What Is The Oddest Thing You've Dropped In An Engine?

[Infomaniac]

While working on it?
I've been surprised by a number of things that I have had drop into the engine while working on it. Not necessairily all the way deep in it but at least could have been very bad news.
Last night I had the little star wheel fall off the feeler gages and land in the valve cover area while running valves.
I thought we might share some experiences so others might keep a heads up. Learn from someone elses misfortune.
I did have a drill chuck key fall all the way into the pan on a SBC once. The engine was in the car (mine). Had the intake manifold off and was installing a drill onto a home made pre lube device. You could not have forced this key into the hole it made it through. I bounced it to the oil pan drain plug. It would not come out so I stuck a very strong little magnet on the pan and it held the key there until I pulled the engine the next time. LOL

[Pee Dub]

3/8-16 bottom tap went all the way to the bottom of the pan during an intake swap. Someone will get themselves a good Greenfield tap when they tear that one down.

[YeLLowBoaT]

lost a finger nail into a 302 1 time... I have seen alot of ppl drop carb parts down into the intake, then watch it role down into the head.... :crossx:

[Pee Dub]

Air cleaner stud broke off, vibrated till the wing nut unscrewed and apparently fell on a secondary blade. Flogged it on an entrance ramp and swallowed it at about 6,000 rpm. Made a helluva mess.

[Infomaniac]

Air cleaner stud broke off, vibrated till the wing nut unscrewed and apparently fell on a secondary blade. Flogged it on an entrance ramp and swallowed it at about 6,000 rpm. Made a helluva mess.
I hate it when that happens. But you didnt drop that one in there.
I'm not gonna comment on the worst thing that went through one of mine that I did not drop.

[DaveA]

I had a button off my shirt sleeve pop off and drop down the carb throat.
Since it wasn't magnetic, off came the carb, and I fished it out of the intake with a piece of safety wire. Sure glad I noticed it!
.

[BrendellaJet]

I'm not gonna comment on the worst thing that went through one of mine that I did not drop.
Oh c'mon, what fun is that?!

[BrendellaJet]

I was detailing my vw motor one evening during an all nighter at my buddies house. We were drunk and knew better than to drive, so we figured lets tear em apart and paint em and rewire em. Upon bolting up the dual carb linkage I dropped a tiny spring dow the carb and my hand just happened to be holding the blades open :mad: . Carb came off and luckily a magnet pulled it out.

[BrendellaJet]

And then there was this one time...Buddies were hanging out at my work late(real late) one night. Everyone was doing brake stands in the parking lot. Roasted em good but upon acceleration both my dual carb filter tops came off and bounced down the street. Still cant live that one down :rollside:

[steve d]

We dropped the oil after the first race on a motor and noticed indescribable shavings. Tore it a part --- and I gotta say -I've never seen anything like it. Someone on LSD would be enthralled. Invited the engine builder over for a beer.

[JAY4SPEED]

Not something I dropped myself, but a coworker lost a fingertip in a timing belt a few years ago. He grabbed the belt, the vehicle had a remote start feature built into the alarm when the battery goes low, it would start the engine. The second he grabbed the timing belt to see if it was loose, the engine started cranking. The fingertip ended up in the oil pan. :jawdrop:
Moral of the story, always disconnect the battery before going into the engine.
Jay

[GofastRacer]

Well here's one of my dumb moves, pulled the valve covers(in a hurry)missed a washer, tipped the cover and there goes the washer down on the head and rolls into the lifter valley. Now question is where did it go, is it in the valley or did it end up in the pan??. Well I ain't takin chances so off comes the intake and no washer in sight so it has to be down in the pan now I'm pissed, so I clean everything, got the new intake gaskets in place, silicone on the ends and the corners ready for the manifold, grab the manifold and just about to set it down in place and "BOING" can you guess what I saw!... :eek: :D

[rrrr]

Not something I dropped myself, but a coworker lost a fingertip in a timing belt a few years ago. He grabbed the belt, the vehicle had a remote start feature built into the alarm when the battery goes low, it would start the engine. The second he grabbed the timing belt to see if it was loose, the engine started cranking. The fingertip ended up in the oil pan. :jawdrop:
Moral of the story, always disconnect the battery before going into the engine.
Jay
Uh, just curious, but did that fingertip end up in some chili at Wendy's? :jawdrop: :jawdrop: :D :D

[JAY4SPEED]

Uh, just curious, but did that fingertip end up in some chili at Wendy's? :jawdrop: :jawdrop: :D :D
LOL as far as I know, its still in the oil pan. We never did go in after it. Straight to the hopspital we went. It was a bright green metal flake late '90's Monte Carlo with a 3.4 "X" motor. Imagine the guy at the speedy oil change place when a fingertip plugs the oil drain hole.
Jay

[GUGS102]

Hey - do paychecks count?

[GUGS102]

My brother in law races professionally for team green. Two weeks ago I get a call, his mechanic dropped a lock pin/spring combo into the trans of a race prepped motor that just came from the "skunk works". They tried everything.
No doubt this guy can run circles around me when it comes to wrenching on the two wheelers but everything he works on is new (wonder what that's like) no rust, corrosion etc. He does not have a great deal of general wrenching experience where the creativity needs to come in.
Anyway they spent about two hours ( before I got there)trying not to tear into this motor. I took a telescope magnet, broke it off just above the magnet, flatted out the portion of the telescope, drilled a small hole in it and added a piece of .030 safety wire to it and told him to go fishing, 5 minutes later it was out and the motor was ready to go in.
Sometimes you just need to have cursed until you sound like a sailor a few times before you approach the problem a little differently.

[Fiat48]

Left a pair of pliers in the oil pan once. On purpose of course....case anything came loose and it wanted to tighten itself up. :rolleyes:
Guess that clanging noise when I rolled the motor over on the stand wasn't the pan baffle doors closing after all. I'll never forget that one.

[Rexone]

While not an engine issue, I once assembled a trans yoke without getting the clip completely engaged in a U-joint. Things got interesting at about 85 going down the 210 on my test run. Ripped the trans right off the back of the engine with a trail of smoke and transmission case fragments in the rear view mirror. I said oh shit. I've haven't repeated this minor oversight. :D

[HOSS]

Had an a-hole pour a handfull of nibbler bits down my carb once. Spent a few hours in lock down, paid 320 in restitution and 8 hours of community service. Smoked the pistons. Looked like someone beet `em with a ball pin hammer. Was all that worth court,,HELL YEAH! :mad:

[Sleek-Jet]

Hey - do paychecks count?
I think we should all stop and appreciate this comment...
I've dropped various washers and what not, but always been able to retrieve them.
I had a complete Holley DP carburator (disassembled) in a 55 gal vat of parts cleaner once... it fell out of the cheesy ass basket as I was pulling it out. Ended up using a hoe to fish the pieces out. :rolleyes: :D

[Infomaniac]

I think we should all stop and appreciate this comment...
I've dropped various washers and what not, but always been able to retrieve them.
I had a complete Holley DP carburator (disassembled) in a 55 gal vat of parts cleaner once... it fell out of the cheesy ass basket as I was pulling it out. Ended up using a hoe to fish the pieces out. :rolleyes: :D
Yea I'd prolly get a crack hoe to fish them out for me too. :idea: they are immune to chemicals.

[lucky]

Age 16-- 69 rayson - inside bolts on a edlebrock tr2x tunnel ram -- carbs off -- handfull of rags so i DIDNT drop anything down there -- tighten re assemble -- halfway out of the lake -- noticed red fiber out my header drains and heard a mis -- :mad:

[Sleek-Jet]

Yea I'd prolly get a crack hoe to fish them out for me too. :idea: they are immune to chemicals.
Never was the same after that. Ruined a perfectly good hoe for a 20.00 carburator... :rolleyes: :D

[BUSBY]

While working for Mercedes, I was rolling a timing chain into a inline 6 cylinder ... this is where you split the chain & connect the new chain to the old chain and rotate the motor over until the new chain comes around ...
well a kid who was new working for us was pulling out a trans to do a clutch that had grenaded caught a bunch of clutch dust in his mouth and started gagging, slipped on some coolant while running over to puke in the trash and cracked his head on the shop floor ... when he slipped, he knocked the drop light (without the protective shrouding) onto the floor, breaking the blub which sparked pretty big ...
My natural reaction was to jump over there to help the knuclehead ... when I did, I let go of the split chain ... and it proceeded to cruise right into the oil pan ... needless to say, I had to pull the oil pan and lost my ass on the job ... damn newbie's ...
I learned to zip-tie the ends immediately once splitting the chain that day ... you only do that once ...

[CARLSON-JET]

Does my last dollar count??... R.B.

[Taylorman]

I once dropped a bolt in the valley of my engine. I fished it out with a magnet luckily.

[Bajajet]

Middle of winter and I'm looking at the engine in the corner and think I should squirt a little fogging oil in the cylinders. (had done it when I pulled it for the winter earlier). Anyway, out come the plugs and squirt in each one and on the last one I think to myself "didn't I have the little red tube on the sprayer?". Yup it was in a cylinder. Of coarse one at the bottom of the stroke! Got lucky and fished out with 24" three jaw finger deals.
:rollside:

[tbanzer]

Putting a timing chain on a quad 4. Get it all done and start it up, turns over and goes snap., I thought tensioners taking up slack in chain. Motor runs fine so I send it down the road. A few days latter customer comes back and says his oil pan is cracked and leaking, its a cast aluminum pan. He says his damn kid must have hit something. I pull the pan to replace it. Now I know where that 13mm socket went. When the motor turned over must be it got between the crank and the pan.

[Rocket-J]

This doesn't fit the title, but it was dumb.
Auto shop class in High School. Sitting on the fender of a Hot Rod with my feet in the engine compartment, I took the top off a carb while it was on the motor. Needed to blow out some passages in the carb, had no air hose handy, so I used the set of welding torches next to me, for compressed air. When we started the motor it blew me clean off the fender and didn't hurt a thing, but me. By the way, the motor ran fine afterward. :rolleyes: Al

[Norseman]

I had a drill bit fall out of my shirt pocket into a 421 Pontiac, damn thing went right thru. So I figured I'd try one of the telescoping magnets to get it out. Wouldn't you know it the damn magnet falls off the end of the telescope. Apparently one of the guys had borrowed it, and broken it, but forgot to mention it.
The engine was in a 56 Chevy and had an oversize pan with a hole in it for the drag link, boy was I pissed!!!!! Not only did I have to raise the engine to drop the pan, I had to pull the front suspension apart.

[infotraker]

Had hydro on lake about 20 minutes, beginning of 2 day stay. Anchored boat and checked the oil. Last 3 inches of dip stick missing ! The end had broken off somehow and was in the pan. Lots of advice came my way. Some said go to town and get lots of refrig. magnets and stick all over bottom of pan to catch the dip stick. I said it was not worht the damage that could happen so on the trailor goss the boat. Pan came off next week and dipstick end retrieved.

[DansBlown73Nordic]

I had a friend who once rebuilt a 389 Pontiac motor. He calls me after he had it running with a funny noise. It had this funny rattle. I listened to it for a few minutes. I said lets pull the intake to see if we can see anything. In the intake port was a 3/8 by one inch bolt. The missing intake "BOLT" :crossx: :argue:

[Infomaniac]

Had hydro on lake about 20 minutes, beginning of 2 day stay. Anchored boat and checked the oil. Last 3 inches of dip stick missing ! The end had broken off somehow and was in the pan. Lots of advice came my way. Some said go to town and get lots of refrig. magnets and stick all over bottom of pan to catch the dip stick. I said it was not worht the damage that could happen so on the trailor goss the boat. Pan came off next week and dipstick end retrieved.
Better safe than sorry.
Depending on the pan, you can maneuver objects with a magnet to the drain plug.

[LakesOnly]

Can't say I've had the misfortune of dropping anything into an engine, but have heard plenty of horror stories.
Around 1990, I swapped a 429 into a vehicle of mine. The motor came from a dismantler and had who knows how many miles on it. When I fired it up, I made some adjustments, etc., and then backed the car out of the driveway, went around the corner and just floored it.
Thunk! The engine abruptly quit and I coasted to the side of the road. She wouldn't turn over. I pulled the dizzy cap and cranked...no rotor rotation. The 250,000,000-mile oem timing chain broke.
I groaned and felt certain I would find all the chain's tiny links and pins scattered about the bottom of the oil pan. :cry: Pulled the front cover off, and much to my relief, the chain had just coiled up upon itself. I was able to carefully remove it and "puzzle-piece" together every last bit of broken chain...nothing went into the pan!
Enter the double-roller...problem solved. :D
LO

[LakesOnly]

Oh yeah, took a 440 core motor apart at the shop not too long ago. In the lifter valley, we found a little mouse's nest...and the rmains of a mouse. Poor little guy didn't stand a chance.

[wsuwrhr]

Hey - do paychecks count?
Now that is some funny shit.
Brian

[maxwedge]

Kinda related to lakes Only post. I was swapping a 392 International into a Scout a couple years ago. Bought the motor used from a salvage yard where it had been sitting for a few years, but supposed to run perfect when they pulled it. I was re-using the valve covers off my old 304, because the 392 didn't come with any, just had some rags laid over the rockers. As I'm getting ready to put one of the valve covers on the 392, I look down one of the push rod holes and I see some white fuzzy stuff down in the lifter valley. Hmmm...odd place for cellulose insulation. Off with the intake and I almost puked from the smell when I pulled the lifter valley cover. :yuk: Mouse nest, complete with dead mice! :yuk: Shop vaccumed it all out. Then I wound up throwing out the shop vac later because I almost puked from the smell every time I turned it on. That motor did run great with nothing else but new gaskets and a good cleaning though.

[Moneypitt]

Cornbinders live forever..............MP

[steelcomp]

Great thread, Info! :D
Time to fess up! One night I was working on my 67 Chevelle/ BB Chev w/ vac. secondary 750. I was hurrying, trying to get out the door for Sat. night street racing, and fumble fingered the 1/4-20 air clraner nut right into the secondaries. I told myself, "you gotta remember to get that out before you go"...but I forgot. Funny thing is, I cruised for almost an hour without opening the secondaries. Then we were sittting in a parking lot, fender racing, etc, and I had uncorked the Chevelle. I started it up, and qave it a couple good revs...man, I just love that sound...untill I reved it just a little too far, and the secondaried opened just enough to let that 1/4-20 nut through, and MAN, I hate that sound! :cry: Of course, I immediately knew what happened. Dumbass! :rolleyes: LOL!

[dave186]

i thought of this thread today when i was working on my bosses truck. his kick down rod poped off of the linkage on the holley and i couldnt find a new e clip for it so i improvised with some safety wire. as i was clipping the excess off where do you think it landed? right in the secondaries. I had the engine running during all of this and luckily i plucked it right out with the magnet i had in my shirt pocket.

[Infomaniac]

i thought of this thread today when i was working on my bosses truck. his kick down rod poped off of the linkage on the holley and i couldnt find a new e clip for it so i improvised with some safety wire. as i was clipping the excess off where do you think it landed? right in the secondaries. I had the engine running during all of this and luckily i plucked it right out with the magnet i had in my shirt pocket.
Must have been bailin wire dude. :) Safety wire is stainless. :)

[Itsahobby]

While installing a new cam in a Datsun motor, I was using a screw driver to keep the timing chain out of the way, while installing the chain tensioner. Guess what I forgot to remove, after I got the tensioner install?

[retromek]

Left a 7/16" Snap-On combo below an aftercooler ina 6v92. Stayed there for a 1-2 years. Same engine came in and I got it back, it was resting against the liners.

[retromek]

Funniest deal though has to be when changing air brake diaphragms borrowed a buddies vicegrips to do all of them on the truck at at the same time. (They're used to cage the spring on air brakes)
Well a couple days later the truck goes down for pulling to the left during braking they bring it in and pull out my buddies vice grip still holding the brake chamber from working. :rollside:

[LakesOnly]

This past weekend, I changed out the valve stem seals on the F-250's 460 motor. Y'all know the drill: pull the rockers and pushrods, feed a little nylon rope into the cylinder, turn the piston to TDC and compress the rope/hold the valves up, then pop the keeps/retainer. Upon reassembly, as I was feeding a pushrod through the head's pushrod hole and attempting to find the lifter's pushrod cup by feel, I accidentally let go of the pushrod and it slid down the cylinder head....almost into the lifter valley. Luckily, it didn't make it. :)
Slightly off topic, but another one: Throttle cable broke on my old Ramcharger once...middle of no-where, no alternatives. What to do? I removed a shoelace from my shoe and tied it to the carburetor's bell crank, fed the other end of the shoe string through the hood by the cowl, and then got in the truck and yanked the cord from the wing window to keep on driving. :rolleyes: :D
LO

[steelcomp]

Left a 7/16" Snap-On combo below an aftercooler ina 6v92. Stayed there for a 1-2 years. Same engine came in and I got it back, it was resting against the liners.This is why aircraft mechanics don't put their names on their tools...you can get in pretty hot water for leaving tools behind on an aircraft. That was one mistake I never made. :rolleyes:

[retromek]

Well this all happened back in the day before random drug testing and Saftey Sensitive positions.
Air craft tools are way expensive is this True?

[SmokinLowriderSS]

Some aircraft tools are expensive, some aren't. Depends on if it is a specialized tool or not, and whose corporate name is on it (like Craftsman, Proto, Mac, or Snap-on). 90 deg air drill, $350+ Straight air drill, $50 to $200, Daniels wire crimpers, $200 to $600 ea. plus positioner heads, Stanley screwdriver, $3.
I wire Learjets for a living, 10 years now. Started as a sheet-metal mechanic.

[DUNDUN]

ive only really helped on two engine rebuilds in my life.. i was 14 or 15 and working on my dads 396 late at night, we were almost done and we were gonna put the intake back on and i dropped an intake bolt.. luckily it didnt fall in and i was able to catch it on the way down and he had no idea.. meh.. close enough for comfort.

[Slacker]

After finishing replacing a intake gasket on a friends mustang, i was gathering up the tools etc. I couldnt remember if i took the rag out of the lifter valley or did my buddy remove it? Decided to be safe than sorry and sure enough there it was . I still dont know how you miss a bright red rag?