hello there, i am reviving a 440 that has been sitting dormant for a few years, one of the things i did today is pulled all the plugs and shot a little penetrant into each cylinder for good measure before i attemped to turn it over by hand, just incase, when shooting into one of the cylinders, the stupid red straw popped out and blasted into the plug hole. its inside and i cant seem to grab it with a flexible grab tool or anything.
question is, if i cant get it, should i pull the head to get it, or since its plastic, leave it and maybe melt out after a few revs? it is in no way a high dollar motor, but i dont want to blow it either, and really dont want to pull it apart, any input would be greatly appreciated, thanks, John

A glob of grease on something and putting in it the hole might pick it up.Use a nice thick grease the straw will hold onto it.(if you can find it).chances are it will just burn-up and disintegrate,But I would be a little hesitant to try.

screw it.. just fire it up.

Have you tried rotating the engine by hand to move the piston up in the bore? You might be able to get it in a better position to grab. Maybe if you still can't get it, bringing the piston up to TDC might bend it so when you move the piston back down, you can get a grip on it. Make sure you don't lose anything metallic in there trying to get the plastic out! Then you would REALLY have top pull the head. If I was frustrated enough, I'd just fire it up too.

Run it up close to the top and stick a shop-vac hose up against the opening. Might have to wrap a rag around the end of the vacume hose to get a better seal. A decent shop-vac should be able to pull it out.

A narrow wood dowel or steel rod with some flypaper wrapped around it might work too.

Maybe you can find a small pick-up (grabbing) tool that will fit. I agree that you might not have to try too hard as it will probably just burn out. Much less dammage leaving it alone than if you drop stuff in there.


BTW, I would have used Marvel's

Just take a piece of vacumm tubing, duct tape it onto the end of a shop vac, and "probe" around the cylinder with your new " mini vac ", don't rotate the crank!.......if you find any "loose change" send it to me

Just fire the motor. .It's soft plastic, and its surrounded by metal parts and fire. The engine is going to win.

Fire it it will be 'Gone n 60 Seconds'.

When you smell creepy crawlers, you know its gone.