Need help - Cleaning IC and found metal?

[mikelemoine]

Hi all,
My buddy took my IC out to clean it for me and found a bunch of broken metal UNDER the IC in the intake galley. We have no idea what it is or where it came from, but it doesn't appear that there is any reasonable explanation how it could have gotten where it is! There is a mark on the blower rotors that looks like something got sucked in at some point, and then there is this stuff under the IC, but the IC is undamaged. My friend thinks the only explanation is that whatever it was busted through the IC and it was replaced. I just cant imagine someone would change the IC and leave a bunch of shrapnel under it.

History: Bought the truck w/ 11K on it in 2006. Had 24s on it that hit the fenders bad and a bunch of mild mods that were half ass installed. Changed the wheels back to 20s. Around 14K had a miss fire and took it to the dealer. A NGK plug gap closed and killed a coil. Dealer changed plugs and the COP. Assumed detonation was the issue and babied it until I got it to Terry to go through it and tune it. Terry rerouted some guage wiring and moved the dipstick tube off the JBA headers (correcting some half assedness) and sold me a SCT tune. Have driven 45000 miles since without so much as a hiccup, and only did oil changes (thanks Terry!). Decided to clean the IC and change the plugs again just for good measure and found all of this. Truck runs and drives fine. Any ideas what this stuff is? Terry did tell me that it appeared that the transmission was unbolted and one of the heads had been removed, but all were still original. I assumed that they launched a plug and had to remove a head. Now I wonder if this was the reason they disassembled it. Terry said the truck had a rough life early on. Can't complain, I run it hard and am just turning 60K with few issues but this stumps me!

Pile of metal in the bottom of the intake under the IC.
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk307/mikelemoine/closeupintake.jpg
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk307/mikelemoine/Intake.jpg
Must be iron, magnet picked it up.
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk307/mikelemoine/Magnetshot.jpg

Marks on the rotors. Can't see in pic but both rotors have matching marks where something went through.
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk307/mikelemoine/Rotor.jpg

Any ideas?

[mikelemoine]

Damn, maybe I should have titled my post "Obama wants to tax the metal shrapnel in my intercooler" to get a response from this crowd. :nana2

We cleaned it up and put it back together and she fired right up. I guess whatever it was has been sitting down there for the few years I've had the truck. Luckily the lower intake is deep and debris isn't near the intake runners so nothing else made it into the cylinders as I drove it.

[99WhiteBeast]

Throttle body screw? There are four small screws that hold the butterflys to the linkage inside the TB. It seems almost impossible that those could come loose but that's all I can think of. I think those screws are brass though

[mikelemoine]

Definitely not screws, not even sure if they are from the truck vs just some random crap that got in there. They are flat metal pieces about 1/4" W by 1/16th thick. Can't tell whether it was straight or curved but they almost look like part of a fairly big lock washers based on width and thickness. The small pieces won't bend easily with pliers but after apparently being flung between the rotors who knows what shape they were originally. I can also guess that the rotors launched them into the IC at a fairly high rate of speed. I just can't believe that someone would have replaced the IC but left all of that loose crap in the intake. After seeing the rigging done on other things, I guess it's possible. Guess that is the risk you take when you buy used vehicles.