uhm, i pulled these out of my heads...

ok, so im replacing the valve cover gaskets on my ride, right, i pulled the covers off and i figure i should look it over while im here. i find these little bits... im like "wtf?" so i get a flash light and find all of them i can.
http://bellsouthpwp.net/r/a/rabius/****.jpg
and...

i found some on top of both heads, but i cant find the bits i pulled out of the passenger side, lost them while painting my valve covers.
they feel like really hard rubber, and if i put them down and push on them, they give a little bit and return to their original shape. this is kind of worrying. i plan on getting some magnum heads in the next month, but this worries me...

any idea what they are? is it a valve seal or something.... what?

those would be your valve seals...typical with age....and yes they were rubber...they are now carbon!!!!

been their before
Thats why your car blows a puff of smoke in the morning.

mmmm.. .true, it does blow a nice rich cloud of exhaust when i start it... ok, well, its not TOO bad, i guess ill be ok for a while?

The smaller pieces are in your oil pickup screen. If and when you tear down for new heads take the pan off too and clean.

Nice to see how those stock umbrella types respond to many years of hot/cold cycling huh?

:-/
oh well.
i just finished putting my valve cover gaskets on, it was leaking just a tiny bit from the back of the passenger side, but i think it was because i tightened it too much, so i backed it off a litttllee bit so it felt as tight at the rest, but not too tight. this was after i had the car warmed up nicely, new paint on my valve covers has greasy finger prints on it. oh f-cking well, it still looks better, but it looks funny.. new paint amongst dirty, faded, and some slightly rusted parts. oh well, it runs better, but the drivers side valves are making a little noise. i checked the lash when i took the valve covers off, the pushrods on a few i can turn with my fingers, but they wont move up and down any, so i left them all alone.