The straw test was successful.

I necked down my shop vac to fit my wife's tumbler straw which just happens to be 10.5" long, but is shortened to 9.5" when attached to the shop vac (the same distance q-tip is down in the engine). It's outer diameter is .30 which exactly fits the hole.



Using a similar q-tip, I lower the straw near the q-tip shaft, the shaft is drawn to the vacuum, and then as you slide the straw up the end of the shaft the q-tip securely sucks into the straw. This means I do not need pin-point accuracy.

Unfortunately, my wife's straw is not flexible enough to make the bends necessary to get to the q-tip down into the engine, but there are similar straws made out of silicone that are the same dimensions and are flexible.
I do have some tubing available, but it is pretty thick walled which really reduces the vacuum strength (small inner diameter).

When I receive the flexible straws I will test cutting small holes in the side to see if that more securely holds the q-tip shaft to the straw while it drawn upwards.

Stay posted.

Edit: I made a discovery this morning that my endoscope will fit inside the straw, so now I have a way to determine the accuracy of the straw's placement. I should be able to use my heat gun to add the appropriate bends to the straw to get me over the q-tip shaft. Getting the bends right will be a struggle of trial-and-error and patience.

Edit2: The heat gun can get the straw to bend, but it also puts small wrinkles/kinks in the straw which do not let the endoscope to pass through the straw. I'm now waiting on the flexible straws to show up from amazon to see how that works.