Uh-Oh.......

[chally72]

I went to do a second oil change today, and I found a .060" ball bearing attached to my magnetic drain plug.

Where the %*&# did that come from?!?!?!!

I already spoke to Vic about the Garrett turbo- the bearings in those cartridges are more than double that size. The check valve in the head is also MUCH larger. Those are the only ball bearings I know of in the entire motor. Where could this be from?!

[running_cold924]

interesting....I have no clue

[chally72]

Man that scares me.

Swiped around a little magnetic whip as much as I could through the drain hole. Nothin. This might remain a mystery.

[968 GUY]

Is that about the size of the ball behind the fuel test fitting cap?

[bebbetufs]

Could it have been attached to the magnet when you installed the plug? Have you done any work with that size ball bearings lately?

BTW. Aren't there a ball valve in the lifters?

[Grandad#3]

And the plot thickens. Only the Shadow knows. THINK, MAN, THINK!! Have you been spending more quality time with your car than with your wife or girlfriend or both? A woman can be extremely devious at times. One single small ball bearing found where none should be found will drive a man crazy or to drink.

Cheers,
Larry

[chally72]

Where is the fuel test fitting cap?

And good point about the lifters...I was just looking through a thread the other day about dismantling them to see what they contained.

I'm not sure my girlfriend is that devious...or stupid. I told her I would spend much more time with her when the car was done...so she would be hanging herself there.

I doubt it could have been attached to the plug before I put it back in. I clean the hell out of those plugs when changing the oil. And I hadn't been working with ANY ball bearings over the engine when I rebuilt it. My only thought is that maybe it was stuck in the plastic baffle in the pan from before. I never removed the baffle because the bolts were loctited on and just wanted to break. So I swilled a bunch of kerosene through it and called it a day when it came back clean.

[KEV951]

thats just plan old foreign particle contamination, it somehow made it in your engine, who knows? you were doing an oil change maybe the filler cap was off and the neighborhood kid shot his bb gun in the air and guess where the bb went, There is no small bb anywhere in the engine , if you lost your fuel pump check valve bb , you will have hard starts almost everytime and there is almost no way for it to get into your engine unless one of your injectors has a hole the same size as the bb in it now. Or, same senario, you put your drain plug down when draining oil and there just happened to be a bb in the area which stuck to the magnet on plug and maybe you didnt notice it when you put it back in? Or worst case , some a-hole is trying to destroy your motor when you werent looking or if the car had ever been in a shop . There are about a trillion other possibilties, these would be the most frequent imo

[89-944NA]

Remember that last ricer you soundly thumped? He put it there....for revenge

BTW, if any of your fuel injectors were able to pass an object that large, it would be like flushing a toilet over that cylinder

[chally72]

Thanks for the reassurance guys. I will drive her...carefully. And do the next oil change much sooner to check for any more surprises.

And obviously, be more careful next engine rebuild.