Metal found in sump. Should I be worried? Photos

Hello

Have removed 200tdi engine sump to re seal, noticed some small pieces of metal in the bottom and a broken up ring about 10mm in diameter.

Does anyone recognise them and should I be worried?

That looks like valve stem caps. Remove the rocker cover and have a look to see if some are missing. It’s not that uncommon ( my 300 had some similar debris in the sump)
They are easy to fit new ones - slacken off the rocker and new caps can be dropped onto the top ov the valve stem.
The bigger bit at the bottom of the pic in 2 halves looks like it may be the remains of a stem seal. Slightly more involved to replace. Of course, it may all have been rectified in the past and the debris just left in the sump....
Rich

callisr said:

That looks like valve stem caps. Remove the rocker cover and have a look to see if some are missing. It’s not that uncommon ( my 300 had some similar debris in the sump)
They are easy to fit new ones - slacken off the rocker and new caps can be dropped onto the top ov the valve stem.
The bigger bit at the bottom of the pic in 2 halves looks like it may be the remains of a stem seal. Slightly more involved to replace. Of course, it may all have been rectified in the past and the debris just left in the sump....
Rich

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I would put money on it being valve stem caps.

You now have the issue or A working out if they are historical and you have 8 caps, or if recent and caused by valve clearances being allowed to get too great or just poor parts. You need to replace these ASAP or damage will ensue.

There is an issue with stem cap's these days, they all seem to be Chinesium, you need to source the good ones or your engine will eat them constantly - Turners had a source for the proper hardened ones.

When you get them, run a hacksaw over the side, if you can mark them easily, bin them and move on - I also seem to recall the LR genuine ones are made in India now and are rubbish too.

If you do need to change valve stem seals too, you will need to make or buy an in-situ style spring compressor, I made the tool and changed all my seals in less than an hour so it is not a big deal.

Thanks for the replies, can the seals and caps be seen just by removing rocker cover or do the valves each need removing?

Thanks

Jowniofownio212 said:

Thanks for the replies, can the seals and caps be seen just by removing rocker cover or do the valves each need removing?

Thanks

Click to expand...

You can see from looking, the valves stay put - they sit on the top. If you were doing your valve clearances, adding new caps would add literally minutes to the job.

The seals can be seen, but not very clearly as you are looking through the spring. If you had lost a seal you would probably have some smoke from the exhaust as oil would be passing down the guide.