Short story shorter. I now have the tip of a steel screwdriver inside my #1 cylinder (2.8l v6).

How do I get it out with minimal effort? I don't have much more energy or patience to waste on this car.

 

One could ask how you did that but I won't. My best advice is to try a small magnet on a telescoping rod. If that doe not work then if you could find a samll magnet with a hole in the center you might try tying a stought string to it. If the magnet was to come off the string then either the telescoping magnet to get it out or the worst case scenario of pulling a head. Sorry, but there is no real easy good way of doing this.
I have seen people that were desperate and carefully bend there telescoping magnet with succes also but it was never collapsable again.
Good Luck

 

Perhaps I can drill a hole in a magnet, and tie it to an auger snake or some such...

 

They also make a small magnet on a flexible copper rod that can be bent to any shape. I have one and find it handy for extracting small metal parts from tight spots.

 

Maybe vacuum it out; adapt a tube (small enough to fit into the spark plug hole / large enough to 'throat' the FOD) to a shop vac and fish around inside the cylinder.

 

In this case , I wonder if it would make the retreival of the screwdriver bit easier to carefully bring the piston to the bottom of the cylender , rather than to have the piston at the top .

If ya think about the geometery of trying to get the magnet to take an abrupt bend after it's in the plug hole vs just reaching almost straight down (with the piston at BDC) , it would seem an easier path to travel .

I hope what I am describing makes some kind of sense .

 

Well, now I think I got it stuck between the piston and exhaust or intake or something. Tried rotating it a little bit at a time to get easier access to it, couldn't get it out (it IS magnetic, and I have a couple magnets in vinyl tubing with a flexible wire in it, should pick it up no problem), and now it won't rotate, meaning something has got it stuck...




So, anyone know how I can move my engine in reverse? Or should I just turn the engine over until it blows to just **** everything and get a 305 or 350? (which I don't have the money for, I also don't have the money to take the ****er to a shop)

 

DO NOT turn the motor over with the ignition. Get a socket on the crank bolt and rotate the motor my hand, you can then turn it backwards.
What I would do is as the other have suggested. Bring the piston as high as possible before the bit gets sandwiched. Then get either a magnet or wire and fish it out. That is your best bet short of pulling the head.

 

I didn't crank it with the ignition, I did it by hand. Very carefully. And still sandwiched it (or something).

Also, I can't get it to turn backwards, the bolt just comes out. And I can't get it to go backwards by hand either (manually spinning cranks and belts).

I think I'm going to have to pull off the head. Anyone got a good guide/video showing how to do that? I can figure it out without one I'm sure, I just like the insurance of having seen it done before.

 

I would pull all the other plugs out and then spin by hand. Without all the compression the motor should spin over no problem.
Not sure if you have pulled a head or not, but it is more work than one thinks. I would try to fish it out before pulling it.
I also like the idea of vacuuming it out.

 

Ah, good tip. Never thought of pulling the plugs. If I can't get it out in the next few days I'll pull the head. As I don't need to have the car running immediately (I can use my motorcycle to get around and do what I need for now until it snows in a couple months).

 

Took the spark plugs out, turned it back a little bit. Used a telescoping magnet with swivel end and got the tip of the screwdriver out. It was about 1" long actually.

Also, replaced the ICM that tested good, and it runs perfectly now.

Thanks for the advice.

 

I am sure I can speak for others when I say we are glad you got it out and it is running good again. Thanks for giving us the update.

 

Glad to hear.

 

Hey, I was wondering if I got something stuck in this cylinder and I can't rotate it at the top dead center, because the piece is sitting on top of the pist, and it won't allow it to go all the way up, so my question isTaking apart this, the timing and everything is that a smart idea without it being completely synced up. Timing marks all aligned

 

Your question makes no sense...

 

Not sure what "timing marks" and all that, has to do with the issue at hand. Much less "taking apart this".

Don't take ANYTHING apart except for removing the spark plug. Bring that cyl to TDC using your borescope through the plug hole, watching for the foreign matter. When you can see it, use a magnetic device of some sort in the hole, to capture it. Assuming of course that the foreign matter is iron-based. If it's not iron you might have to get creative at capturing it.

 

The piece that's in the on top of the piston, it's not magnatic an because the engine sits on a tilt it slide back aginst the cylinder wall.and it's too wide to come outside of the spark plug hole. I can't rotate the engine. The top bed center to pull the cylinder head off cus i cant get the timing marks to aligned. I tried vacuuming using the little claw device But it's just being difficult.

 

It's going to be difficult. Keep going at it with vacuum through spark plug hole, the internet cannot do this for you.
Just do it.

 

That kinda sorta looks like a valve spring retainer to me, but I have no good idea of how it could have found it's way into the cylinder

Unless, , , perhaps, the (two) retainers failed in holding the valve/spring assembly together, and that one retainer somehow miraculously fell down into the valve guide hole after the valve itself fell into the cylinder

I know, I know, , , we're talkin billion to one odds here, but that pic sure looks like a valve spring retainer, and a valve in the cylinder would be a great reason for not being able to turn the engine

Other than that, I got nothin............

 

It actually looks a little like a reverse image of a valve keeper, and that doesn't seem logical since a keeper would be a lot harder than the top of an aluminum piston, and also would be unlikely to embed in a cast iron head.

You might be onto something though.

 

It's a valve keeper. It's magnetic.

Still not understanding all this chatter and concern about "timing marks". THOSE DON'T MATTER. The piece isn't looking at them and deciding accordingly whether it will come out. Just bring that piston up to where it's reachable with a magnet that you can stick in through the spark plug hole.

Problem of course is, the block and head are magnetic too; which makes it tougher to control a magnet as you try to stick it into there. Maybe something else sticky; even chewing gum might do the trick.

Another strategy might be to pop the intake and that side valve cover off, compress the valve spring as far as possible to allow the valve to open, and vacuum it out through the intake port.

And FORGET ABOUT "rotate the engine", except as far as getting it up near the top.

 

Thanks for all the insight. This piece was wedged in between the valve of cylinder #1. I was able to knock it inside of the cylinder, thinking it would be easy to retrieve. I started to disassemble the engine. And came to realize that i can't rotate the engine.to get camshaft& crank to aline there timing marks an crankshaft TDC cus of this piece, preventing the piston from going all the way up fouri full engine rotation.

 

I noticed you are a brand new member here. Sometimes when searching the Internet trying to find solutions to car problems people end up here not realizing this forum is specific to 1982 to 1992 Chevy Camaros and Pontiac Firebirds. You didn't fill out your member profile page with the information about what car you have and what drivetrain it has. You also didn't mention it in your first post here.

Just so the members here know what you and they are dealing with and can better help you can you tell us what the car and engine you have is?

I got a sneaky feeling you might be on the wrong forum for the car you have.

 

I don't think that it matters what kind of car it is. I agree that the guy has a keeper in the cylinder and to me, that is a problem that is year/make/model irrelevant.

I agree that it's ferrous and a magnet should grab it. I suspect that it's "stuffed" into the piston head and needs to be dislodged first, then caught w/a magnet. I'd fish it out w/the pisten at BDC, to give myself a better angle and range of motion with my magnet.

 

What I'm getting at is that doesn't look like a SBC piston and the sparkplug hole has threads on it a mile long and he tripping ***** about getting timing marks aligned on his engine. I don't know what a Pontiac "Iron Duke" 2.5L I4 engine piston or sparkplug hole threads look like nor do I know what they look like on a Chevy 2.8L/3.1L 60 degree V6 either. I do know that all of these engines are cam in block old school pushrod engines and it doesn't make a bit of difference where any of the timing marks are at to to pull the intake and heads.

I just want him and everyone trying to help him to be on the same page and know what they are dealing with.

I'd done have whatever it is in there sucked out by now using the set of attachments that came with my car detailing Shop-vac and a hose stuck on the end of one of the small round attachments and down the sparkplug hole.

 

YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THAT.

Not sure how many times you have to be told. YOU DON'T NEED TO WORRY ABOUT THAT. Just bring the piston up high enough that The Thing is visible, butt still free to move about; and THEN attack getting it out.

If the "timing marks" are "out of place" then that's A WHOLE OTHER matter, unrelated to "piece". Get the piece out, FIRST. FORGET ABOUT "timing" and "marks" and all that other CRAP. Just concentrate on GET THE PIECE OUT. Then, and ONLY THEN, if all that other crap has been disturbed, maybe we can help. In the meantime, DON'T WORRY ABOUT "TIMING". Just get the piece out. If "timing" hasn't been disturbed along the way, then once "piece" is gone, it'll still be right where it always was. Put all that out of your mind. Fugheddaboudit. Not germane to the problem at hand.

 

I agree with Airwolfe here, I'm betting this ain't any kind of GM third gen F body, and the reason he's "tripping *****" is that he's got it into his head that he'll need to take the head off (the engine's, not his own, hopefully) and he's afraid of not having the timing marks lined up so as to not lose the timing on the overhead cam this likely has. Not again that that should matter, an overhead cam engine ain't all that much more difficult to time than one with the cam in the block. As Sofa has said (a few times, , , and apparently wasn't listened to) the "timing" "tdc" and none of that matters toward getting the damn piece outta the cylinder, EVEN if it ends up that the head has to come off......

Tripping *****, , , , I am SO stealing that......