I was changing the valve seals today, and was having trouble getting the little protective cover dealy off one of the valves, so i grabbed a tweasers and popped right off, problem was, it popped right down a lifter bore. I am going to have to drop the pan to get it out?

 

may have to do more than drop the oil pan... u may have to turn the crank over and hope that it falls through.... did u hear it hit the pan or was there oil in it still?

 

theres no oil in the pan, but i didnt hear it hit the pan either, probably because it weighs pretty much nothing

 

have u tried to stick a screw driver n by some luck get it?

if not, i dont see any other way cept to drop your oil pan.... which.. u will have to remove the motor mounts and lift the engine up for clearance from crossmember... exhaust removal may be necessary too...

whenever i do head work, i lay a rag over the lifter vallies and such to avoid that =[

 

i did have a towel in the lifter valley, not sure why i took it out, but needless to say, theres another in there now

 

WTF. dont drop the oil pan yet. disable the ignition, crank it a couple times, hope to high hell that it falls into the oil, and then hope to hell that it falls out with a oil change. if that doesnt work then you may have to go to other extremes.

 

o ya, why did you have the lifters out of the bores?

 

Did you try one of these little tools? They even make flexable little mini light that you can stick down in there to see.

Ron

 

i have one of those things, but i have absolutely no idea where the thing is. i pulled the motor up a bit and didnt see anything on the top of the pan and snaked my hand in there and couldnt find anything in the bottom. ill try and pour some oil through everything and see if it comes out tomorrow. if not, the thing seems like it would melt relatively quick, so could i just run the motor til it gets warm, then change the oil and hope for the best? the lifters were out because im also installing a new cam.

 

Protective cover over the valve? You mean the little plastic sleeve that slides over the valve stem to prevent cutting the new seals when installing them?

Fell down a lifter bore? You have the intake off and lifters out?

If that's the case, there should be no problem fishing it out or pushing it into the oil pan. If it is in the pan, you shouldn't have much to worry about. It won't go past the oil pump pickup screen and certainly shouldn't get picked up by the crank. It's only plastic...