Technical What would you guys do?

Aint working on old cars fun ! Im a hack so Id turn it over a bunch by hand, if all feels ok Id run it. A big magnet on the pan sounds like a good idea too. Then I would never ever mention it here...

 

If you don't find it in the oil you drain out, pour the oil back in through the dist hole and it may get rinsed down into the pan. Drain and check again.

Gary

 

That's a great idea! No harm in trying it!

 

Geez good luck,hope things work out for you.Keep us posted.

 

its been twenty three hours since the first post.
unless this is a special case the engine could have been pulled and put back by now.

 

I'd guess the assumption is that its in the pan. If it made it that far, its probably going to be OK. My concern is that it didn't make it to the pan. The thought of it bouncing around in the spinning motor and getting bounced up into the cam & lifter area isn't very pretty to my perspective.

But like posted earlier, I got no dog in this fight, maybe it will be OK.

After you dump the drained oil through the motor again, if it doesn't show up, I might consider turning the motor 90 degrees by hand, and dumping the oil through it again. You can play that game a few time before the new camera arrives, and it doesn't cost much. Enough flushing might get it to the pan. That small of a screw might hang up on the nut plate the drain plug threads into. Maybe a small bent piece of wire might help retrieve it.

 

I'd just shut the hood and go find another hobby.

 

Couldn't have pulled the motor out of my coupe nor my truck in the last 24 hours, even if I started pulling it before I first posted the question. Everything on the front of both has to come off to get to the motor.

 

If it spun out of the shaft and got stuck in the cam lube goo on a lobe, it could be a disaster waiting to happen.

Gary

 

IF it is in the pan you're probably ok. Can you live with the IF? Lots of good advice here by guys who know these motors, I am not one of them. That being said, compressed air through the distributor hole with the drain out of the pan? Try to walk it to the he drain hole by sliding magnets around on the pan? Is the screw even magnetic?

 

Running an extension magnet is a PIA inside something like that. I wonder if there’s some flexible “electromagnet” that could be put in, wiggled around, then turned on, pulled out and off, and repeat.
Even if it was a 100/200 dollar item, it’d be worth a shot instead of taking the car 1/2 apart to pull the engine.

 

Yep. Silence.

Ben

 

UPDATE:
Got that little sucker!
Flushed the motor 3 times with oil and it still didn't come out. Screw it.....out comes the motor! Wasn't too much of a pain 'cause there's no front sheet metal on the car.



Dropped the pan and there it was sitting in a far corner.......



That tiny little screw could have caused a lot of damage! Glad I got it. Tomorrow the motor/trans go back in. Moving forward!

 

Good deal.
Thanks for the follow up.

 

Ditto.

 

Now you will have a good night sleep!

 

Note to self:

Do not prime oil pump with attachments assembled with set screws. Or anything else that might fall apart.

Thank you for the lesson.
Sorry it took you some time and work for you to teach it to us.

 

Happy to hear you got it

 

glad you got it!

Right !
I get an old distributor and grind the gear smooth. Put the drill where the rotor goes.

 

Glad you found it. It would have bothered me every time I started engine or went for a drive. Somehow the worse possible things happen at the most inopportune times and this is now something you don’t have to worry about.

 

I think we will all rest easier now.
seriously

 

Great news! Score one for the good guys.
I liked the idea of the speaker magnet. If you don't have one, go to Best Buy or some other audio service/installer and ask. Then get under there and with a couple of sheets of copy paper in one hand so you don't scratch the pan paint, drag the magnet with the other hand in a classic search pattern toward the drain. Should be mostly downhill.
Vegas odds say it's in the pan. So figure what's the best way to fish it out.
Anyway, like the A-Team guy said, "I love it when a plan comes together".

 

You Da Man

 

Looking at the current state of assembly of the car now, I cant believe it took you so long to just pull the damn motor out!!!!
Literally four bolts and a cherry picker!!!

 

Seeing the lack of sheet metal I would have pulled it , otherwise I would have left it. It's S.O.P. to leave dropped Oil pan driveshafts in small block Fords, I wouldn't have sweated a set screw .

 

Well that's one less thing to worry about then. But how did that dime get in there?

 

Excellent!!!!

 

Sweating this one

 

I showed up late, but while reading I thought the choice was time, or time and money.

 

2 nights ago I woke up in a sweat, 3am, it felt so real. I thought what if this fuckin topic jinxed my diesel? What if that little dowel gets all up in dat ass? Ok I'm full of shit. It was over an argument with Mrs Highlander about what color floor mats for the 39.

But, HUZAAH! AWESOME! GOOD FOR YOU! HIT THE REV LIMITER, DAMN THE TORPEDOES, FULL STEAM AHEAD!!