I changed oil on the white Valiant today after my 3,600 trip to the west coast. To my dismay there was quite a bit of iron filing residue present when I cut open the oil filter. Lots of small shiny specs and they are definately magnetic. I don't usually see anything like this on a street car, the race car would show some similar specs that I attributed to cam wear but never this many.

Have any of you ever delt with this isssue? I would think the cam or possibly the oil pump drive gear could be the source. I would love to figure this out without pulling the engine and trying to remove my leak proof oil pan gasket. I could recheck the valve lash and lift on each cam lobe which I haven't done yet. Or I could probably jack the engine high enough to pull the oil pump. What do you think?

The car seems to be running as good as it ever has and I always put in half a bottle of Comp Cams break in lube, which is zinc rich, with each oil change.

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If you didn't drive it there, it's not a street car.

Ugh. I would never know because I don't cut open my oil filters, but that does sound ominous.

What about a small dental mirror down the distributor hole to let you look at the pump/cam gears? You might be able to feel with a finger through the dist hole too?

Could be something like the cam timing gear is eating into the block? Tilley said this happened for him a few times.

Fingers crossed....

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

That doesn't sound good! And with known oil pump gear issues on our engines in the past, that would be my guess. Do you know a tool man or a mechanic that may have one of those flexible shaft tools with a video screen on the end? (Bore scope)With that you could probably look down the distributor hole and see things a little better.

Rick

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

I've got a bore scope. My junk usually blows up enough I don;t need it though.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

There you go!

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

no round flat multi magnets in oil pan?

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slant six's RULE!
http://www.usajon.com

Any update on your engine Seymour??

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

I did check the valve lash and the maximum lift at the retainer on each valve showing no signs of excessive wear. Lift at retainer was only .410 out of .450 but when you consider lash, parts flexing, and rocker ratio variations that's probably about right. I usually only check cam specs at the lifter. The only other thing I did was to back off my cam stop screw in case it was putting too much pressure on the cam gear to block surface. I am going to go on a 400 mile plus trip and do some testing on the drag strip in the next month. Afterwards I will cut open the oil filter and see how it looks.

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If you didn't drive it there, it's not a street car.