Hi guys. I recently purchased a used 350 crate motor and have been inspecting it prior to installing into the camaro. Apon cleaning out the bottom of the oil pan I discovered this fragment of broken C clip. It appears too small to be from a wrist pin so i dont know what else this could be from. Clip is about 5/8". Any ideas? The engine runs fine with no strange noises.

 

Does it have roller rockers?

 

Indeed it does. 1.5 comp cams rollers. Excellent call, i hadn't thought of those. Let me inspect them and get back to you 👍

 

Well it sure does look like a roller clip 😃 However all clips are present and accounted for on both sides. Looks like one must have broken and been replaced in the past?? I have run a magnet across the tops of the heads and cleaned oil pan but cant find the other half. Should i be concerned if there was another half kicking around?

 

My guess would also be a rocker c-clip since it's an external clip. A wrist pin clip is internal and I'm not sure if any floating pistons still use c-clips. To my knowledge, all floating pistons normally use spiral locks.

 

Dont the lifters have clips in them also? Maybe previous owner swapped roller rockers and snapped one?

 

The broken clip goes around something. A lifter c-clip goes inside something.

 

Well i spoke to previous owner and he confirmed that he had found a couple of roller clips broken last year and so replaced all clips and that one piece was unaccounted for. Guess i will keep an eye out just incase there is anymore and be cautious that the roller clips are weak and could keep breaking. They are seriously undersized

 

I had some SBC roller rockers. Some Crane Gold and some I think they were Crane Energizer. They looked identical except for the color. I broke a Gold rocker when I blew up an engine. It broke the trunnion. I decided to take a trunnion out of the Energizer rocker and when both rockers were apart, you could visually see the difference in the rockers.

I was going to buy a new proper trunnion for the Gold rocker when the local speed shop said they'll warranty it and got me one complete new one.

Just because they look good, look strong, look just like a high end rocker doesn't mean they're designed for a performance application. Inexpensive rockers are designed for street applications to reduce friction. They don't have the same strength of a high end rocker.

My BBC now has T&D shaft mount rockers. Far superior to any pedestal mount rocker.