CVR_Rally

More of a venting post...

So I was setting up to set the timing on my freshly rebuilt 944S engine and when adjusting the magnetic dial gauge holder I hear tink...tink..tink..and barely notice something bouncing around the cylinder head then down the oil return tube it went.

I don't even know what the part was other than something on one of the adjuster arms of the mount

I stuck my borescope down the hole...I don't see anything. My flex magnet is too large to fit so I've ordered a smaller one in hopes it does.

Other than that I'm going to have to drain the oil into a clean container and see if I can fish it out with a magnet.

Fun times!

V2Rocket

just think of it as ballast, or giving your 944 a keel of extra mass all the way down low

i've found inch long bolts in oil pans before...

KEVIN ANDERSON

You should angle the engine so it has to flow out of the oil drain plug hole. Shake the engine back and forth to get the part that fell in moving. It would stink if it doesn't come out in the oil and you have to drop the oil pan. Or get the strongest magnet you can find and use it to try and move the part to the drain hole. Your borescope can go in the drain hole to see the thing if it doesn't drain out then you can use the flexible magnet to get it out. The valve in my 951 wastegate came out and was somewhere along the exhaust system. I got a strong magnet and slid the valve to the end of the dump pipe then out of the main exhaust pipe. I will be using one of those tools for the first time pretty soon when I put more aggressive cams in my 944S2. So far, I have yet to feel the joy of having a completely clean and beautiful rebuilt engine in my presence. I've rebuilt tons of heads and painted the cam housings and the heads to make them all pretty, but I haven't had a rebuilt engine bolted to an engine stand that was mine. I'm in the process now of buying all of the pieces to build a shortblock and use the head that I rebuilt last year with a Web Camshaft, new Web valve springs and some nice port work. That head is in the car now. I want this shortblock to be perfect so I'm taking my time putting it together.

CVR_Rally

LOL well I drained the oil and nothing. I think it's sitting on the baffle. It must be so small that it passed right through everything although part of me now wonders if it ever actually went down the hole and didn't end up somewhere else.
At this point I'm so tired of it that I finished timing the engine and will just put the oil back in and run it, then drain again so see if it flushed it back out.

951and944S

The oil return passages in the block are larger than the girdle when it mates up with the block to continue the passage.

Possible it was big enough to fall all the way to the girdle and stop there..

BTW, is your best guess that it was near the front, middle or rear of the head that you think you saw it bounce last..?

T

CVR_Rally

Looking at all my pre-assembly photos it would have landed directly on the top of the oil pan baffle.

CVR_Rally

Got it out!

Dan Shea

what was it?

CVR_Rally

I small metal sleeve that was part of the innards of the magnetic dial gauge holder's arm adjustment. She's all back and running much better with proper timing.

On a side note I may have to tighten some exhaust bolts, replace/test my TPS and replace the coolant expansion tank with one I can actually see into.

KevinGross

Phew! A relief for sure.

Wisconsin Joe

It's not your car.
I do believe there's a corollary to Murphy's Law something to the effect of:

Gravity increases in the vicinity of openings in direct proportion to the difficulty of removing anything that falls into them.