Engine death nuggets

[Drewster]

I can't believe that these got by me prior to final block clean but I'm glad I caught them before final assembly.
These are nuggets of stock block casting sand and metal stuck up in the underside of block. It made it through 2 shop block cleanings and my hand cleaning before final assembly.
These may have stayed put, but a couple of taps with a chisel and they popped right off whole. There was another smaller one on top of the rear main seal casting that only needed a screwdriver prod to pop off.
So glad I found them and removed. May have been something similar that caused the demise of the original stock assembly.
The experienced may have seen this before, so posting for the rookies. ....Be aware!

Drewster on Tapatalk

 

[Gene Van Horn]

Nice catch there.

 

[Mike T]

My block was bored and cleaned at one machine shop and another did the billet mains along with a second cleaning and I went over everything a third time before reassembly. Even after all of the prep/cleaning on a recent teardown for head gaskets I found a huge hardened chunk of an original valve seal that must have been lodged somewhere.

This time I've got a large plastic tub that I'm going to put the block in and flush all of the passages with an A/C flush gun and mineral spirits.