Okay, I confess I have no buisness under the hood of the car. i plugged the distributor hole with paper towels, and I was attempting to put the oil pressure fitting back in, dropped it, and it fell next to the distributor right into one of the holes and down the motor. No problem, I could see it, so I tried to grab it with one of those three prong grabby things, and to no avail. I picked it up a little bit and it fell even further into the motor. So now I figure I have two option to save my can, pull the oil pan or pull the motor. Is it worth it to even bother pulling the oil pan. I need to get this thing out of the motor by around 6 pm tonite, your help is appreciated. I made fun of my father for doing the exact same thing, and beleive you me, its worth it to spend 8 hours in there today rather than listen to the lecture about being stupid.

 

It's too big to fall down into the oil pan. All the holes that go there are much smaller.It will stay in the lifter area.

Just pop the intake off, it will be sitting right there.

 

i'd think you would stand a good chance of moving it to where you can grab it by using a coat hanger or something similar.

 

Oh no, it fell in with the intake off. I cant see it at all. Its down in the block. Its in the hole to the left of the distributor in the block. COuld it have fallen down that far. I wish it was only in the lifter valley. I tried to grab it but merely knocked it in further.

 

find something really firm and bang ur head into it. thats what i'd do.

 

I dropped a washer down there a while ago. Just get a telescoping magnet from a parts store and fish around until you get it. You could also drain the oil and see if it comes out the oil pan drain hole.

 

I'm with 89gta383. Get the magnet. If your fitting is brass I don't know if it will pick it up.

 

OK, duh, you're talking about the fitting, not the SU itself..... considerably smaller.....

A magnet of course won't work since it's brass.

Rotate the motor and see if it spins. It it does, it's not caught in the rods, and has made it all the way to the bottom of the pan. If it does stop the crank, rotate it backwards and forwards until it falls the rest of the way down. Breathe a sigh of relief, because about the worst thing it will ever do there is reduce the system oil capacity by ¼ of an ounce or so.

 

I was able to rotate the crankshaft pulley a bit, and i got it about 1/4 of a turn around (judging by the mark on the balancer). Then it stopped, and i couldnt budge it by turning the pulley by hand or the belt i rigged up to it. all the accesories are currently disconnected from the motor. should i try to push it farther, or has it gone enough to say its safe with that 3" piece of brass doen there. If it falls to the pan, do I have to pull it out (im assuming yes) or do can I leave it in there? I currently have a high volume oil pump on the motor, so I dont know if it would be safe to leave it there. I really appreciate the help, the fitting is nowhere to be seen as of yet. I drained the pan, and all i got was cold 20w-50 oil and no fitting. I dont think it would fit through that hole anyways.

 

Rotate the motor backwards like RB said. Then forwards..keep doing it until you can spin it past where you couldn't before, then it's in the bottom of the pan. The oil pump won't suck it up, and the crank will never touch it. It will just sit there.

 

Right... when it falls all the way down, it's out of harm's way, and will just live down there peacefully for the duration.

 

Is there an easier way of rotating the crank than frabbing onto the pulley and twisting it? Im not sure if its stuck or if its compression keeping me from turning it further because i swear if i give up for 20 minutes I can then turn it a little further.

 

Can pull the spark plugs.

RBob.

 

Okay, pulled the plugs, got to rotate it real easy one time around, now its jammed. move it like 40 degrees (realtion to balancer) one way or the other before it stops. Any ideas on how to free it? I worry its large enough now where its stuck between two different ones. Oh well, with all thats off the engine now, pulling the motor looks like the simplest thing if it wont come out. May be a good time to have it rebuilt to I dont want to rebuild it now, but if gets pulled, its going back in as a 383.

 

Guy, I feel for ya'. This is the kind of stuff that drives one to . . .(insert favorite whatever).

An idea, use a piece of bent coat hanger wire (or such) and see if you can just knock the piece down out of the way. May have to fish around for a while.

I almost want to tell you to just pick up the engine and shake it.

Even if it takes a bit of time and perseverance it sure beats pulling the motor. Hang in there.

RBob.

 

Well, I went out there, took it back and forth a few times and voila it moved and the fuel pump shot fuel all over the place. Then I could turn it and it would stop, and I realized that it was just hard to get all that crap moving again. I can rotate the crank now once i get it going fine and simply. Doesnt seem to be jammed anymore. Oh well, gonna fire it up, drive it and hope for the best. It should be safe, I just dont like the idea of 3" of brass tubing in the bottom of the motor, but I dont want to pull the motor.

After I pulled the plugs it was much easier to turn. Sometimes common sense escapes me. I should be safe now, I hope. I can turn the crank around and around, everything goes smoothly. I didnt hear anything hit the pan, but there was quite a bit of oil in the pan (20W-50 thats 35 degrees, no way anywhere near all of it drained, would deafen the noise, of course with all the swearing I doubt I couldve heard anything anyways.)

Of course now I see a missing valve cover nut and Im getting all paranoid.

Wish me luck when I crank the motor over for the first time. I think next time I will tie stuff to my fingers so I cant drop them in.