Oh dear oh dear,washer down the inlet manifold....

[rumpelstiltskin]

Fitted a Weber carburettor to a friend of mines Scirocco,after fitting it flew,even i was surprised as i'd fitted one to mine a year or so ago and his really was transformed,anyway,he came to my door and said the car had started 'rattling' and came to a halt,eek i thought,he then said he took off the chrome part of the K&N filter i fitted to the top of the carb and a screw and a washer had come loose and vibrated out,but the design of the carb meant the screw and the washer would have to have jumped about an inch to get down the bloody carb which they duly did.Took carb off and the screw had settled in the inlet heater of the manifold but i fear the washer may have made it's way into the combustion chamber,how bad can this be?I prefer a washer to a bolt going down so im taking the manifolds off to try and put a bendy magnetic wire through the ports to the chambers,anyone any tips or advice?

[joospeed]

I had to rectify a similar scenario on an Aston DBS Straight Six Vantage (ouch!) .. weber trumpet bolt had gone inside cylinder 6.

After taking the head off the damage to the chamber looked like the lunar surface, but no holes .. result! .. got the valve seats recut, two new valves from the Aston Workshop, rebuild and the owner sold it on

All in the job was under a grand and the owner felt very lucky at having *got away* with it.

[Boosted LS1]

If it's gone in there I'd expect a rattle or it could be jamming the valve open. Have you checked there is a rattle and turned the engine over by hand whilst watching what the valves are doing. Are you certain that's where it went in the first place?

Boosted.

[rumpelstiltskin]

Well basically he said the car just stopped with a rattling noise,he tried to restart it but the rattling made him stop,the screw and washer definetly must have gone down the carb as basically they didn't have space to go anywhere else.I don't really want to try turning car over,i just wanted to really try and help him and get in there to try and get his car up and running again.I will turn it over by hand tomorrow and shine a light in the inlet ports and check down the plug holes at the same time and see how i get on,this guy must be the unluckiest guy in the world,the problems he has are just unbelievable,his father is ill,his car breaking down today actually averted him from being involved in a 7 car pile up today the police said,they piled into one another right beside him lol,oh and just to finish his day off his mother was mugged coming out of the hairdressers around the corner,i think i'll immigrate,don't want any of this rubbing off on me!

>> Edited by rumpelstiltskin on Wednesday 8th December 22:32

[eliot]

My dad fixes dropped valves or washers for that matter:

Before:

After:

[YarisSi]

That is impressive. I have no mechanical knowledge but that looks like brand new.

[eliot]

It gets welded up, remachined and then sand-blasted - hence why it looks like new.

This is only viable on rare or unobtainable heads (typically classic's) as its all done by hand.

[rumpelstiltskin]

Just a quick follow up to this washer down the carb drama,i said to hell with it and tried taking the manifold off and i was going to use an extendable magnet on a wire to fish it out,as per usual one bolt i could not shift,it was one which actually held on the inlet and the exhaust manifold!I tried for 8 hours to get the little bugger out but it just would not shift,after i had run out of swear words i decided to have a second look down the plug holes,the fourth plug i took out i noticed one of the arms by the electrode(Bosch triple jobbie)was bent right in,mmm i thought,is this trying to tell me something,after fishing in the plughole about 15 times on the 16th occasion a hear a little click,yeeeehhaaa!It was the washer and i think i was quite lucky too,it dawned on me before i took the plugs out the washer would be too tight a fit to come out the hole,but as luck would have it the washer was bent in half and nicely flattened!Now i just have to keep my fingers crossed all is well when i put the carb and stuff back on.

[eliot]

Hopefully it dosn't look like the photo above..

[Julian64]

D'ya know, every so often a hospital has to change its endosopes. They have an expected life and afterward are just thrown away as they can no longer be used for medicine.

I have my name on one by a friend who works as a surgeon for the next time this happens. It will be just the ticket for this sort of jobby, especially as you can fit scissors/grappers to the end of them

[eliot]

As long as it hasn't been up someone's backside !

[Fatboy]

eliot said:

As long as it hasn't been up someone's backside !

It's for groping around in an engine - not stuffing up your nose FFS!