Funny find in the engine block

[Die Reise]

So I pulled the engine for a rebuild after seeing oil drip out the tail pipe and smoking something awful when running as well as low compression on cylinders 1&2. I’m thinking valve seats and bad piston rings as the cylinders were pretty scored up. After I remove all of the engine tin, oil cooler, etc….I bore scoped through the oil sump and found two legos (I’m guessing from the previous owners kid(s)). Anyone else have a WTH story like that? I’m sure it didn’t help the engine and likely contributed it to fail, but it does have 130k on the odometer.

[Die Reise]

[Robw_z]

Nice. During a coolant flush I once found a blue shop towel, as in a heavy duty paper towel, that had gotten caught in one of the side tanks of the radiator. It had been there at least a year and I was surprised it hadn’t dissolved at all.

Unfortunately the person who left it in there was most certainly me, I just can’t recall for the life of me why I would have stuck a rag in a coolant hose somewhere.

-Rob

[Wildthings]

Not harmful at all compared to the mice nest many of us have found on our air cooled engines. I think my record for spark plugs found laying under the tin is six. The most damage I have found from a minor part left behind was a socket I found in the intake port on my POS 1.9L. It blocked air flow so that one cylinder ran rich and as a result the O2 sensor caused all the other cylinders to run lean. The POS had zero compression when I bought it, but gave me 75K miles of service before it died of unrelated causes. If you figure three quarts of oil every 1000 miles, then that comes out to 225 quarts of oil. Surprisingly it never smoked except when I accidentally over filled the crankcase.

[jimf909]

Link

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- Jim

[Abscate]

[4Gears4Tires]

My 540i/6 started running a bit odd. It would cruise highway speeds at 2000rpm, but the instant I got on the throttle it would stumble. I figured I had a fuel issue so I went to replace the filter and pump.

That is a stick. The disintegrating bark had completely clogged the pump prefilter and I'm sure the filter wasn't in great shape either. Stick removed, tank cleaned-ish, pump and filter replaced, and the v8 was back to smooth running.
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'87 Syncro
Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition

[Jake de Villiers]

[quote="Abscate"]

[Steve M.]

You could be lucky if it tries to replicate an engine for you.
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This free advice is worth exactly what you paid for it.

There are seven days in a week. Someday is not one of them.

[dabaron]

be glad you didn't step on it in the dark!
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1991 Vanagon GL Camper
i had no idea i wanted to be a mechanic
"burnin oil and cookin coils" -- Destructo

BiWerks Design, LLC

[Die Reise]

[Wildthings]