Topic: Oil Pan Treasures (I re posted in Tech area)

[crawlerdad]

I found these plastic pieces in the bottom of my oil pan. Chain guide or tensioner maybe? Any ideas or suggestions on where to start?    I meant to put this into the Tech area so I reposted there. Thanks.   

[emsvitil]

I'd say chain guides.

Take the valve cover off and take a look...........

[86bobbedtoy]

possably old chain guides
some people replace them and leave the old parts floating in the pan.

I know from experience on not one but 2!!

[PETDOC]

possably old chain guides
some people replace them and leave the old parts floating in the pan.

I have read posts stating if you don't remove the plastic fragments of the timing chain guide from the oil pan they can obstruct oil flow and ruin the engine. Based on owning 4 Toyotas with 22RE engines (2 PUs and 2 4Runners) I am certain that I've had remnants of the timing chain guide sitting in my oil pans for long periods of time without incident. Additionally despite reading posts of the possible hazard I can't recall someone posting it happened to them. My question--are these fragments really a significant threat to obstruction of oil flow?

[2manytoys]

The pickup screen prevents anything that big from getting sucked into the intake tube. I guess if you had enough stuff in the pan it could potentially cause oil starvation.

I have had a lot of trucks and 4Runners with 22RE's and I also had pieces laying in the pan for who knows how long. Still got tons of miles out of them.

Thinking about it, I don't ever remember having the pieces suck up on the screen. Pretty much stayed toward the front of the pan where they fell.