops in front of the engine.

 

Thanks for that heads up SS

 

I remember those threads back then.
Along with the CC306 cam installs with the rev limiter set at 6000 rpm lol.

 

Even mr Goodwrench at Chevy dealer can FU a perfectly good engine by puking to much RTV on gaskets...like when the "repaired" a pan gasket leak when the car was under warranty

I found this when I did a cam swap