Oh Crap, It Fell Down The Intake! Help!?!

[oz]

Greetings,
Long story short, I dropped a fuel injector down my lower intake and in the process of trying to get it out with one of those little spring loaded finger tools, ( http://www.harborfreight.com/24-inch-2-in-1-pickup-tool-94162.html )the tool came apart and now I can only find 1/2 the 'fingers'... It went down #1 cylinder and it was not at TDC when it happened - so I'm guessing the other 1/2 of the fingers went in the cylinder...
I've got the lower intake off and stuck a magnet down all the runners on the heads to see if I could find the missing fingers but no luck. I am just about ready to pull the head but I wanted to know -
- Is there any way to see if the finger is really is in the cylinder prior to taking it apart?
- Is there a 'scope' or something that I can rent to look through the spark plug hole?
- Is there any chance that there's some 'magic' tool I can get to retrieve the thing (it's in the shape of a 'V', thin spring steel, about 1-1/4" on each side of the 'V')?

SUGGESTIONS???

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[NIKwoaC]

It sounds like you're so far in, you might as well pull the head. That's also what she said.

 

[Gearbanger 101]

have you got your headers on? Is the engine in the car, or on a stand? Maybe you can get in with a magnet through the exhaust port and pick the rest of the metal slivers up?

Or, you could rotate the engine until the exhast valve is fully open, then hit it through the exhaust port with some compressed air and see it it blows itself out? You'll have to pull that side header, but you'll have to pull it anyway if you decide to change the gasket.

 

[oz]

yea, the engine is in the car. If it was on a stand, I'd flip it upside down and get the piece out through the exhaust port but that's not an option.
I need to replace/reseal the water pump anyway so I might as well keep going.
If I change one head gasket, would you change both? It's only been 3k miles since I put these heads on anyway so the gaskets are fresh. I am adding a blower (why I was putting bigger injectors on it in the first place)...

Thanks.

 

[castine917]

You aren't breaking any seals on the other gasket so why would you have to change it?

 

[oz]

If I do find the missing piece in cylinder #1, I'll probably just rebuild from there and leave the other side alone - but, if I don't find it on the right side, I'm going to have to take the left head off too - since I really don't know where the part went. I'm 90% sure it's in #1, but if not, it could have went down any runner.

 

[68stang351]

There is a borescope you can use. I had to use one one time on my 04GT but luckily I have a hook up with a shop. They let me use their new 600$ borescope that has a light and a 4 inch video screen. That would be great if you could get ahold of one of those.

Worst case scenereo, you have to get a head gasket, and intake gasket, and pull the head and intake to get it out. Just a good day's worth of work.

 

[oz]

yea, I just ordered a gasket set (heads, intake, exhaust, valve cover, etc).... I just need to get over being pissed off about what happened before I start putting it back together. I don't want to 'rebuild angry'.
Thanks - I'm going to see if any of the rental places or even the better parts stores have a borescope...

 

[68stang351]

yea, I just ordered a gasket set (heads, intake, exhaust, valve cover, etc).... I just need to get over being pissed off about what happened before I start putting it back together. I don't want to 'rebuild angry'.
Thanks - I'm going to see if any of the rental places or even the better parts stores have a borescope...

It happens. A few weeks ago a buddy of mine dropped a nut down the carb in his Maverick while it was running. I helped him take the head off and retrieve what was left of it, luckily it didn't really hurt anything. We put the head back on and he's been driving it around.

 

[89stang1]

harbour freight sell this one fits easily thru sparkplug hole.........buy it use it carefully not to scratch it then ......................cough cough return it unless you dont mind spending 200 bucks for it
http://www.harborfreight.com/automo...al-inspection-camera-with-recorder-67980.html

 

[oz]

I got the right head off and found the spring finger right where I expected it to be - sitting on top of the piston.
I'll spend the next couple of days cleaning up all the gasket surfaces and then when the gaskets show up, I'll be ready to reassemble.

 

[stykthyn]

I dropped a nut down the intake on my last build. Luckily I found it when I took the lower off.

 

[VibrantRedGT]

Reminds me of the movie My Cousin Vinny where they are eating BBQ and he's explaining to Morisa Tormei.

It's a procedure. Like rebuilding a carburetor has a procedure. You know, when you rebuild a carburetor, the first thing you do is you take the carburetor off the manifold? Supposing you skip the first step, and while you're replacing one of the jets, you accidentally drop the jet, it goes down the carburetor, rolls along the manifold, and goes into the head. You're ****. You just learned the hard way that you gotta remove the carburetor first, right? So that's all that happened to me today. I learned the hard way. Actually, it was a good learning experience for me. »

 

[stykthyn]

A grit? Wtf is a grit?

 

[oz]

Reminds me of the movie My Cousin Vinny where they are eating BBQ and he's explaining to Morisa Tormei.

It's a procedure. Like rebuilding a carburetor has a procedure. You know, when you rebuild a carburetor, the first thing you do is you take the carburetor off the manifold? Supposing you skip the first step, and while you're replacing one of the jets, you accidentally drop the jet, it goes down the carburetor, rolls along the manifold, and goes into the head. You're ****. You just learned the hard way that you gotta remove the carburetor first, right? So that's all that happened to me today. I learned the hard way. Actually, it was a good learning experience for me. »

Yea, I have always been pretty careful before - covered inakes, etc. where things could fall but got careless this time.
I actually put the injectors in the rail and then tried to install it... uh, dumbass, how could one NOT fall off while the rails are being moved into position - and why the hell didn't you cover the runners to keep an injector from falling in?
The real pisser here is that the tool came apart and let the little finger thingy fall into the cylinder. I blame the Chinese (Harbor Freight tool...).

Note to self: ALWAYS put the injectors on the intake and THEN put the rails on - and, for God's sake, COVER THE FREAKIN' HOLES!

 

[oz]

A grit? Wtf is a grit?

???

 

[stykthyn]

It's from the movie. If you had the injectors in the rail already I can see one falling off bit how did it make it into the runners? That's a one in a million shot especially considering the size of the injector compared to the runner opening.

 

[oz]

It's been a long time since I've seen that movie...

I have the cobra/GT40 lower (w/ round holes) - I was moving the rails w/ injectors plugged into the rail over the top of it and I think #1 injector hit the AC line that runs across the front of the engine and came off. When it fell, it slid right down the #1 runner all the way to the valve stem. I could just see the very top of it if I got at the right angle. I figured the spring fingers would grab it. They actually got a hold of it a couple of times but I couldn't maneuver it out. On about the 5th try I must have pushed them into something because they came out of the end of the tool (press fit in)....

 

[VibrantRedGT]

Man you're clumsy.

 

[stykthyn]

And on that note if you still have it apart I would invest in a new set of injector o rings. If yours were in good shape and fully seated your injector should not have fallen out.