On my 1936 chris craft with a flathead V8, after 2 seasons out on the water I noticed this morning the oil filler lid was loose. Its the flat style lid that swings open, there's a screw, #8-32 nut and the spring that keeps the lid snug that holds it all together to the filler neck. The reason its loose is the nut & spring fell down thru the oil filler into the valley. using a telescopic magnet I was able to fish out the spring...not sure what happened to the nut it doesn't seem to be there in the valley. I'd like to avoid pulling the intake just to find out it fell straight thru an oil drain to the pan. The engine has a pretty good at***ude probably 15-20° angle mounted in the boat tilted to the rear so the nut would have gone down straight to the back and then possibly slid from side to side. I don't know if anything bads going to happen because of the loose nut. What do you think?
I have taken runnung flatheads apart with lots of odd things in the pan (nuts, bolts chunks of srapnel off a cam lobe) didn't seem to affect them. Once they sink to the bottom of the pan they seem to get glued there by oil/sludge.
Don't worry !! Big enough that the OP can't pick it up and small enough that it can't otherwise hurt anything.
My rule, If it goes down the carb, get it out by any means necessary. If it goes down into the oil pan and it can't get ****ed up into the oil pump and it won't jam between the crank/rod and the block leave it alone until you can pull the pan. JMKnight, Nut'n Fitz Hotrods (Big name small shop)
My dad always recommended putting a magnet (the bigger/stronger the better) near the drain plug on my car's oil pan. Won't hurt a thing, and if something made of ferrous metal ever ended up in the pan the magnet would hold it in place away from the oil pickup.
It's easy enought to pull the intake on a flatty.....take the time to check the valley out thoroughly. My $$ is on you finding it there.
You Didn't Drop ****! You just want to show off that *****en Boat. Now show us some better pix, ****er
On that...if you haven't done so already, pull just the fuel pump stand first. That will allow considerable scope fro swinging a magnet tool around. Openings for drainage are pretty well shielded by the tin clip-on baffles, but that is a pretty small nut. Also, it sound like it disappeared at an unknown time...if not in the valley, and if engine has been run, I would say danger has p***ed on by. If it stopped on rotating parts, it has long since been tossed and is sitting harmlessly at the bottom of the sump by now. I would worry more if engine had not been rotated since the drop, but even then it would be unlikely the thing could find a way to obstruct anything.
More pics in his album.... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/album.php?albumid=33008 It gave me wood. Get it? Wood. I kill me. Rich
Thanks fellas for the laughs & input, I don't have the clip-on tin baffles you mentioned, I'll have to look thru my leftovers but I don't recall seeing baffles, engine was in pieces when I got it and I didn't know they were supposed to be in there. Must have ran it 15-20 hours or more since it fell apart, It's real easy on oil so I don't check it every day to know exactly when it fell apart, ran it another 8hrs yesterday, still running fine, oil pressure 50psi cold/35 hot. HA!! Its that flathead I tell you, without that gem of a motor in there its just a pile of old boards. I'll add some new pics to the album, Appreciate ALL your inputs- Doug
I like to sleep at night, so I'd probably spring for a cheap HF borescope, pull the fuel pump stand and have a peek... http://www.harborfreight.com/digital-inspection-camera-67979.html Nice boat BTW. I just had a look at your pics, wow, you've done some work. There are some really good threads about wooden boats on the HAMB, some shots of yours would be right at home if they're not there already.
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