Hey all, my first post. Removed the 4barrel with pops to do a rebuild after car has been mostly sitting for 10 years. Research I've done let me know to be careful not to drop anything down the intake. Removed the 4 nuts, lifted one side of carb each and was taken out of engine bay. There I noticed a washer fall off and onto the inner wheel well, I quickly grabbed 2 remaining washers stuck to mounting points of carb. Searched the engine bay and found the 3rd washer on the ground, under drivers side of cab. I am still missing the 4th washer and fear it rolled far into the intake. Ive run a telescopic pen magnet where it will fit in the intake manifold. Next I will remove each spark plug and feel around with the magnet there. The only other step I can think to take is draining the water and removing the manifold. I've searched the engine bay, blown it out with my compressor and even gone as far to get on the front bumper and bounce the hell out of the front suspension see if it shakes loose onto the ground to no success. Its just as likely it fell somewhere else and is not in the engine but thats a costly gamble, its much cheaper to pull an intake than pull an engine. I am sure there were 4 washers, made evident by washer sized grooves left on carb and pictures I had taken. Please help with any suggestions, input or wisdom any you might have on steps I can take so I can start the bird back up safely? If I can rest easy its not going to grenade my engine then that little guy can live rent free in a crevice or body fold. Thanks in advance for taking a look at my post!
Did you check under the intake, on top of the valley pan? I've found all kinds of dropped treasures there before. Air cleaner wing nuts bits of vacuum hose etc..
Pulling the intake is not a big and would be prudent before firing the motor.
Get a camera snake to see if you can locate it. Send pic of washer. Is the washer magnetic?
If you have not started the car you should be ok The engine is going to try and eat it in the combustion chamber. Some [censored] put a rock down my carb. It banged around in the cylinder until it broke up and left the chamber thru a valve. Will washer fit thru intake and exhaust valves? If no, then open her up.
1. Take off carb and try to find it and extract it. 2. Not found, Take intake off, look for washer 3. Not found, Take head(s) off
There are a seemingly endless number of places a washer can hide. I've dropped various washers, nuts, bolts etc... seen exactly where they went... and never found them! Valley pan was a great suggestion. Good mouse nest site too! But if you are really concerned it is in the intake then take it off and look. It won't be in the top of the cylinders so skip the spark plug routine. Taking off the intake isn't that big of a deal. IN this case annoying.
Thanks for the input all. I haven’t had too much time to get out there with the California fires and ash snowing everywhere but today I made progress. I was able to borrow an endoscope and tablet from work and pulled the intake today. Ran the camera through the ports and found nothing. I’m a bit intimidated by pulling the heads off, not something I’ve done before and I don’t have space to lay out the parts as I’d like to. Not to say I’m in the clear but After running the scope down the ports and finding nothing I’m tempted to button it back up, hold my breath and turn it over. Unless any of you think that may be a big mistake? It’s the original 350 that came with the car w/ 87000 mi and I understand there is a gamble even still. Although my goal is to eventually swap, that is currently not in my budget. Washer is magnetic
Maybe stick the scope into the spark plug holes since you have the scope handy. Its not likely, but if it happened to fall down the intake runner with an open intake valve it could have slid into the cylinder. What are the odds though?
Maybe stick the scope into the spark plug holes since you have the scope handy. Its not likely, but if it happened to fall down the intake runner with an open intake valve it could have slid into the cylinder. What are the odds though?