First off I'm posting this for Diputado since his picture upload rights haven't kicked in.

He was changing his water pump and noticed a metal shard sticking out of one of the passenger side passages. The engine is a 289 with who knows what done to it at this point.



Any ideas?

I thought it might have been a corroded portion of the seals around the impeller shaft, or a portion of the pump housing that had been pressed in and since corroded off of the main body.

 

probably a piece of spring that was used to keep a hose from collapsing

 

Hey folks...Diputado here...the guy who found that piece of metal in his 289. Here's a little more info...when I pulled the water pump yesterday, I found that piece of metal sticking out of the right (passenger) side water passage in the timing cover. It's not a piece of wire, as it is very rigid, like some kind of high carbon steel. It just doesn't look like any recognizable 289 engine component, to me. Like Clowe65 said...the engine has been "modified" by a previous owner, and I am still finding more surprises each time I work on it. It's basically a '65 289 block & heads, with a Crane cam (exact lift/duration unknown, but "supposedly" is around .508/292), 10.5:1 pistons, headers, Weiand Stealth intake and 600 Holley. But it also has a 50-oz harmonic balancer off a late 80's 5.0, and according to the guy who built it, the flywheel is off a '69 390....yeah, I know...this combo shouldn't work...but the thing runs pretty smooth.

So...any thoughts on that strange piece of steel??

 

OK..found out what that piece of metal was. Last weekend I changed upper/lower radiator hoses after putting on a new water pump and radiator, and discovered that the lower hose (with stiff wire coil inside) had a piece of the wire missing just inside from where it connects to radiator. Like someone suggested....was indeed a piece of radiator hose wire..."case closed"..!

 

i call em as i see em lol