What's the biggest part you've ever found in an oil pan?

The 1999 Mercury Cougar 2.5L V6 has been leaking oil since I got it last fall. I tried changing the timing cover seal for the crankshaft. That wasn't leaking much. I rebuilt the power steering pump. That wasn't the biggest leak. It looked like the oil pan gasket was leaking, so I decided to change that. If it's still leaking, then the timing cover gasket better be it.

The engine used to make a bad chattering noise when I started it until it built up oil pressure. I didn't know what it was, but then one day, the noise went away. That should have been a clue that something bad happened. Cars don't just fix themselves. If the noise went away, then something probably fell off, or broke.

When I took the oil pan off, the oil pump pickup screen was cram packed with debris. Again, not good. That was restricting oil flow. In the oil pan, I found some sizeable chunks of what looked like a timing chain guide.

Timing chain guide chunks

So without that plastic piece, the timing chain has been rubbing on metal instead of plastic. That's not good. The oil had a brassy metallic color to it when I drained it.

There's a baffle in the bottom of the oil pan that I removed to get the rest of the chunks out. 

1999 Cougar 2.5L oil pan, inside view

Oil pickup tube and screen, cleaned out

Bottom of engine, oil pan removed

Timing chain, looking from the bottom of the engine

Without the plastic piece on the timing chain guide, it will change the timing of the camshafts on that bank. The OBD-II scanner also showed a long term fuel trim difference between bank 1 and bank 2. That means there's an air flow difference between the two banks. So this was the cause of at least some of the missing horsepower.