Look what I found when I drained my oil

[MTownsend]

Well I'm still working on my crew cab convertion, today I drove it through the neiborhood then dumped the oil and found a metal piece. What could it be?



The engine seems to run well, But seeing this has me worried

 

[DCottrell]

Looks like it might be bearing material. Was that the only piece? Was there a shiny tint to the oil? If so it could be bearings. How is oil pressure?

 

[MTownsend]

Looks like it might be bearing material. Was that the only piece? Was there a shiny tint to the oil? If so it could be bearings. How is oil pressure?

Well the oil pressure goes up to about 1/3. Where should the guage be the engine has 250,000 miles



That was the only peice that i had seen, it was stuck to the magnetic plug.



The oil was the nastiest thing I have ever seen (well maybe not but) It was a black Sooty ich. but I didn't notice metal or atleast till i looked at the drain plug. I can't even look at the oil i drained because I used a dirty pan that had chunks of stuff from a blown up 302.



Bearing? what kind of bearing might this be, it's the size of a dime and orange on the inside and looks like it may have been orange on the out side.

 

[PAllyn]

Wow! If my truck gave me five dimes every time I change the oil I might change it more often. LOL

 

[JLEONARD]

Bearing? what kind of bearing might this be, it's the size of a dime and orange on the inside and looks like it may have been orange on the out side.

Orange... . part of a seal perhaps? Front or rear?

 

[1stgen4evr]

I would think someone droped it down the oil filler tube. I took an 03 apart about two months back and there isn't anything like that in the crankcase. Or in the timing portion. It isn't Cummins. To my knowledge, Cummins does not use orange paint on anything at all.



I have found half of a valve head that shoved through the top of number six piston and it got all the way to the oil pan.



You will need to put a direct reading gage on the oil to know what it really is. The sender and dash gage present an approximation. (And the senders go bad) Diesel oil will be black unless you change it every thousand miles. I run mine ten thousand.



James

 

[wolfman00hd]

The orange you speak of, looks more to me like the copper under the babbitt (sp?) one finds on conventional main and rod bearings. Looks an awful lot what an old set of bearings looked like in my IROC-Z when my new crank's oil holes didn't get chamfered and it ate two main bearings. The only thing harder than R/R a TPI 350 in an IROC is doing it twice 12 days apart. Just my $. 02.

 

[MTownsend]

The orange you speak of, looks more to me like the copper under the babbitt (sp?) one finds on conventional main and rod bearings. Looks an awful lot what an old set of bearings looked like in my IROC-Z when my new crank's oil holes didn't get chamfered and it ate two main bearings. The only thing harder than R/R a TPI 350 in an IROC is doing it twice 12 days apart. Just my $. 02.

Ok maybe this will help

If it was not broken in half it would be about the same diameter as a dime

one end of this thing is about as thick as a dime and I'm guessing this was some kind of snap ring,

What in this engine could have had a snap ring that small or did it get dropped in the oil some how



The previouse owner the 2nd owner, told me that he had replaced the injection pump could it have been from that?



I just ran the truck anouther couple miles and had it to the floor a good bit and it seems fine, However I'm new to diesels, and what is it they say "ignorance is bliss" :-laf

 

[Philip]

That does not look like a snap ring. Pull you valve covers and check and see if all the snap rings are in place on your rocker arm shafts. That might be a piece of a rocker arm bushing.



Each rocker arm assy has 2 snap rings on it and 2 thrust washers.



I can't tell you the page number for the FSM for your year. On my 93 FSM it is section 9 page 113 figure J9109-31.

 

[R C Cola]

What is it ?

There should be a mfg stamp or mint stamp on it. R C

 

[MTownsend]

Ok Cool that will give me something to look for. Is there anything I need to know about pulling those valve covers off?



Mike

 

[DonTX]

Is it attracted to a magnet? Hard steel or soft alloy? You know what it really looks like is part of the sealer ring on the screw on cap of a quart of oil.

 

[CAROLINA CUMMINS]

O. K. This might be a stretch; but the only thing this even faintly looks like is the small retainer spring? on the valve seals. Maybe; and the seals themselves are orange, or at least some of them.



Like I said it was a stretch, but maybe possible, it would definitely take it a while to get to the pan.



Steven

 

[JUeckert]

Is it attracted to a magnet? Hard steel or soft alloy? You know what it really looks like is part of the sealer ring on the screw on cap of a quart of oil.

don,if i read your sig correctly,you have a allison transmission with a gear vendor od unit? sorry to side track the post. could the metal piece in the piture be from the threads of the oil pan plug,maybe the drain hole?

 

[jimnance]

don,if i read your sig correctly,you have a allison transmission with a gear vendor od unit? sorry to side track the post. could the metal piece in the piture be from the threads of the oil pan plug,maybe the drain hole?

I was kind of thinking along those lines. He said it was stuck to the oil pan which would seem to rule out bearing material. A seal is possible if the seal has a steel backing.



I'd drain the oil again in a couple thousand miles and see if anything shows up. It could just be stray piece and nothing to worry about. For now, that's all I'd do unless oil pressure starts reading abnormally low or the engine starts making expensive sounds.

 

[MTownsend]

Is it attracted to a magnet? Hard steel or soft alloy? You know what it really looks like is part of the sealer ring on the screw on cap of a quart of oil.

It is hard steel that was stuck to the atracted to the drian plug. The inside has orange paint, the out side has some orange paint but mostly worn off. one end has a rough edge where it was broken (I think in half), all other edges are smooth. I thought it may have been a clip of some sort because the one end is about half the width of the broken end( it looks like if I had the other piece, the two halves would over lap).

 

[MTownsend]

Ok here are more pictures to give a better idea on size

 

[DonTX]

Still guessing, might have been a clip that held a hose to a funnel, broke and fell inside?

 

[Mcarcerano]

that looks just like the steel clip on a valve seal

 

[CAROLINA CUMMINS]

I had a few pics of some valve seals, but in all of them the split side is turned away! And they're all in engines now, so hard to take more pics. In one of the pics though, some of them are indeed painted orange. Hope this helps.



Steven