Look what I found under the valve cover.

[otto huber]

So I took the valve cover off of my 300SD to do the first valve adjustment on the car since I bought it last month. This plastic ring was just sitting there next to the timing chain guide. The engine runs very well with no suspicious clicking or knocking. Does this look like something that just fell in there during the last valve adjustment by a careless mechanic or something worse? Praying for the former.