strange thing i found when i did my valve cover Options

[Valo666]

Last week i decided to change my valve cover cuz i had some spare time and it needed to be done. So i pulled my cover off, and started cleanin up all the old rtv that the guys who put my motor in left when they put my valve cover back on. Any ways, when i was cleanin up, on the drivers side of the car, on the cam closest to the rad, i noticed some black chunks between the cam and the actuall head its self right after the last bearing. So i pulled this little chunk out with my fingers and it was rock hard. I took a look at it, thought it was carbon. So i went over to the tool crib and got out some small pipecleaners, pretty much oxy/assetaline torch tip cleaners. I used them to gently go between the cam and the head and started pushing up more chuncks of this stuff, there were really small peices of it, as small at the point on a pen, to this big peice about half the size of a nickel. So when i got this big piece out, i noticed it had a ridge on it. I looked closer and relized it was an o-ring. or at least part of one. My question is, where the hell did it come from? it wasnt part of the valve cover gasket its self, it wasnt RTV, and it looks and felt like it was in there for awhile too, like it was rock hard. Also just by the curvature of it, it looked big too, like almost the size of the diamete of our oil caps, so this wasnt a small o-ring either. Any one have an idea of what it could be?


Oh..on a good note, when i used to start up my car when it was cold, i would hear this whine coming from my valve cover, made my car sound almost supercharged. But now, no more whine. so im guessin it was a peice of the cam touching this o-ring thing against the head and created a loud vibration.