[406MENACES10]

Update June 28 - Running good, magnets on pan bottom, can't search pan/motor any better, gears look great after 50 miles. Flushed it several times and found almost all of it. Borescope, magnets, all oil filtered through cheesecloth after draining.
UPDATEJune 17, IT WILL BE FINE ONCE I RETREIVE ALL THE METAL PIECES. all that happened was my msd rotor screws came loose, car stalled, cap popped off... and I decided to pull the dizzy and lock it out since I had a chance to try it out...BUT I PUT THE GEAR ON BACKWARDS .
I broke the teeth off by trying to re-install the dizzy (at least I think so).

 

[406MENACES10]

Oh damn you're right I put the gear on upside down. The motor wasn't ran like this, I just tried dropping the distributor back in. NO WONDER IT DIDN'T GO DOWN ALL THE WAY LOL.
It's a Howards Hydraulic Roller 110275-12

 

[406MENACES10]

If that pic is how the gear was on the shaft when you installed.....you have the gear on the shaft upside down.

The long necked end of the gear faces down toward the oil pump and the end of the oil pump drive shaft fits up into it.
Geared end goes up against the wear shims, which are up at the housing lower end

You also need to look very closely at the cam....teeth on it will break just as easily if it is a flat tappet cam.
You may have ruined the cam too.

The distributor gear is the least of your worries at this point.

I wonder if the metal will be sitting right there where I can retrieve it, or if it falls down ? It's a SBC

 

[406MENACES10]

You must tried pretty hard to get that to go in to break teeth. I highly doubt those broken teeth are just hanging around the cam, bet in the pan.

Bumped the key that's how it happened. It would fall in place, IF THE GEAR WASNT UPSIDE DOWN! SHOOOOOT . OOPS

 

[406MENACES10]

I appreciate the helpful comments and not calling me stupid etc. I learn from each step.
I know for sure it happened when I bumped the key because I did retreive one piece of the gear already, I stepped back at that point and went to sleep for work.

 

[406MENACES10]

It seems the simplicity of the 75 year old small block Chevy has out smarted this rookie.
Seriously though as for the top of gear being broken instead of the bottom, my thought is that happened because the gear was down past the cam, the dizzy was almost flush with the intake, that's how it appeared that I was on track to drop it in like I had in the past.

 

[406MENACES10]

Something I always take note of when changing the gear also is to look which way the gear is oriented. If that makes any sense, the gears are usually drilled on the center of of one of the teeth, and come out on the other side between two of the teeth. Not a huge deal, but if you want the housing and rotor in the exact same place without screwing around and don't want to wonder why it's all different when you're in a hurry, check that shit. I use a transfer punch that has a nice slip fit so I can check the endplay and get the right shims without beating the roll pin in and out too. Maybe someone can post the right clearance because I can't remember, maybe .010/.015? Not a 1/8" like some of the stock crap could be.

View attachment 372953

I noticed that part about the pin position between the teeth... GOOD POINT.. Is it odd that yesterday while I was paying attention to this minor issue knowing that it could be 180- I didn't even notice that it was flipped upside down. Good thing is my friend junior just loaned me a nice borescope! I just got home

 

[406MENACES10]

Cam gear is fine, don't see the pieces. Time to drain the "errrrlllll" in my hillbilly voice.

 

[406MENACES10]

Dang. So I didn't spend hours working on this, I finally have time today to get into it. Happy Father's Day by the way, guys.
(I rotated the motor by hand to look around the cam gear and it's scratched where it bit the teeth off, but intact. Maybe I shouldn't have rotated the valve train? Too late. Also I'll verify .005-.008 spacing)
When I drained the oil in a clean pan, I thoroughly went through with a strong magnet twice, and placed it in the spout while pouring the oil into a clean 5-gt container. Found NOTHING. Then poured 2 qts down the dizzy hole, and retreived only a tiny piece by placing a telescoping magnet into the pan. I'm nowhere near happy at this point, and I'm not going to start this engine until I get the crap out.
Plan : friend has a flexible magnet that I can put in the drain plug hole, since I did find something in there already. After that, will flush more oil through and try again... if that method works, I won't remove the intake manifold. If I have to, intake manifold comes off.
That's where I am today, with a day off. I work a LOT and didn't think I could possibly be pulling my motor apart 😅 🙃 😆 😂. If intake removal doesn't solve this problem and removing the oil pan doesn't solve the riddle, thats exactly what must happen, or else it's a gamble hoping the gear is in the pan waiting to get sucked into the pump/filter.
Eddie K!

 

[406MENACES10]

Could always do what has been already suggested and flush down distributor hole with either Diesel, Kerosene or Mineral Spirits.

I flushed with 2 gallons of oil, if you think it would help to use kerosene/diesel/spirits I'm willing to try. I searched that oil pan with the camera, dragged strong magnets across the pan to the drain hole, nothing but a tiny bit of powdered metal- EDIT I snagged 2 more fragments from pan now.
Would the teeth be sitting on top of the oil pump? If not I'm assuming it exploded in a horizontal direction into the valvetrain.

 

[406MENACES10]

It flushed 2 more little fragments out the drain hole. I retreived most of it, flushed with 2 gals diesel fuel but there's another smaller piece in there.... somewhere. Cam gear is fine. I'm sending it. That's what oil filters and prayers are for.
So pray for the 406 Menace. He only has one life to live and he's going to live it.

 

[406MENACES10]

Like a puzzle, pieces fit but missing one. I have magnets on pan. I'll run it awhile and cut filter open, change oil and look again. Took another break

 

[406MENACES10]

 

[406MENACES10]

I'm aware could/should take the motor out and check the pan better than just with flexible magnets/borescooe like I did . This motor is just beginning and my feeling is that it will be rebuilt faster sometime in the near future, likely this coming winter. If it were the final build I would disassemble it today. We're driving it hoping the 1 remaining fragment gets into filter, it's small enough.

 

[406MENACES10]

At this writing it will be best to search the filter for the remaining fragment. That's next step after work. Changing oil.

 

[406MENACES10]

Pssshhh fun stuff. It's not in the filter or the oil after running the engine. It's hanging out somewhere.

 

[406MENACES10]

What brand Mufflers are on your truck?

They're old 2.5" flowmaster chokemasters I had a long time... 3" collectors/3" pipes. I remove the pipes in a few minutes for racing it's just v-bands and loosen one nut from a rubber strap on each exhaust dump
.

I've used a strong magnet dragged across the bottom of the pan towards the drain hole. It'll pull any parts sitting on the bottom of the pan.
Doug

See comment #26 in the thread

 

[406MENACES10]

I'm planning to go into the top first, yank intake. (Edit- that wouldn't turn up anything because the cam gears below all that.. so I didn't do that)
If I don't find it I'll yank it out and check the pan like most of you said I should. If I don't find it then I dont know what's next! EDIT HERE - IVE FILTERED EVERY DROP OF DIESEL AND ALL THE GALLOMS OF OIL IVE POURED TROUGH THIS MOTOR- IVE SEARCHED ENOUGH- IM GOING TO WATCH THE CAM/DISTRIBUTOR GEARS WEAR PATTERN GOING FORWARD)

 

[406MENACES10]

SCREEW THIS POST With my whining and over analyzing. Thank you EVERYONE who is concerned though! That's why I love car people. (Most of us)

 

[406MENACES10]

Blah blah delete comment by me