I thought this one was worth sharing as a separate post from my running rebuild updates. Background is I bought the car with bad motor mounts when replacing them I found why the oil pan was all beat up by the drain plug. The failed motor mounts let the engine fall about an inch toward the ground, and front end parts wear dropped the entire front end an inch lower exposing the oil pan to more abuse.

My car is a 97 that had first gen tensioners that where plastic body and a plastic guide the changes ran on. I replaced them while replacing the valve cover gaskets that were leaking. Both tensioners had lost the chain guide and had some body cracks, so glad I got those done. I was some what worried that when I dropped the pan I would find a bunch of parts from the main chain guides that are probably still original and have been known to loose the plastic guide as well. I was very pleased to only find a few bits in the pan, however not even as much as the upper tensioner lost.

The Good Part I wanted to share.
If you were like me and replaced tensioner that were missing parts you may have what I found next. The oil pickup that sits in the bottom of the oil pan is where I found the missing bits of plastic. Stuck a pinky finger in there and found them. My guess is the float around until they are sucked in by the oil pump and then lay in the part that is some what of a cup with the screen in it and then are sucked to the screen every time you start the engine. While a piece or two is probably not going to stop enough flow to kill an engine if I was fighting an oil pickup problem (clattering valves due to not enough oil possibly) , or I had done a tensioner change where there was obvious parts missing it would be advisable in my mind to invest the $40 for a new pan gasket and clean out the pickup tube.

Upside to this story is the overall cleanliness of the engine was surprisingly good only stain no goo in the bottom of pan, and now I have a brand new gasket and a shiny used oil pan without an almost hole that could have really ruined my day on the toll way going 80.

Cost to do this was $38 and some change for an OEM Jag labeled part from Advanceauto via WorldPac, delivered next day to my local store, and a $40 ebay donor pan, under $80 bucks. That was it as I waited till it was time for an oil change. About $30 worth of Mobil 1 10-30 high mileage from Wally World and a Purolator Pure One filter for another $13. Not a bad Saturday job and well worth the money for peace of mind. She is purring like a kitten, and one more fix on my 20 year old car. Still feels good to hear the guy behind the counter at the auto parts store go "That is a 97 out there" when I ask for parts lookup. Now if I had all my hair back and the muscle I had 20 years ago my wife might have to worry about the chicks diggin the car, but only the car is getting better