I was doing an oil change on my Flathead tonight and I had a piece of foil from the oil jug lid go down the oil fill tube! I tried like hell to catch it but my heart sank as I saw it float down the tube. It was about the size of a nickel. So... has anyone ever had this happen before? I am not sure what I am going to do at this point. I am not sure if this could block an oil p***age or not. I wonder where it might end up inside the engine?
This happens all the time, to all kinds of engines. I've never heard of it causing a problem. A guy on another forum I frequent did it, and a year or two later he did a rebuild on the engine. He found 3 or 4 of them down in the pan.
Albuq is right, it happens all the time. It probably won't even make it to the pan, just lay around under the intake manifold. Don't do it again.
Knock the tube off and have a look inside with a flashlight. Maybe it's still in the tube or accessible once it's removed with one of those grabber thingy's. The tube is just pressed into the intake manifold. Get a rubber mallet and tap it side to side while pulling on it. Should pop off.
Do you have a friend with one of those fiber optic veiwers or the fiber optic cam? Give the engine a quick colonoscopy through the fill pipe, and use one of those long finger grabbers to get it out...
With that style oil full tube I can guarantee you it's just laying under the intake. I used to work on semi truck engine and we used to find a dozen of them in the oil pain and on the pick up tube from guys dumping oil in out in the road.. Never seen a problem occur from it. Don't sweat it
If it's as big as a nickel it's probably in the valley. Sounds like a good excuse to pull the manifold and perform a "short arm" inspection.
Go to the hardware store and get a cheap spring claw,,you might be able to retrieve the foil without removing the tube,,but it's no big deal to pull the tube. I wouldn't be comfortable with leaving it in the engine. HRP
Don't sweat it. It will lay in the valley or maybe make it in to the pan. The oil pickup screen will stop it from causing any problems.
It's not that hard to pull the intake and get the piece of foil if it made it into the lifter valley. I think the breather tube has a baffle in it so you might pull it out and see if it is caught in there. Look into the lifter valley with the tube out, it might be there if you haven't started the engine.
If you're really concerned about it, that's what I'd do......Ford flatheads and Buick nailheads are the easiest V8s in the world to R&R an intake on.
The big question is. Why did you leave it on the bottle to start with? Is it that big a job to pull it completely off?
Two things - 1. As another says, why were you messing with the "aluminum/plastic (use a magnet, a joke right!!!?) cover that close to the engine anyway...? Remove it "completely" while on the bench, or AWAY from the engine.. 2. Take the intake off and do it right, take it out..! "don't worry about it"....your kidding right..? Mike
obviously you are concerned , the longest fix may the quickest in the end. 15 minutes will have the manifold off and it'll only cost a gasket . fishing around down the tube in the dark might get pretty frustrating fast.
How about pulling the drain plug and drain the new oil into a clean pan. Maybe you get lucky and it went down into the pan and will come out with the oil.
I have used a shop vac and had good luck, start with a clean canister, and choke down the tube to a smaller size and stuff it down the tube. It worked well when i dropped an o ring.
I'm with pulling the fill pipe, and looking in there with a light; if it ca't be fished out with a grab claw, then removing the intake is as easy a job there is on a flatmotor. 4TTRUK
After several attempts to remove the fill pipe and useing a mirror tool to try and locate the piece of foil. I was just fixing to pull the intake. but... Long story short. I took the lazy way out and ignored the problem. I have put 350 miles on it since without any issues... knock on wood.
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