340 with metal in oil pan

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The spare parts could have been in there all along.
The valves crashing had to be a miss or some obvious lacking?
If the bearings looked good, may be able to flip the piston, if the rod is even on right.
Get the heads looked at.
Got luck could have been worse.
 
Fix what's broke if you don't want to spend $4,000. Nothing wrong with that. You don't NEED aluminum heads, Chinese rods, etc tonnage a good running engine. Just my humble opinion.
 
The spare parts could have been in there all along.
The valves crashing had to be a miss or some obvious lacking?
If the bearings looked good, may be able to flip the piston, if the rod is even on right.
Get the heads looked at.
Got luck could have been worse.

Broken valve retainer parts and pistons with valve strikes go together. The engine has a “knock”, the pistons upside down. This is not a coincidence.


Fix what's broke if you don't want to spend $4,000. Nothing wrong with that. You don't NEED aluminum heads, Chinese rods, etc tonnage a good running engine. Just my humble opinion.

No, you don’t “need” those parts. But if you start pricing out what it will cost to have the old stuff reconditioned and machined you’ll find the new, much improved parts aren’t out of the ballpark. In some cases, like the rods, new is cheaper. Reconditioned rods with ARP bolts cost as much as new stuff, which is lighter too, reducing the rotating mass.
 
Very nice looking car, and I wish you well with going through it and doing repairs. If you find out you have to do more with the engine than your budget allows at the present, I would encourage you to find a decent garden variety 318 (do basic compression tests, etc.). Then you can still get out and enjoy your car instead of having to wait until you can get your engine back together. Sometimes the best favor you can do for yourself is to buy time so you can fix the 340 without having to take shortcuts. When you do get the 340 back together, pull your 318 and sell it for close to what you have in it, or keep it for a spare.
 
I knew one dude, his signature was he’d spit sunflower seeds, and you always had some in your engines after he worked on them.
 
Very nice looking car, and I wish you well with going through it and doing repairs. If you find out you have to do more with the engine than your budget allows at the present, I would encourage you to find a decent garden variety 318 (do basic compression tests, etc.). Then you can still get out and enjoy your car instead of having to wait until you can get your engine back together. Sometimes the best favor you can do for yourself is to buy time so you can fix the 340 without having to take shortcuts. When you do get the 340 back together, pull your 318 and sell it for close to what you have in it, or keep it for a spare.

Gotta love small blocks!

I ran my Duster with a 318 I bought for a few hundred bucks after I found the original /6 was toast, before I swapped in the 340 it has now.


I knew one dude, his signature was he’d spit sunflower seeds, and you always had some in your engines after he worked on them.

Yeah but sunflower seeds are easy, they don’t belong. Busted valve locks came from somewhere.
 
Gotta love small blocks!

I ran my Duster with a 318 I bought for a few hundred bucks after I found the original /6 was toast, before I swapped in the 340 it has now.




Yeah but sunflower seeds are easy, they don’t belong. Busted valve locks came from somewhere.
Doesn’t look like valve locks. It looks like the bottom of the retainer broke maybe. Stupid mistake, the piston, but it only looks like 1 cylinder.
Check the cam lobes on that hole.
 
Hey you're all good guys, most of you anyhow lol, but seriously.. lighten up.
The 1st post, the 1st pic... I viewed on my cell. If you viewed it on a computer and still thought it was a hard seat, put down the buddywiser and wipe the boogers out of your eyes. I still dont know for sure, who could when it's not in front of them, when you havent torn the heads down..what if it's an old pickup... full of hidden garbage from the previous disaster. How about somebody did a spring change at one point and magically lost two keepers into the engine and decided **** it... picked up two more... put the spring on ...n call'd it a day.
Btw pot calling the kettle black, Yellow.lmao
 
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are you married, looks like a wedding band.
at this point does it really matter, take it apart and fix it right.
 
The first picture definitely makes it tough to see and it looks completely different on a phone versus desktop.

OP has lots of options available, the best will be a matter of budget and goals. Probably be a good idea for him to start a new thread about the engine tear down and rebuild if he still needs help, or just wants to keep us entertained :D
 
Hey you're all good guys, most of you anyhow lol, but seriously.. lighten up.
The 1st post, the 1st pic... I viewed on my cell. If you viewed it on a computer and still thought it was a hard seat, put down the buddywiser and wipe the boogers out of your eyes. I still dont know for sure, who could when it's not in front of them, when you havent torn the heads down..what if it's an old pickup... full of hidden garbage from the previous disaster. How about somebody did a spring change at one point and magically lost two keepers into the engine and decided **** it... picked up two more... put the spring on ...n call'd it a day.
Btw pot calling the kettle black, Yellow.lmao


I did look at it on my iPad. And I had my glasses on.

I've broken probably 100 locks and had customers break probably close to 500 locks and never had one fail.

That's valves hitting Pistons much harder that the OP had. Blown alcohol Hemi junk eats valve locks like potato chips, especially if they float the valves.

That's one reason why I didn't say valve lock. They'd have to be 100% junk to fail like that with the spring loads and RPM the OP has.

Its a million times more likely a seat will fall out that a valve lock fail like that.

Plus, there was no reference as to the size of the broken parts.
 
No, you don’t “need” those parts. But if you start pricing out what it will cost to have the old stuff reconditioned and machined you’ll find the new, much improved parts aren’t out of the ballpark. In some cases, like the rods, new is cheaper. Reconditioned rods with ARP bolts cost as much as new stuff, which is lighter too, reducing the rotating mass.


The only issue I have with aftermarket rods is some of them don't have oil squirt holes for the bores... I like the squirt holes and prefer to spend the extra $40 to recondition the old rods so I get the squirt hole to keep the bores well oiled...
 
I found these in oil pan
Whats the dimension of the 'debris'? That would give an indication whether it's a valve seat or not. To my eyes it looks to small too be a valve seat.
Otherwise: quality craftsmanship throughout, lol.
Hope you get it fixed!

EDIT: Ignore... has been answered!
 
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If you look closely and zoom in it looks like a needle bearing cage as both edges top and bottom look rolled to house the needles and centre seems recessed .How it’s ended in there blows me :eek:
 
Fix what's broke if you don't want to spend $4,000. Nothing wrong with that. You don't NEED aluminum heads, Chinese rods, etc tonnage a good running engine. Just my humble opinion.
That is a good point Krooser. We don't know the budget. Check it all out 100%, then see the damage and assess. I've fixed just as bad and kept going. It is just stuff like that chewed rocker that worries me...
 
They are retainer keeper Halve bottoms. Any idiot can see that. I had a fresh set of heads done at a local shop with most all the retainers broke and all over the motor. 68 4spd. motor with the 555 lift cam factory. They were the green sets of locks and they were new. No pistons were hitting, motor ran good,we were changing the pan when we found them. The retainers were wore and new keepers were installed with shot retainers when they installed seals. It is a common find on heads redone with cheap locks. The old green ones that shops bought in quantity.
 
Broken valve retainer parts and pistons with valve strikes go together. The engine has a “knock”, the pistons upside down. This is not a coincidence.




No, you don’t “need” those parts. But if you start pricing out what it will cost to have the old stuff reconditioned and machined you’ll find the new, much improved parts aren’t out of the ballpark. In some cases, like the rods, new is cheaper. Reconditioned rods with ARP bolts cost as much as new stuff, which is lighter too, reducing the rotating mass.
It cost me $200.00 to have my 340 rods reconditioned with new bushes and ARP bolts. When you buy those eBay ChiCom rods are you really getting gennie ARP bolts? How much to have a shop check the new rods for correct machining? You will often find the finish work on those rods to be inferior.

How about testing the steel to see if you are getting what you paid for?

Same with those cheap heads. The key word here is cheap
..you get what you pay for.

Personally I trust 40 year old OEM stuff more than many aftermarket parts. There are some OK parts out there but how do you verify without checking?

My SBM race motor has OEM block, crank, rods, heads and intake. I'm good with that setup.
 
It cost me $200.00 to have my 340 rods reconditioned with new bushes and ARP bolts. When you buy those eBay ChiCom rods are you really getting gennie ARP bolts? How much to have a shop check the new rods for correct machining? You will often find the finish work on those rods to be inferior.

How about testing the steel to see if you are getting what you paid for?

Same with those cheap heads. The key word here is cheap
..you get what you pay for.

Personally I trust 40 year old OEM stuff more than many aftermarket parts. There are some OK parts out there but how do you verify without checking?

My SBM race motor has OEM block, crank, rods, heads and intake. I'm good with that setup.

I'm not talking about eBay rods. Eagle SIR I-beam rods sell for $277 new, come with ARP bolts, and weigh significantly less than the stock rods. Are they right for every build? Of course not. Neither are stock rods.
Eagle SIR I-Beam Connecting Rods SIR6123CB

If you want to run stock rods, go for it. Not my problem. For some applications the stock rods will work just fine. My only point was that you can buy new rods for almost the same price as having them reconditioned. Even that depends on the machine shop rates where you're at, and whether or not all of your stock rods are good enough to be reconditioned. One bad rod, even at your price, and you're over.

I run reconditioned stock rods in the 340 in my Duster, and I have the Eagle SIR's in the 318 for my Dart. They needed nothing but balancing. I'm not worried about either one. I would wager the new stuff, even the new "cheap" heads, are better made than anything the factory turned out. Forging practices, machining, engineering practices, have all improved dramatically in the last 40 years. From the factory these engines frequently came with mismatched deck heights, varying chamber volumes, core shift, etc. Some of them were good, some of them weren't. The Proform heads have proven to be good. Are there some things to check? Of course. But Edelbrock's need to be checked too, they're notorious for tight valve guides and partially drilled oil feeds. And they're made in the US and cost more, but that doesn't make them impervious to mistakes.
 
Almost every single aftermarket Rod is made in China. There are two, or maybe three manufacturers who make rods. They just end up in a different box.

If you want to know it the rods you are buying have genuine ARP capscrews, call ARP. They will tell you if that seller actually buys bolts from ARP or an ARP source.
 
Salesman alert, holy smokes leave the OP alone. Post reads as fear mongering and vicarious spending through the op's wallet.loljk

Stock rods are fine, I've spun up 7500 rpm with them. In California, here in n.county..its 10 dollars a rod to recon plus price of bolts. Stock pioneer replace to arp bolt screw -wave loc... pic your price ..they'll all hold their own at these power levels.
 
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.

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We need one of you in every state, my friend.
 
Some high desert cats I know pour a splash of beer down the carb when they first fire a motor.
My dad would spend an hour squirting tranny fluid down the carb throat .
He did that to the cars that sat for a long time after he first got them running again.
He valued his beer too much , the garage was full of empty Lowenbrau bottles. lol
Man I miss those days and dad
 
just beginning to miss my dad now , he just pass on , he would just shake his head at what mods i was doing to my cars . but he'd always drag me home if i broke something , telling me if it was stock it would not have broke those parts eveytime . it would make me build it stronger for the next go round . and i broke alot of parts , lol . and i'm still breaking stuff today , just not as often , lol !
 
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