Pieces of steel in cylinder??

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Righty Tighty

Righty Tighty

Blame it on the dog
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Hey everyone, this is my first post regarding technical advice. I tried using the search feature, but I think this situation might be too unique.

I'm new here, and new to Mopar vehicles. To be honest, I'm pretty new to old cars in general. That being said, I have a '71 Plymouth Scamp with a 318LA, 904 3 speed. Was running fine, I installed some headers with a dual X-pipe exhaust recently. Still ran fine, but started to overheat on shorter and shorter trips. After having it towed, I discovered a clogged overflow tube to the coolant reservoir. I repaired a few leaky areas, but upon attempting to start it up for a test run, it wouldn't start.

I checked a few different things and ended up at the spark plugs. The electrodes were smashed and the tips were pinged. I pulled the heads and found the same with the pistons. Valves seem ok. What I did find, other than the damage, were some small, pellet sized pieces of steel in each cylinder (about 3/16" square). They're somewhat uniform in size and shape. They seem to be hardened steel, as they do not file easily. What I can't seem to figure out, is where they came from and how they got into my cylinders. Only thing I can think of is foul play. What do you guys think?
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I believe foul play. Dropped through the carb, they would have dinged up the valves and valve seats on the way through.
 
Nothing more than the usual... I will say, when I was doing the cooling system work, a kid kept driving back and forth. I watched him each time, and his last pass he stopped. Asked about the car and blah blah, but didn't really seem like a car guy. Make sense? He drove off and never saw him again.
 
I'm not happy. I figure new pistons are in order at the least. Does anyone have experience with cylinder honing tools? Do they work?
 
They work great for certain applications. Can you feel the marks in the cylinders with ur finger nail?
 
I can barely feel the scuffs, but can certainly feel them. I don't think I'll chance it with a honing tool.
 
I am guessing you dropped a hardened valve seat out of that last head picture. That exhaust valve is sitting way deeper in it's seat than the other exhaust valve that is standing up more.

So the seat came out, broke up, and beat that hole of the head worse than the others. Chips backed up through the intake to the other cylinders.

As hard as those chips of steel are, sounds like an exhaust seat, they are made of hardened steel like that.
 
Were they in all cylinders? That is certainly weird. I agree on the comment about pissing someone off. Were you running / driving it with open headers or no exhaust? Do you have any anal neighbors?

Can you file an insurance claim?
 
George Jets said:
I am guessing you dropped a hardened valve seat out of that last head picture. That exhaust valve is sitting way deeper in it's seat than the other exhaust valve that is standing up more.

So the seat came out, broke up, and beat that hole of the head worse than the others. Chips backed up through the intake to the other cylinders.

As hard as those chips of steel are, sounds like an exhaust seat, they are made of hardened steel like that.
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Would the pieces end up in all cylinders?

I failed to mention I did find a bent push rod on #7 exhaust valve. All other push rods seem straight.
 
d55dave said:
Were they in all cylinders? That is certainly weird. I agree on the comment about pissing someone off. Were you running / driving it with open headers or no exhaust? Do you have any anal neighbors?

Can you file an insurance claim?
Click to expand...

Any of the neighbors I can think of that wouldn’t like this sort of thing, wouldn’t know how to sabotage a car like this. And I’ll look into the insurance bit. Thanks
 
Righty Tighty said:
Would the pieces end up in all cylinders?

I failed to mention I did find a bent push rod on #7 exhaust valve. All other push rods seem straight.
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Is number 7 bent push rod from same cylinder with the exhaust valve sunk low ?

That would make sense bending the push rod as the seat was coming out of it's hole. May have bent that valve stem there too.
 
Read post # 12 again, if an exhaust seat is missing, that explains where the Metal shrapnel came from.
It is common for debris in an engine to move from cylinder to cylinder.
 
Righty Tighty said:
Would the pieces end up in all cylinders?

I failed to mention I did find a bent push rod on #7 exhaust valve. All other push rods seem straight.
Click to expand...

You would be surprised to see where small broken parts can end up. I have to agree with the broken valve seat and the small broken pieces as stated could have moved via the intake manifold. I can remember dropping a few small set screws down the carb throat of my dad's 66 Coronet with a 273, he lost several pistons over it, just glad it was under warranty.
 
  1. How long were the exhaust headers off?
  2. Do you have any little kids around?
  3. 8 holes would be a great place to put some BBs, as soon as valve opens they fall in and start getting beat up and flattened.
  4. The bent push rod could be dumb luck that one got between valve and piston at the wrong moment
If it was me and I wasn't planning on rebuilding the eng any time soon. I would wire wheel the heads, replace the pushrod, get some new gaskets and put it all back together. Do a compression test, and if all cyl good to ok. Start saving and drive it
 
I would check for a missing exhaust seat. If it's not missing those heads need gone thru. Those exhaust valve are way to far in the heads.
 
Pieces go crazy inside an engine. My son had a 1/4-1/4 piece of an Edelbrock head valve break off in number 3 cylinder. I had the head off to repair it while he was out of town and for some reason I was under the car and was turning the engine over with a breaker bar. The engine suddenly stopped so I turned it over in the opposite direction and it stopped again. Thankfully I still had the driver side head off so I pulled the passenger side. The piece of valve was stuck in number 6 piston. Thankfully this was a quick fix that could have turned ugly.
 
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