[Verdoro 68]

When I was dissecting things last night I found a tiny piece of blue material in one of the crank oiling passages. At first I thought it was gasket sealer, but this morning it clicked and I think I know what's responsible for most of the damage. Early in this engine's life the valve spring retainers destroyed most of the valve stem seals because the valve guides weren't cut down far enough. The valve stem seals were blue.

I found a lot trash in the head when this happened, but obviously not everything. I was expecting to find some of it in the oil pump pickup, but I think it was obliterated into tiny pieces and passed into the oil. I think there's even an old thread about here somewhere, the pic below shows how hammered the seals were. Totally makes sense now. That little blue piece I found in the crank looks almost exactly like the piece sitting above the right guide in the pic.

The bores aren't horrible but have some scuffing. Pistons look a little worse on the sides than I expected. A good block cleaning is obviously in order, maybe a hone, and definitely some machine work to the crank. I reused the stock rods when this was built in 2011 and always regretted it, so I'm about a step away from ordering up a stroker kit and starting over.