Did somebody cut my oil pan?

[totallynotmelgibson]

Doing a rebuild, and posted once in the stupid question thread about possible case damage a while ago. This time I believe I'm less crazy to suspect something weird.

When I was replacing the gasket around my oil pan, it was a real pain to get out. Turns out whomever was last in there before me coated the oil pan gasket in RTV when they installed it. But then I noticed this absurd looking cut on the bottom of the oil pan (see pic). It doesn't look like normal casing marks to me, so if it's not, what the heck is it??? Why would someone cut into the engine like this??

[old DKP driver]

Your picture is so big it's really hard to tell what it is.


_________________
V.W.owner since 1967

[timvw7476]

It seems as though there were subtle casting differences, these are images
of an 1800cc '74 case from the reverse angle, they made the channel from the cam/distributor timing chamber a different size through the years.
Spark plug tossed in for scale. :O
That gash looks factory-done.

[totallynotmelgibson]

Ok...There's nothing I can do about it, so I guess I'm not overly concerned, but it looked crazy to me.

For others reference, pic is looking up into the oil pan hole from the rear and towards the front of engine on 1/2 side

[aeromech]

That's where the taco plate goes isn't it?
_________________
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[Starbucket]

They used a screwdriver that they drove in with a hammer because some idiot permatexed the previous gasget that's why the RTV as it will leak otherwise. RTV justs peels off so use it or you will leak.