Got an 03 Silverado with ls3 swap, TSP 821 head and valve kit with TSP .640/615 cam(don't sound right but I cant remember lol) with true dual exhaust. Anyways a couple months or so ago i noticed one of the pipes blowing smoke and chalked it up to the cold weather like the smart kinda guy I am.Well about 2 weeks ago I lost oil pressure so i checked the oil levels and it was almost completely empty. Don't change oil as much as I should but I've never burned up 6 quarts by going a month over my change. Was in a bind being where I was so I tried just doing a roadside oil change hoping I could limp it home. Found some metal pieces when I drained the oil didn't think to drop the pan to find more but I'll be doing that in the next couple days. What I did find looked like a half cylinder in about 1.5 pieces and like 2-3 needle bearings about 1/8th in, didn't think to keep them but I tried seeing how it ran with new oil and it was popping off gunshots on the same fire number that was smoking, shut it off almost immediately and haven't ran it since I know enough to strip a motor and put it back together but not so great with diagnostics lol. Got the head on the suspect side off and going through what I do know to go through, but all my rockers, rods, springs and retainers are good only thing I haven't checked on the head is valve seats. If anyone has a better idea than me on what to look at I'm all ears


first pic I grabbed real quick when I found it, second one I took for size my thumbs on the outside edge of the bedside
Haven't got the oil pan dropped yet, gotta get the cross member off first kind of a step by step deal for me right now. All my spring retainers are on, at least all the outside ones are, haven't found anything wacky with the valve seals so far, gonna work on popping the springs soon

 

The top piece looks like a valve spring keeper, bottom looks like needle bearings out of a rocker arm. The middle piece could be a piece of broken rocker bearing retainer. I had a hard time following what you have already done, but I would pull both valve covers and check all springs and rockers. I am guessing you lost a spring/rocker and dropped a valve possibly cracking that piston causing the oil consumption.

 

Kind of at a loss. All my retainers are there, no play in any of the springs, all the bearings and keepers on the rockers look all there and in tact. But there's gotta be something wrong if it was popping like it was on restart, and valve seats would've eaten the cylinders instead of going in the oil pan I would think. Wondering if something got out of whack when the rocker arm failed with the last owner, if it's even possible for the trunnion sleeves to stick around after an engine sweep and new oil pump/puller arm. Sure would've helped if I kept those chunks lol but you live and learn. I can post pictures of the heads and block tomorrow and probably work on that cross member so I can drop the pan and check in there for more stuff. I should be able to tell without completely disassembling the rockers if something was messed up on them right? Plan on an upgrade anyways but I'm not at the point of throwing new parts at it and hoping for the best😂

 

Apologies btw lol, definitely didn't get As in creative writing

 

No apologies required, keep practicing on us, we'll read it.
MORE pics as well: see if you can stick a micro-camera borescope thingy, I think they got real cheap from Chinazon, maybe you broke a piston skirt ?.
Local junkyard'll sell ya engine for under a thousand usually, stuff that cheap used engine in there while you're building the broke one. ALL of my LS engines have over 150,000 miles on 'em, not one will burn through a full quart of oil between oil change intervals, something serious went wrong with yours.... keep us posted, and MOAR PICTURES of carnage !!

 

Were any of the push rods loose? maybe you lost a lifter?

 

Got mostly an off day tomorrow so I can go out pulling my hair for a little bit and take some pics in the process😂 I got the rods and lifter trays out last time i worked on it, got distracted with other stuff so I didn't try much on taking out the lifters but everything else seemed alright to me, rods weren't loose and they're all in good shape none of the pistons look damaged, only thing on the heads I haven't ruled out is valve seats. Haven't gotten underneath the pistons though

 

haven't taken off the other head yet but that's what I'm looking at so far, lmk if different pics are needed