My oil pan leaked so I took it off

[Drake57]

then found these two plastic fragments in the bottom of the pan:

http://www.q45.org/gallery2/v/main/frag.JPG.html

The car has metal chain guides, the pan was sealed with orange RTV which indicates prior removal.

Do these fragments look familiar to anyone?

I will install a cork gasket in addition to using RTV, which should be a leak free solution.

Thanks, Drake

[maxnix]

RTV is sufficient. Haven't looked, but I will guarantee they are old timing chain guide fragments the previous owner didn't remove.

Congratualtions for finishing the job for him before they finished your oil pump. Check and clean the pick up.

Read Tangalora's excellent post about the sump in IOM.

[Q451990]

I would skip the cork gasket for sure. So you have documented proof of the new guides, but they just didn't clean out the old chunks?

Heath

[Drake57]

Earlier I took the timing cover off and sure enough it has metal guides. I think the pan was removed when guides were replaced. Next the pan leaked so I removed it, found these two pieces.

Were the plastic guides made of black plastic?

[maxnix]

Yes, and many DIY skip matching the pieces to see if they have the complete guides, or even installing new tensioners and oil pump drive chain.

You previous owner obviously skipped these steps. Any sign of exterior damage on the sump pan? Don't know why it would start suddenly leaking.
Modified by maxnix at 12:54 PM 10/9/2008

[Drake57]

The pan has a scratch or two, nothing of any consequence.

I don't know that it wasn't leaking before I got the car. I know it leaked after I removed and replaced the timing cover, with which I had a lot of trouble getting back on - I screwed up the head gasket extensions that seal at the tops of the timing cover - they are now gone, replaced with rtv. The seal at the pan could have been broken then.

Anyway I'll check the oil pump pickup screen, clean it up and put it back together - it looks like those plastic pieces are from the original timing chain guides.

[Q45tech]

Common to find [and not find the small ground up pieces] that destroy the oil pump tolerances....................when the filter goes into bypass the pieces travel into engine and lodge who knows where, scoring bearings and rings and cylinders.

If the guides are not changed until after they disentergrate, we warn owners not to expect the same life compared to catching them before the extra damage was done.

We try to match all the pan pieces with the remnents of guides to show the customer how much probably got thru...................

[Window45]

duh!! "any idiot knows that"