moparstuart said:
That is exactly the way mine looked. It didn't break off - it disintegrated and now all that metal is fine shavings in your engine. Since you have the magnetic drain plug I'd suggest dropping the oil pan and cleaning it completely out immediately before driving it anymore. Once you put it back together I'd suggest changing the oil and filter every 500-1000 miles or so (use Wal-Mart synthetic oil as it is very affordable along with a very high quality filter) just to get as much of the shavings out of it as fast as you can - especially if you don't plan to yank the engine, disassemble it, clean it up and put it all back together. I never did take mine back out - I just did what I mentioned above and it has been ok so far. I drove it up and back to the Mopar Nats in '05 AFTER the pump rod failure and was a little concerned about my main bearings and cam/lifters but so far everything has held together just fine. You should have seen how much metal that drain plug caught those first few oil changes! It was amazing. There is still a little metal on the drain plug every time I change the oil nowadays but its very minor now.
BTW - did you mention you are running a Comp cam? I'm running a Comp cam myself and if you are too then the rest of you guys need to take a hint and get a hardened rod if you are running a Comp or any other aftermarket cam for that matter.
Big John, when I checked my cam the eccentric was just fine. It seems the eccentric on the cam is extremely hard and just eats up the softer stock fuel pump rod. It grinds it into very fine shavings over time. Its almost the consistency and feel of graphite. The faster it can be removed from the engine the better, of course.
