[J-Mac]

Originally Posted by theiceman

To me that piece looks like hardened compound of some type. you can see the perfectly formed surfaces, even indentations of machined surface showing the striation mark. on the other side you can see the uneven "squeezed out stuff" that has hardened.

Bottom line OP has a noise issue he is not comfortable with , i think that is what needs to be concentrated on. Could still be a bearing if another piece of this crap is blocking an oil gallery .

Thanks iceman, I too thought it was some kind of compound that had hardened and now broken loose. When I pulled the filter and dissected it there were maybe 4 tiny pieces of similar looking debris trapped in it. They maybe related or not, and the low count may also be attributable to how quickly I shut down after I heard the noise.

So that begs the question - to check for other pieces in an oil gallery means an engine tear down, right?

I was also going to do a compression test, but am wondering if I can safely do that with no oil in the engine.

Tx for your comments