I may be asking something that has been covered, but I am concerned about my motor. Got the pan off today to weld the return line bung properly on my bench and noticed some shavings in the oil. I know some is normal but these were quite large. None of the bearings look like thay've spun and the shavings are non-magnetic. This leads to my question of the composition of bearings, are they ferrous (steel)?

 

Non-ferrous.

 

So I guess this motor isn't going to be around much longer then?

 

Well here's a pic of what I'm talking about. The oil pan has never been off until now, should I be worried?

 

man those are some pretty big peices. i feel your pain on this one.

 

It's hard to say over time what has happened to the engine before you got it. If it has had previous trauma and been repaired, it is likely that the oil pan was never removed afterwards. If you have good oil pressure, no knocks, etc. you should be fine. Honestly though, if you are that worried, take off a couple of rod caps and check the rod bearings out. All you need is to keep track of how you pull them off and torque them correctly going back on. This is the only sure way to tell.

By the way, all the bearing material in your engine is non-magnetic. Copper, bronze, babbit, etc.

 

There is no knock, just don't know how big is normal. These seem quite big to me and I am unsure if I just want to throw it back together and go until I get the new motor started, or pull the rod caps and see if there is scoring. If there is no scoring, I might be able to band-aid it with new bearings.

I'm just glad this isn't my daily driver, lol.

 

since u have the pan off go ahead and pull some caps,do it one at a time and make sure u put them back in the proper way.make sure the tangs for the bearings line up.
those seem to big to be bearing pieces,but it wouldnt hurt to check,pull out a main or 2 as well

 

That's what I was thinking of doing, I dunno. Might just get it back together and see what happens. If it goes, I'll have a really good excuse to tell my wife why I need a 3.4, lol. What's the torque specs for the caps, if you know them off hand I won't have to look it up?

 

**** man i forget id have to look them back up,but for some reason 85ftlbs sounds like its right,but look them up to be sure

 

70/32 for main/rod. This is one of the main reasons I buy a Haynes/Chilton for every car I get, lol. Just didn't know if you knew them off hand. I'm working on the y-pipe and pan now, will get back later on what I find.

Do you think when I drilled/tapped the mani for larger bolts in the EGR block-off, the chips could have found their way into the pan?

 

did u leave the manifold on the car when u did it?u could have torn something up when u broke that valve spring as well

 

Yes I left the mani on the car, but it is on the exhaust side and I figured the chips would blow out the exhaust.

Turned out it wasn't a spring, it was the EGR block off rattling. The bolts holes were stripped, that's why I drilled them.

 

ahhh well anyways the bolt holes u drilled out lead right into the intake ,,

oh wait u drilled and taped the ex manifold/or the intake manifold????

it may be possible that the chips did get in threw an open ex valve,if it was the intake they would deff end up in the pan

 

It was in the exhaust mani. I just blocked the intake side off with a piece of 1/8" aluminum and cut the end off the EGR pipe to hold it on. After examining the chips again, they are definately the chips from the drilling of the ex mani.(and cast is non-ferrous). Looking at them real close, I could see it, WHEW!

I thought I was never going to get the car driveable again, lol.

Thank you for your responses everybody!

 

you def dodged a bullet there.

 

Not quite yet, as suggested by Sharkey, how would the chips get by the pistons? I still have the pan off, so I'm still gonna check the bearings. If the bearings look worn and the journals are in good shape, I'll probably just replace them while the pan is off.

Everyone says how difficult it is to pull the pan in the car, it's really not that bad. I just jacked the engine after removing the mounting bolts, the two bolts holding the tranny to the x-member, and the y-pipe. There are two bolts that are tough to get to, but a swivel took care of them.