Dropped a Washer in the Engine

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garrycol
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Dropped a Washer in the Engine

Post by garrycol »

Bummer - yesterday I did a trial fit of the manifold to my 4.6 RV8 without the valley cover tin to ensure all the holes line up. The heads and block have had work.

Taking the manifold off this morning one of the washers came off one of the bolts and fell into the top of the drivers side head - next to the No4 piston inlet pushrod where of course there is a big hole for the washer to fall through. Which of course it did - next obstacle is the cam shaft which it managed to pass with no trouble at all - looking through from the top past the cam I can see the counter weights of the crankshaft and no sign of the washer so I guess it is now sitting on top of the windage tray on top of the sump - I guess that if I started up it would get washed down into the sump proper.

Now the washer is 20mm across and a few mm thick so it is too big to get picked up by anything - so do I really need to pull the sump off? I guess I know the answer but happy to hear alternative options.

Thanks

Garry



unstable load
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Post by unstable load »

If you are SURE it went all the way down into the sump, I wouldn't bother.

Pull the plugs and gently turn the engine over to feel for any signs of it locking and take a deep breath before starting it..
Cheers,
John

garrycol
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Post by garrycol »

unstable load wrote:If you are SURE it went all the way down into the sump, I wouldn't bother.
Well no I am not sure but it is not anywhere higher than the camshaft so I guess it is sitting on top of a crankshaft counterweight or on the windage tray.

I guess I have no choice but to drop the sump.

This was all part of putting a new valley cover on and a new manifold - was a disaster as of course the holes in the cover would not align with those in the heads and I managed the wreck the cover and strip a few threads out of the bolt holes in the heads - so a new cover is required with I will test fit and elongate some holes as necessary and retap some of the holes.

Cheers

Garry

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Seight-V8
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Post by Seight-V8 »

was the washer steel or stainless?.

have been saved many times with a magnet on a string or your can even buy magnets on the end of extendable tools.

maybe try and fish it out first, if your lucky....might save some work....

Magnet may stick to other steel things inside the engine, so the one on a rod might work better..

something like this.

https://www.toolstation.com/shop/p72443?table=no

worth a try.

good luck.

scott

stevieturbo
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Post by stevieturbo »

I dont think I'd be overly worried....it will end up in the oil fairly quickly and once in the sump it should be safe.

Of course if sump removal isnt too difficult, it is the safest option.


I dropped a small 10mm spanner down the valley once, it never gave any problems lol
9.85 @ 144.75mph
202mph standing mile
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgWRCDtiTQ0

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