Metal chunks in oil pan - help please - Lateral-g Forums

gerno · #1 09-20-2012, 10:50 PM

Changing my oil tonight to prep for a track day tomorrow I was lucky enough to find a nice surprise on the magnet. Pics are below.

Can anyone help me figure it out before I pull the engine and tear it down? Engine is a SBC 377 with 400 4 bolt block, forged eagle crank with 400 mains, 6" Scat rods, JE flatops, 195cc Trick flow heads with springs to handle up to 600" lift. It has roller rockers and stud girdles. Cam is a Comp solid with net lift ~530" and lifters with the oil holes in them (forget what they are called). Timing chain is a double roller without a cam button.

I'm thinking it has to be teeth from the disti gear or cam gear but I pulled the dist and it looks ok. I looked down the disti hole at the cam and tapped the motor over. I don't see any teeth that look damaged.

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**camcojb** · #2 09-20-2012, 11:01 PM

looks like the timing gear to me, either the cam gear or the crank gear. A quick pull of the timing cover will tell you for sure.

Edit: just read that you have a double roller, not sure with that. Those looked like the teeth of a single roller with iron teeth, but it's hard to tell from the pics.

gerno · #3 09-20-2012, 11:19 PM

I agree with you but they seem to be too small for timing gear teeth. It may be the ends of them. The only teeth I can think of are the timing gear, disti gear and cam gear. Guess I'll pull the timining cover this weekend and take a look.

gerno · #4 09-21-2012, 01:23 PM

Cam gear was the issue. Since I'll be pulling the engine out I suppose it's time for some upgrades...

Darker area in the chain is where some teet are missing.
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**camcojb** · #5 09-21-2012, 03:12 PM

relatively cheap fix compared to what it could have been.

gerno · #6 09-21-2012, 04:12 PM

In theory it is cheap but not for me.... I'm going to pull the engine to check all the bearings and while I have it out I found pistons to drop from 10.8 to 8.8. They are only 4 grams different so no need to rebalance so I "have to" do it. I also figure I should go ahead and swap to a solid roller am with a different profile since its apart. All this being in prep for either a T-trim or D1SC addition......

intocarss · #7 09-22-2012, 01:07 AM

I may have a used SBC timing set you can have to get it running

gerno · #8 09-22-2012, 11:26 AM

I appreciate the offer but I'm going to pull the engine out and tear it down anyways. I want to make sure there are on little pieces floating around to bite be again. When I do I'm going to grab a new billet set and set up a cam button so it's not an issue in the future.