Unidentifiable gunk around timing belt

I just wrapped up doing the timing belt on my 04. It went about as expected.

However, everything (cam gears, both cam gear covers, crank gear and the crank cover) was plastered with this 'gunk'. It is slightly fibrous and very consistent throughout.



At first I thought it was possibly an animal carcass that had been blended up and thrown around by the timing belt, but the consistency of this gunk has me second guessing that scenario. Also, all of the plastic timing belt covers were intact. Could the gunk be a previous timing belt that started to shred itself? The belt I removed was in good, serviceable condition. The tensioner and idler bearings were a bit rough, but not blown apart.

I did not taste the gunk. It did not have a distinguishable smell.

Any other idea what this gunk could be?

 

Mmmm. Forbidden cotton candy. I've never seen a belt leave hairs, clumps of powdered rubber, sure.

 

Curious if @empty_lord has seen this before

 

Looks like a shitload of dust or really old shredded belt. Usually see stuff like that if the plate was installed backwards

 

SPOOOOOOOGE

 

That sure looks like a squirrel or rat. But you probably would have found at least one bone fragment somewhere.

Weird!

 

There was a thread here a while ago (with pictures!) ostensibly about a timing problem, but it turned out that there was a rodent inside when the owner tried to start the engine, and the little f'er rode the belt all the way around, unfortunately causing the belt to skip a tooth or two...

 

The guide plate was installed correctly, but with the terrible maintenance history on this truck it's hard to guess what was done to it over the years.

Maybe it was a baby chupacabra

This is still a mystery to me. There were definitely no bone fragments or flesh found.

The belt had either skipped a couple of teeth on the crank gear or it was installed by an incompetent mechanic.

I searched for those pictures you mentioned, but i was unable to find the post.

 

I've seen this on other project cars...old timing belt fibers...luckily, there wasn't any oil mixed with it as it becomes even more confusing what it might be from...how many miles on that belt...not typical but not uncommon from my experiences...

 

I used to have a Mazda pickup that produced that. In that case they switched timing belts mid-year and the one I kept throwing in there would shave off the edge of the belt until it jumped a tooth or two. I finally got the right belt and it was fine. I would guess there was some guide wear or something and it was shaving the old belt.

 

Maybe it was somewhere else...I dunno. But I found it on Reddit just now:

 

Man, I remember that one, it was definitely here! Holy crap that was about the craziest thing I think I've seen on here, and I also remember one guy on this forum or another one, who found a goddamn mouse (carcass) in one of his cylinder heads, jammed in the lifter!

 

I once found a mouse inside my home circuit breaker panel...seems he stood up on the ground buss and reached up to something hot.

 

We had this happen on a transformer. I was working for a small WPP, web development, and dialup provider down in FL. We were sitting around and heard a loud BOOM, and all the power to the building went out. Ran out, fired up the generators to keep us online, and noticed smoke out of the transformer. Called power co. They pulled a BBQ'd squirrel out of the transformer itself. No clue how tf that dude got in there.

 

We find roasted lizards and what not on the AC components all the time. A good one I had was a down walk in cooler

I go out to the condenser on the ground, in the desert, and find a baby bunny stuck in the fan blade, blade across the neck and multiple slices in its nose. Threw it in the ditch and flipped the disco, good to go!

 

are those... engine pubes?

 

Maybe


I examined the no name timing belt I removed from the truck and there was wear on both sides of the belt.




Safe to say the gunk is timing belt.