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I was knocking in my core plugs today and by chance spotted this just visible at the very bottom of one of the middle drain back holes for the tappet oil gallery. Thought I'd post it as a warning. This block has been rebored and hot tanked and I've given it a thorough scrub with detergent and a garden hose after the rebore and yet this still managed to stay firmly lodged in the block. I assume it's "springyness" combined with its ability to pass liquids like a filter enabled it to hang on tight. I had to extract it using a set of long nose tweezers. It came out in one piece fortunately. Phew - I was lucky!

Hi,
What material is that, block is cast iron and when machined leaves a powder like deposit.
Ron.

Nasty looking stuff! I doubt it would have stood up to the blast of a pressure washer-would it?

It's definitely cast iron swarf. I assume a left over from the boring operation. The thing about the tappet oil gallery bore is that it doesn't pass right through the block. There's an opening at each end but it stops around the middle leaving the opportunity for things like this to lodge at the dead ends

You cannot create swarf by machining cast iron. A steel liner perhaps?

Glad you got it out though!

It was quite a brittle fragment The only steel in the block is the steel mains caps so perhaps it came from them when they were line bored for the block. This was done at the same time as the boring.

.................lucky to find it AND the folks to blame you must know: it looks to be stainless (no corrosion visible) and it is what we can call an alien object, so where the hell did it come from? sandy 4982

I've thrown it away now but I think it was steel not stainless as it had a very slight powdery rust film from the wash down. I'm going to give the block another clean using pipe cleaners just to be sure there isn't the odd chip or two left. Just goes to show you can't be too careful. I think most shops use compressed air to blow down parts so perhaps inadvertently this forced the swarf into the gallery.

Buy a set of long oil gallery cleaning brushes; they come in various sizes, and are ideal for the job. Follow up with your hose pipe rinse and then compressed air. Then immediately warm the block to prevent rust marks forming.