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Mystery pieces in the pan

66gt350

Active Member
Over the weekend I yanked the 289 from the wife's coupe to check it out for the mystery noise. I'll be posting in the general engine section with that long drawn out story sometime later....but I digress. I have the engine on the engine stand and remove the pan. I see these pieces and I have no idea what they are and where they could have come from.
mystery1.jpg

mystery2.jpg

mystery3.jpg

mystery4.jpg


I included a scale to show the size of the two pieces. There's some missing chunks to make it a full circle. And looking at the "bottom" side, it appears that it broke off something. The outer portion is porous. I have no idea what this could have been. I'm down to the idea that the PO dropped something down the dizzy and said screw it.
 
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One of the washers that is on top of the valve spring.?
Don't recall the right name.
I would check the oil pump ( open it to see if the excentric and housing isn't damaged on the inside. ) :confu
 
look at this picture
 

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It very well could be a spring washer but those look to be awfully big pieces to have found their way down to the pan.
 
That had crossed my mind, but I don't think that it's the top of the valve. this has a diameter of less than an inch and a valve is about 1.35 inches.
 
Not a valve, the washer on top of the valve spring that supports the retainer, etc. It sure looks like that's what it is. Judging by your pics it looks to be the right diameter. I just don't see how the pieces got into the pan.
 
Valve washer...that's what I meant. But they are the size of the valve spring, and this piece is quite a bit smaller in diameter. When I get home tonight, if I remember, I'll take a picture of these pieces next to the valve spring washer. The other strange thing is that on the bottom, it appears that this broke off something else. I wonder if there was another "ring" around the outside of these pieces that also broke off to make it large enough to be a valve spring washer.
 
Does kinda look like a small spring retainer, with the lip that the spring would set into, but way too small. Even my beehive springs aren't that small.

Did you look at the valves and springs yet?
 
maybe the outer edge of this "valve washer" is also broken of, by wearing or over-revving the engine at some point of its live ?????
 
If you did not build this engine......it could be from a previous issue. Someone may have broken a valve or spring and did not clean it all out.....

The silver/black striped '66 I had.....I found two valve cover washers under the drivers side cover.
 
the 302 I am building for a friend had a broken cam retainer in the oil pan but a good one holding the cam, they must have dropped it in the pan and said screw it and left it in there. I don't recognize that part however.
 
Sure looks like a valve retainer to me, but does seem quite small. In the 3rd picture you can see the bevel on the top face of the inner, which the keepers ride on. On the underside outer portion, you can see the cupped relief that encompasses the spring.
 
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