debris inside cylinder head

[Bill]

Hello
I was working on a 04 blazer 4.3 vortex when a very small tip of a screw driver broke off and went down into the #1 cylinder fuel port! I set the motor to tdc and removed the lower intake but can not locate it. I tried probing around with a magnetic rod and tried fishing it out thru the spark plug hole with no luck! Any one have any tricks I can try ! Thanks

Topic

[Ingvar]

Yuck!!!
Pray it will simply burn from combustion. Or, get stuck somewhere safe.
Otherwise….. It will either be your luck, or a long scar on cylinder wall. You have too much magnetic metal in there to use magnet picker.
Well, no, that won’t work. Short of head removal, I can’t possibly imagine what else to do. Blow with compressed air and hope it’ll pop out? A vacuum cleaner flexible nozzle connected to strong shop vac?

[Bill]

I thought about the shop vac or trying to flush it out with water

[Bryan Carter]

[quote=”billblazer04″ post=108753]…flush it out with water[/quote]
You probably don’t want to do that.

[Bill]

You’re right I don’t want to do that!

[Jamie]

You need 2 things. A bendy straw, and a wad of chewing gum. Enjoy the gum first and then jam it into the short end of the straw. Now go cylinder fishing for debris. Works pretty good.

[EricTheCarGuy]

[quote=”JS” post=108762]You need 2 things. A bendy straw, and a wad of chewing gum. Enjoy the gum first and then jam it into the short end of the straw. Now go cylinder fishing for debris. Works pretty good.[/quote]

I like this idea. I’m going to have to try that at some point.

It really depends on how big the part is. If it’s not that big you might not worry about it. It will probably get sent out the exhaust.

Please keep us updated on your progress.

[Bill]

Many years ago the same thing happened to me and I took a chance. The tiny piece of screw driver ended up stuck into the top of a piston. It sounded like the engine was gonna explode.

Luckily, it didn’t damage anything but I had to remove the cylinder head to retrieve the broken screwdriver piece.

Moral of the story is if you can’t find it, either take a chance or remove the cylinder head.

You know what decision I would make knowing what I know now.

[Bill]

Would I have a better chance of finding it by removing the exhaust manifold?. Thanks for the help

[Bill]

I have a mobil mechanic coming over to put a camera in the head to try and locate it??? Does that make sence to you

[John Hugon]

Yes, those scopes work very well …I have one and it’s a great tool. I wish I would have seen this post before…I would have recommended one.

[Rafael Hedrick]

We were at a mechanic shop one time and he asked us if we wanted to see something. This was a ford and I believe it was part of spark had fallen in the cylinder and was sitting on top of the piston . (He said this was a common problem when removing them.) The ignition system was disconnected and he turned it over and it shot it right out of the piston!!

[Bill]

Yeah….that’s a great idea. I really hope you find it.

[Bill]

I guess the spark plugs go directly on top of the piston

[Rafael Hedrick]

[quote=”billblazer04″ post=109085]I guess the spark plugs go directly on top of the piston[/quote]

That’s how I understood it the way he was explaining it.

[Bill]

update to my problem. i had someone put i camera down into the engine.he found the tip of the screw driver but could not fish it out. he also said that it looks like the piston has a crack in the top of it.not sure what to do but he did tell me the head would have to be removed to get the the screw driver tip out. this sucks

[Author]

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