Advice Please- Dropped Socket into Open Engine

M

MississippiRunner

New member
Hi all,

I've done some searching, but could not find an answer to my issue...

I was working on repacking the half-moons in the midst of the valve cover gasket job on my 97's passenger side- while doing so, my klutzy self sent a socket down into the open engine. I can not see it, but I did hear it hit... something... down below.

I'm positive I can't just leave something that size down there- where should I even begin?

Thanks for your input!
 
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Your spark plugs are still in so there isn't really anywhere it could get inside the engine. Valve openings aren't near big enough to fit a socket through. either it is hiding underneath one of the cams or it bounced out and landed somewhere else. woulden't hurt to pull the skid to see if it made it to the bottom, also check in the valley where your intake manifold was.
 
You might try using an endoscope -- one of those tiny cameras that works with a phone. I once used the unit linked to below to find a bolt I'd lost in the headliner. Worked great.

Depstech Wireless Endoscope, WiFi Borescope Inspection Camera 2.0 Megapixels HD Snake Camera for Android and IOS Smartphone, iPhone, Samsung, Tablet

Depstech Wireless Endoscope
 
Hockeyjock said:
Your spark plugs are still in so there isn't really anywhere it could get inside the engine. Valve openings aren't near big enough to fit a socket through. either it is hiding underneath one of the cams or it bounced out and landed somewhere else. woulden't hurt to pull the skid to see if it made it to the bottom, also check in the valley where your intake manifold was.
Click to expand...

Skid was already off- removed it to clean up the mess from the badly leaking valve covers. Checked anyway- nada.
 
If I were as sure as you are that the socket fell where you believe, I'd remove the exhaust cam, which would give better access to that hole, and fish it out that way.

Exhaust cams can be removed without disturbing the cam belts.
 
If a socket went in there then you should be able to borescope it and make sure.
If you exhaust all your resources..try turning the engine over SLOWLY by hand in case it is on the crank/cap girdle, see it it made it to the pan
 
2old2soon said:
You might try using an endoscope -- one of those tiny cameras that works with a phone. I once used the unit linked to below to find a bolt I'd lost in the headliner. Worked great.

Depstech Wireless Endoscope, WiFi Borescope Inspection Camera 2.0 Megapixels HD Snake Camera for Android and IOS Smartphone, iPhone, Samsung, Tablet

Depstech Wireless Endoscope
Click to expand...

I second the above, those things are cheap now and they're invaluable for interior inspections and locating stuff that fell down holes.
 
This happened to me a few weeks ago i thought a bolt fell at the opposite side of the valve cover side. I thought for sure it fell in their as i "heard" it hit. I did everything I could with a magnet, with my hand and could not get anything to come up. So I put on my head lamp and started looking everywhere and could not find it. I decided to push on the bumper and both side fenders one at a time and i heard it hit the ground. I think it was just lodged somewhere that i could not find and the shaking of it had it roll/fall out.


Hope you find it before its to late!
 
subscribed, this seems like a very interesting thread
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Last edited:
davidch said:
If I were as sure as you are that the socket fell where you believe, I'd remove the exhaust cam, which would give better access to that hole, and fish it out that way.

Exhaust cams can be removed without disturbing the cam belts.
Click to expand...

this! Its not a straight shot through the head down to the pan but this is probably the best bet short of pulling the head.

I wish you the best of luck being a clumsy mofo myself who dropped several things in the heads.
 
Last edited:
If you end up pulling the exhaust cam remember to put the service bolt into the scissor gear before removing the cam. It is a PITA to wind that spring properly with the cam out if you forget. Otherwise the process is pretty straight forward. Mark the timing dots at TDC to make it easy to align up later. The dot in the peak should align to the dot in the valley exactly when putting the cam back in...it is easy to get off a tooth and appear to be lined up when you are really off by one.

Sent from my RS988 using Tapatalk
 
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