so i was installing some new valve covers and ended up dropping a cylindrical washer that came with the setup down a hole in the head... im not sure how to get it out, if it matters, or what needs to come off to get in there.. please help

attached is a pic of the hole it went down

 

Get a telescoping magnet from your local auto parts store and start fishing around to get it. If that doesn't work you will have to take the intake manifold off to get at it.

A magnet will work 99% of the time.

 

If you can see the washer in the hole, you can try using one of those extendable magnetic pickup tools to grab it.

If not, you'll need to drain the coolant and remove the intake manifold to get to it. That's assuming it didn't fall down the oil drain back holes.

 

lol i tried a magnet on one of the spare ones i have.... its obviously not metal because it wont stick.... and i just put a whole new intake manifold setup on lol i really have to take the whole thing off again?, will my gaskets be ok? it hasnt been fired yet

 

I posted on your TPI post

 

If its an alum taper washer, your only solution is to pull the intake and fish it out

 

Delete

 

Man that sucks.Ttry to get eyes on it and pick it out of there. becareful you don't knock it deeper in the motor if you do see it.

 

i was able to get in there since it was the back one of course and could actually see it, however it was caught under a lip tried everything eventually was having some luck with a cut coat hanger... until i did just that knocked it down so i cant see it at all now ........fml

in the mean time ive almost got it all off down to the intake again... kind of got side tracked removing my AIR system..

 

around here ,we refer to that as "dave luck". man I hope you can find it. if you were to leave it in there it would probably hurt something bad.

 

got it out thank god! thanks for the help... to bad i had to pull everything i had just put on a few days before to get it... i guess it really wanted me to know how to do an intake job like the back of my hand lol!

 

Way to stay positive about it lol...

 

Don't feel bad.

I assembled my motor in the garage and did everything "right" and "Perfect".

Then when I went to start assembling stuff I realized that I had put the Pass head, on the Driver side and vice versa. And while the heads themselves are universal, all of the pipe plug fittings and such are not. I tried to remove the pipe plugs and everything just plain stripped out. So now I have to pull the heads, just to swap them to the other side of the block.

 

The only difference AFAIK is the temp sensor is on the wrong side. The first engine I put in my car had this done by the PO. I just took the temp sensor wire out of the harness and rerouted it to the passenger side. It was long enough to do this without splicing or adding wire. If you think about it, this is a better place for it, since there is less coolant flow at the back of the heads.

 

Except I didn't mention its an LT1 with steam tubes in the back.

 

Well, that just sucks LOL. Chalk it up to a learning experience?

 

Yes, will consider the pipe plugs and such in the future. THankfully, I don't have to drill them out and re-tap them. I can just swap the heads to the opposite side and re-assemble top end.

The only sucky part is the heads had additional material welded in due to porting. The heads have been opened up ALOT. And I had to use a file and grind down one of the ports outside walls because the pushrod was touching. The aluminum is paper thin in that area EEP. But oh so pretty.



Stock vs Not Stock ports.