340 with metal in oil pan

yellow rose said
That wasn't directed at you. It's problematic with looking at pictures on a computer.

Had those of us who said its a valve seat insert seen the Pistons it would have brought another answer.

If you can't tell a valve seat from a valve retainer in any kind of picture it might be time for a visit to the eye doctor. That was very clearly a retainer, even without the dime sitting next to it for scale.

Oldmanmopar said
Sure looks like the bottom of the keepers to me. Didn't someone state that in the begining? LOL Sure the motor should come apart. I would replace the pistons so that means new rods due to the fact their cheaper to buy then resize, Rods , pistons, bearings, Gasket kit, oil pump, heads are cheaper to buy then rebuild,

You probably have a good block and crank. And all the accessories needed to make a healthy 340. We just went down this road with a customers 340. He was a friend and we cut all corners to save money on the build. Good Edelbrock heads are $1300. price out Valves , Seats , Springs, Retainers, And then all the machine work to install those parts and resurface the heads. You'll get just as much into those heads and you still have 70's cast iron heads. Less then $4k everything new. That was with all the machine work and assembly.

nm9stheham said
It is hard to say.... the valves may well be bent and we can't see it with that shot. No matter; it comes all apart.

The left hand rocker in that pix of the rockers looks really chewed on the left edge. And boy, yeah, those keepers look down deep. Wrong retainers? I've never had ones with the - offset so cannot say on that possibility.

Not to be discouraging, but be ready for a boatload of new parts OP. This looks to have been thrown together with whatever was laying around.

With valve strikes that heavy I'd be surprised if the valves would even sit down on the seat like they are in the pictures. I'm gonna stick with my original assessment that the engine has had things band-aided after those valve strikes, assuming we're looking at the right chamber.

There are a lot of parts to replace just based on what we've seen. But really, most of it is cheaper to replace than it is to recondition at this point anyway. Connecting rods are almost cheaper to replace, when you add in the benefits of the aftermarket rods it's a no-brainer. Same for the heads. By the time you clean them up, do a valve job, install new guides and hardware you've darn near paid for a new set of aluminum heads anyway.