Mystery Part.

So back in April I had popped off the oil pump because the chain had too much slack on it and needed to be shimmed. In the process I dropped a piece of the pressure relief piston assembly in the crank case. I thought, no problem, just flip the motor over on the stand and the part will fall out on the floor. The only problem is that in addition to the piston, spring, and rod, a "mystery part" appeared. I consulted the parts catalogs, the forums, realoem.com, it was truly a mystery. Everyone advised me that it was an old racer trick whereas folks would put a shim between the spring and the piston to put more pressure against the piston, thereby raising the oil pressure in the motor. I like to beleive that my precious s14 is truly a virgin to the redline and any kind of track driving, like the PO told me. But I posted on four different forums, covering both the Americas and most of Europe, and everyone assured me it was a totally trick custom race part.

In putting the intake assembly together I discovered it's actually #29 in the diagram below.

So... I had to pull the oil pan, the 2 gaskets, the windage tray, the oil pump for maybe the fourth time, and pull the little bugger out.

mystery part, top.

see #29: