Hi All. Recently dropped the sump off my 318 (1968) to discover these bits of metal. last time I had the sump off was 15 years ago - they could have been in there for years or just a few months. A magnet wont pick them up so I am assuming it is some sort of alloy. They are very thin (0.46mm - 0.34mm) and can easily be bent by hand and/or snapped in two.
I have no idea what the metal is or where it has come from. It is not the piston skirt and the centre mains thrust bearing seems ok. The engine is running fine, no noises and reasonable oil pressure. I am tempted to put the sump back on and ignore it but this probably is not a wise thing to do. Any suggestions will be very welcome.
Whilst the sump is off, id take the big end caps off and have a look, these engines will still run fine when very worn out.
Replacing a set of big end shells is not expensive or hard whilst the sump is off. You have done the worst of the job already.
Matt Hollingsworth - Vehicle Registrar
Panther Pink 73 Aussie Charger 265 Hemi 4 spd
Challenger Sam Posey Tribute car
A couple of years ago I changed the valve stem seals on my 66 Fury. To my horror, when I took the valve covers off, I found lots of bits just like this and thought the worst. They looked and felt like metal but a magnet wouldn't fish them out of the heads. On further examination it was obvious they were very old (original I would say) valve stem oil seals that had hardened and basically crumbled. We checked the sump but all was clear.
I know that unless something has gone very badly wrong that valve stem seal debris wont / cant end up in the sump but the bits dont have to be metal or alloy, they could be other old material from somewhere.
