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[Abiton]

Found in bottom of sump during recent crisis.  
Made of hard plastic...









Probably not Vx's fault, as I have reason to believe the (one-piece steel) sump on my engine isn't the one that the engine was born with, going by engine number and reliable info.

Something valve-related?

[CaptainZok]

Looks like someone dropped one when they were changing the cam covers.

[Shackeng]

Looks like someone dropped one when they were changing the cam covers.

Yes but what about the washer???

[Elite Pete]

As Captain says it looks like one of the 16 O-rings from the cam covers.

[Abiton]

I agree it does look like that in the pics, but it isn't an o-ring, it's hard plastic, and has flat top and bottom surfaces. 
I remember the cam cover bolt o-rings being just normal round-section rubber?

Even if dropped in the head, I can't see it getting down to the sump, too big/stiff to fit down any oil ways I'd say?  :-/

If you zoom up to 400%, then look at the second pic, it also has a couple of little 'divots' on the circumference 180° apart.  :-/

[Elite Pete]

It will be an old one and its been squashed between the camcover and camshaft cap, its probably hardened with time and the little divots are where they are held on the camcover by little plastic protrusions

[Abiton]

Ah, good call on the divots.  I reckon you've convinced me.  Guess there's either an oilway that can handle something that big, or it made its way down when it was younger and more flexible.

[kcl]

Cam cover O-ring, they become very hard and old ones usually feel like plastic... I think that it would be good to find similar O-rings made of NBR or Viton to have longer life...

[robson]

Just measured a cam cover O ring I took out when I did cam cover gaskets Quite flat and hard but the same sort of dimensions. How did it get into the sump someone that rebuilds engines may know.

[Marks DTM Calib]

The oil return passages from the heads are more than big enough to pass an old O ring.

And it definately is an old cam cover O ring, no question about that

[Abiton]

Yeah, I just had a look at an old photo of the engine's head on the kitchen table, and I think there are a pair of large holes either side of the big wide waterway at the rear just beyond pot 4.  Are they oil returns? Looked bigger than the o-ring from what I could see.

What's the betting that this little bugger was sucked up into my oil strainer the other day, along with all the less identifiable crud in the sump?