metal bits in the sump
 

I have a 2.7 with no history. I have given myself several "outs" to rebuild vs run...the leak down was good, the head studs solid and I had recently torqued the rocker bolts and adjusted the valves. I was replacing the oil return (collapseable) tubes and removed the sump cover to check inside and replace the gaskets. I took the sump cover off and removed the screen. When I took the screen out I dislodged some stuff that had been trapped by the screen and when I lookd carefully, they appeared to be very small metal bits. Didn't look like bearing parts, or rings. Almost small teeth...like broken off dog ears from a trannie. What could these have come from?
I then thought that maybe they were from the tensioner idler gears, or the cam sprocket. I took off the chain covers and all the teeth on the idler gears and cam pulley looked fine.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214271968.jpg
When I took the chain covers off...I was surprised to see the mechanical tensioners converted to solid tensioners??What is with the bolt and nut instead of the stock piston/arm?

Are they steel or alum?

Bits from your rings?

andy

the bits are steel
 

And they look to be too small to be rings. They are 1/8th long and tapered...beats me.:confused:

not as bit as I feared.
are they magnetic?

magnetic...hmmm
 

They do not attract each other...but individually they are attracted to the drain in the sump cover. So no, they are not magnetic. If they were pieces of a ring, that would have meant my leakdown numbers would have been poor on one(or more) cylinders...yes?

bits
 

They look alot like the tips of the timing sprockets, if you looked at the cam and idler, it may be the lay shaft sprockets or possibly a prev. repair that was not cleaned out. There are not many other items that look like that.
Mike Bruns JBRacing.com

HI speedo
It may not be the timing gears you can see !!!BUT

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214336499.jpg

the inter-gear chain gear that you cannot, which could be why the chains have stretched and the tensioner's have been re-worked???

only a guess, poss wrong, but then again??

regards mike

Worse
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214348909.jpg

Most likely the mechanical tensioners caused excessive wear on the sprokets and you are seeing the broken teeth. You are living on borrowed time.

-Andy

after work today, I took a couple hours and tore it down
 

This was the culprithttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214358912.jpg
Weird thing was number 6 http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214359021.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1214359061.jpg
I'm guessing that a valve or plug broke a piece off, bounced around the cylinder and caused the sprocket to shear teeth. Someone did a top end and ignored the intermediate shaft....which is why when I did the leak down...the numbers were good. Anyway...on to a 2.7 E or solex camed rebuild. Thanks for the help.

Coupla hours work - complete tear-down? You could work for motormeister. :p

By magnetic - I'm sure Brant meant to ask if they are 'ferrous' - meaning will a magnet pick them up. This helps to determine if they are steel or aluminum. They will be ferrous if they are from those teeth.

914/6 - thanks for the shots of the worn sprockets - mine are 9.9/10 to the right one. I'll keep them.

That combustion chamber trauma looks like it could momentarily sieze the engine and cause the sprocket trauma - but the engine would become untimed and run like crap. They may not be related. Your tensioner/sprocket system was set up to fail in a hurry with the mechanical tensioner and all - do you have pictures of the chain housing setup? The chamber bits can not easily get to the case without a hole in the piston. Like this:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1201409871.jpg

This piston trauma above didn't even surprise me while driving - the exhaust smoke and general roughness did. I don't think it changed the timing - I drove for 100 miles after!

Another theoretical route for the bits from the sprocket to get to the combustion chamber or vise-versa would be through the crankcase breather.