Where would I find LEAD (or similar soft metal) parts in my engine?

I have been messing with that crap I found in my oil pan, and determined that it is most likely lead chips...



If it is lead or some other very soft and pliable metal, where would it be coming from? The chips are all a pretty consistent .015" thick, and I have found maybe 2 times more than what is in the picture...

I did some searches on the forum and Google, and cannot find any references to LEAD in the oil pan.

 

I think that's the babbit part of the bearings.

 

I'ld have to agree with Grabber5.0 bearing material(cam, main ,rod etc)

 

That is kinda what I was thinking...I am not going to push that engine anymore. If it was cam lobe, i would, but not this...

 

bearings. that is one of the reasons i wondered on the other post what the cam bearings looked like. thought it might be one of them, but you said they looked pretty good so i'd guess main bearing???

 

Have to agree.

Don, did you ever see a cam peel a lobe? I've never seen that or heard of it till here earlier.

 

nope. i have seen a cam in 3 pieces. unfortunately it was mine.

 

I can only think of it as a bearing, perhaps the sides to the main thrust bearing.

 

i used to have this olds engine but i didnt know that between the rods along the carnk there were like steel shims. one time they must have came loose and broke apart into the pan and cloged up my oil pump. when i pulled the pan i was really upset, i thought someone had cut up pieces of a soda can and droped them into my oil filll tube but when i looked up under the engine i could see that alot of them were still in place

 

gotta be bearing material.I saw a cam lobe peel like a bananna on a SBC I had way back when.

 

This looked like soda can, like you say, but it didn't crack or break when I bent it, and wouldn't stick to a magnet. Got me curious at that point.

Now I will NOT finish assembling that old engine and will just start on my new block.

 

well i think aluminum wouldnt crack either and if it was aluminum a magnet wouldnt affect it.

i figured i just had a cheap re-maned engine under my hood at that point.

 

it has to be a cam bearing with the lifter worn the way it was and lobe also destroyed my bet is that the gt40p heads are for a roller cam and therefore the spring tension on a flat hydrualic tappet is way to much and that is what ruined the lifter and the bearing close to that lifter. I would check the cam to see if its straight and true. My bet the cam is bent and the extra spring tension caused the bearing to roll onto it self and spin out of place and end up in the bottom of the pan. I would be willing to bet some money you are missing one of the cam bearings somewhere.