Mysterious Oil Pan Findings

[paulwaul1369]

For my Z71 Tahoe LT V8 5.3 I was replacing the oil pump. And you know that means you have to drop the pan to do this amongst other things like the xfer case, a cross member and the axle shaft. In the oil pan, I found this broken piece of something... some pins, andwhat looks like a lock ring. (All metal) Check out the pics and lemme know if you know what these might be. There is a backstory though. I just did a top end and replaced all the lifters, guides and all gaskets for the exhaust manifold, intake manifold, and valve covers. I'm hoping these were there from a previous job before I bought the damm thing. I did a pretty clean and thorough job. Enough of the blabbing. Here are the pics.

 

[mikez71]

rocker arm needle bearings. I have heard about these falling out..
Since that chunk of what I think is a rocker is in there, I'll bet it's from a previous job.
Have heard of the bearings showing up and everything still running fine...

 

[strutaeng]

Yikes. Agree with @mikez71

Why did you replace the oil pump? Did you have oil pressure issues? Was that resolved?

Time to remove the valve cover, but you just replaced the top end and would have seen the rocker issue. So it's possible that was from a previous job, yes.

 

[j91z28d1]

yep.. I've heard of it, but never seen it in real life.

wow. definitely inspect all the rockers.