Engine piece?

[Ric Gillespie]

About once a week somebody in New Guinea finds a piece of Earhart's plane.

"A Engine part believed to be of Amelia Earhart's aircraft, have found ( location, Papua New Guinea.) The engine part No:325. Photographs attached below.
Please confirm it ,and hence need your response as soon as possible."

Anybody have an idea what his might actually be?

[Bill Mangus]

Belly tank from P-38 or F-6F?

[Ric Gillespie]

Belly tank from P-38 or F-6F?

Too skinny and that fairing with lightening holes looks like a permanent installation.  How about the radar pod from a P-38M night fighter?  A few serve in the Pacific before the introduction of the P-63 Black Widow.

[Bill Mangus]

Pics.

[Ric Gillespie]

The fairing on the Hellcat belly tank looks right.
The tank also appears to have a detachable nose cap that might be the open hole in the second photo.

[Bill Mangus]

. . . and that tube coming out at 90 degrees at the bottom of the first picture could be the fuel line.

[Ric Gillespie]

. . . and that tube coming out at 90 degrees at the bottom of the first picture could be the fuel line.

Yep.

Good job Bill.

[Jeff Christmas]

The drop tank looks like it could be from a Zero. 

Here are a couple of photos and the links where I found them.

https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/storypad-34zd2PBuWVWQ9ciyLLMkLXC/e59ad510-bb12-48ed-8883-2111401ef038.jpg/r0_0_3000_2000_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg

https://www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/g4m/T-361/2008/zero-drop-tank-gondola.jpg


Jeff Christmas

[Jeff Lange]

I do believe that it appears Jeff has hit the nail on the head!

[Ric Gillespie]

I think the fuel line tube is a clincher that the New Guinea object is a drop tank and the red primer is a strong indicator that it's Japanese (Americans used yellow/green zinc chromate), but the object is not an exact match to the  linked photos - too skinny and the support fairing is wrong.   
That said, there were undoubtedly many different external fuel tanks used by the Japanese.

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

The engine part No:325.

Does this mean that there is a part number on the debris?

It doesn't seem anywhere near long enough to be a real military part number.

But if there is a number on the thing, it may help narrow down the possibilities.

[Ric Gillespie]

Does this mean that there is a part number on the debris?

Yes. He provided this photo. Not much use.

[Bill Mangus]

Jeff's first picture sure looks at first glance like a match but:

In Jeff's picture there are three double rows of rivets.  I don't see comparable rows in Ric's first picture, especially the furtherst double row which should be present in Ric's first picture.

Dare I say it:  the rivet lines don't match. ;D

[Jeff Christmas]

Here is another zero drop tank.  It too has double rivet rows.

http://www.pacificghosts.com/guadalcanal/picts/gifu/a6m2_zero_droptank.html

[Bill Mangus]

Here's a better view of the Hellcat drop tank.  It's post-war and the site I got it from didn't cite where or which museum this is.