Willl it be ok?

[Pilt]

When removing my spark plugs a bit of old rust and dirt fell into the cylinder. But only a small amount

Will this effect my engine? Its A series mini engine.

[Alan420]

It really depends how big we're talking and where it lands.

If it lands in the middle of a piston and is small enough to fit out the exhaust valve I wouldn't worry too much, if it's quite hefy and wedged itself in the gap between piston-ring and cylinder bore you may scrape the bore and loose some compression.

That'd accelerate the process of engine wear for that cylinder as high-pressure gasses passing by the seals will erode it quite badly.

Is there any way of removing it without starting the car?

Small magnet on a string, blue tack on a stick or something?

Please bear in mind that my only qualification to talk about cars is the fact I've read this forum a bit - so don't take my advice until someone else here confirms what I'm saying!

Good luck!

[Pilt]

Cheers, it was only very fine rust particles but i thought it best to check

[Alan420]

Particals won't be an issue. I had part of a plug core drop into my calaviler (snapped when I took it off), I think it just got obliterated on the first combustion cycle.

In any event the car's done a few miles since then and it's still going...

[Chris_N]

I think you'd be pretty unlucky to have a problem, though if it was a highly tuned engine built at great expense I might just err on the side of caution and whip the head off. If it's an everyday engine I'd risk it.

As an aside, reminds me of the time I'd just finished a top end rebuild on my girlfriends Golf GTI and was refitting the cam belt. I was using a old bic biro in the spark plug hole to check for TDC (you can tell I'm a bodger! ) and didn't pay enough attention as I turned the engine over by hand. Next thing I know, snap, half a biro in the cylinder! Had to take the head off again to fish it out.

Chris

[deltaf]

Take a small length of vacuum hose, and attach it to your moms vacuum cleaner(ask first, they can get uppity) and proceed to vacuum out any particles that may have dropped in the cylinder. It may not remove all the crap that dropped in, but itll be as good as.
Have fun.

[danny hoffman]

You could try compressed air.

Alternatively whip all the plugs out - turn the engine over gently by hand to make sure nothing is catching. Then turn on the starter motor and it will be fired out of the plug hole at high speed hopefully

Danny

[Toffer]

deltaf said: Take a small length of vacuum hose, and attach it to your moms vacuum cleaner(ask first, they can get uppity) and proceed to vacuum out any particles that may have dropped in the cylinder. It may not remove all the crap that dropped in, but itll be as good as.
Have fun.

My brother did this, sucked up petrol fumes and blew my mums Hoover to pieces Spectacular, but really scary at the time!



>> Edited by Toffer on Saturday 19th April 16:01

[Alan420]

Toffer said:

deltaf said: Take a small length of vacuum hose, and attach it to your moms vacuum cleaner(ask first, they can get uppity) and proceed to vacuum out any particles that may have dropped in the cylinder. It may not remove all the crap that dropped in, but itll be as good as.
Have fun.

My brother did this, sucked up petrol fumes and blew my mums Hoover to pieces Spectacular, but really scary at the time!



>> Edited by Toffer on Saturday 19th April 16:01

And the nomination for this years Darwin award...