Leaf in Oil Pan - Sanity Check

[bg305]

I am getting started trouble shooting what I believe is chain noise (I have another thread on that) and have dropped the oil pan this morning for the first time since owning the car (more than a year and 1/2).

I found this:



Right dead center in the black plastic baffle area that keeps the oil near the sump.

I am baffled. Immediately before dropping the pan I swept out under the car so that my creeper wheels would not get hung up on anything. I had a large piece of cardboard laid out to catch any oil, hit the pan with the dead blow hammer a bunch of times and pried it away with a screwdriver. That all went very smoothly and when the pan came loose it was a controlled decent to the cardboard. I did have some oil spilling out on the cardboard and left the pan so I could grab a new piece of cardboard and some rags and swap out the first one before it became saturated. Once I pulled out the pan I could see the leaf (which I thought was paper at first) and pulled it out.

It must have made it in during the process of pulling the pan right? (maybe it was clinging on to the back or side of the engine and fell down as I flipped the cardboard?)

I know the airbox angle sucks. I actually remember when I first got the car checking the filter and thinking that something might have slide past as I pulled it out. But even if that were possible how would a leaf make it through the intake valve, survive combustion, slip past a ring and then manage not to decompose in my pan? When I put new oil in I don't think there is any way a leaf could have made it in. I just use that pop-up funnel under the cap and pour directly from the oil bottles.

Anyone ever seen anything like this? I really have no idea how it could have made it in today as I pulled the pan, but I think I have to assume it must have, right?

The good news is that I only found a couple of plastic pieces in the pan from the guides.




And now that I am reviewing my images of the screen on the sump I think i see something jammed in it, will go back for that one.



I also found a few small flakes in the filter.

So while I know there is a guide issue, i did not find large pieces or lots of quantity.

[blue62]

That's crazy
Looks like it may be a maple leaf????
Any Maple trees near by???
Or trees with a leaf like it???

[bg305]

Originally Posted by blue62

That's crazy
Looks like it may be a maple leaf????
Any Maple trees near by???
Or trees with a leaf like it???

There definitely could be.. But I am still baffled. The leaf looked completely soaked I would think it would be floating on top, there was not much oil at all left in the pan.. (it is not like I did not drain it first!). I The more I think about it, the less I think I think it fell in.. It also was not more than 2 minutes between when I dropped the pan and found the leaf.

[blue62]

Originally Posted by bg305

There definitely could be.. But I am still baffled. The leaf looked completely soaked I would think it would be floating on top, there was not much oil at all left in the pan.. (it is not like I did not drain it first!). I The more I think about it, the less I think I think it fell in.. It also was not more than 2 minutes between when I dropped the pan and found the leaf.

Any sign the the oil pan had be removed before??

[RobT987]

Originally Posted by blue62

That's crazy

Looks like it may be a maple leaf????

Any Maple trees near by???

Or trees with a leaf like it???

Could it be a Canadian car?

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[husker boxster]

Was the oil syrupy?

[bg305]

Originally Posted by husker boxster

Was the oil syrupy?

I did not have it on my pancakes to verify, but I did send a sample to blackstone.. so will let you know what they find :P

[bg305]

Originally Posted by blue62

Any sign the the oil pan had be removed before??

Honestly not sure there is some black sealant to be scraped off, no idea if it is the stock silicon, someone that resealed with the same or something different.

[blue62]

Originally Posted by bg305

Honestly not sure there is some black sealant to be scraped off, no idea if it is the stock silicon, someone that resealed with the same or something different.

Well the good thing is that you found it and it didn't get on the oil pickup screen.

[ike84]

Two things - I recently opened a gas can to refill it and inside of the fill screen there was a piece of paper. I have no idea where it came from but there it was. If I hadnt seen it, it would have like wound up in the mower tank

Second, I have a collection of oils that have gotten dirty for some reason (the most recent was during an oil change I turned around to see my 2 year old stirring a bottle of oil with a stick). Again, if I hadn't seen it, tree bark would have wound up in the oil system. Or, if l ever grabbed the wrong jug, some funky **************** would go in an otherwise clean system.

I consider myself to be exceptionally unlucky when it comes to these types of things, but if it happened to meet it would just go on the "universe is ****************ing with me again" list, be thankful for whatever unrelated reason I dropped the pan, and if move on lol.



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[Newsguy]

Do you think that perhaps finding [B]any[B] chain guide debris means it's time to take the engine down for replacement, before having to replace the engine?

[bg305]

Originally Posted by Newsguy

Do you think that perhaps finding [B]any[B] chain guide debris means it's time to take the engine down for replacement, before having to replace the engine?

That is what I am getting ready to do.

[pidj]

This clearly explains how they were so incompetent as to lose to the Habs.