Hey guys

I had my intake manifold off of my 383 to replace the intake valley pan and gaskets and I somehow ended up dropping a tiny little lock washer (like for a #8 machine screw) in the valley and it fell past the camshaft and disappeared.

I thought of draining the oil pan and hoping that it would come out in that, but I'm sure that the windage tray would keep the washer out of the pan until the engine had been run.

Any thoughts on just leaving it in there? Its so tiny that I cant imagine it doing any harm... what harm do you think it could do in there? Can you tell that I just don't want to drop the pan?

It is more than likely sitting on the windage tray , you could pull the front of the motor off and the timing cover and fish it out that way .

It won't make it past the pickup screen but there is no guarantee the oil will wash it to the bottom of the pan.

Might try pouring gas or kerosene into the valley to try and wash it down into the sump...then fish it out w/ a magnet.

wow! that's a [censored]! since it fell past the cam, it had to fall onto the crank assembly, and then it's a matter of if it's sitting there or has fallen onto the windage tray. hard to imagine that there is anywhere it can get to except to fall off. trying to think of some position of the rods and crank that it could get caught and do some damage.

unlikely though it seems, it could potentially destroy the engine. maybe 1 in a million, but it is there.

for me, bummer as it is, there is no way i would run the engine with that in there. pull the pan. maybe try cranking the engine by hand, and priming the oil pump. maybe cranking it will make sure it drops onto the windage tray, (and you will feel if it somehow does get in-between something and start to lock up), and through priming the oil flow will bring it down into the pan, and then drain the pan.

although, it will sink to the bottom of the pan, and the oil flowing out may not have enough force to move it along, so it may sit there. try to get in with a magnet and move it all around the pan.

to each his own, but again, there is no way i would run that...

Thanks for the advice guys... as of right now, I am planning to pull the pan & tray off tonight. I hope that my pan gaskets can be reused.

Now... if I still cant find the washer after dis-assembly, I will button it up and pretend that the whole thing never happened.

pseronally, i would give it at least a quick try to get it down into the pan and drain out with the oil. you have to drain the oil anyway, a little time to give it a try could save you removing the pan.

may be a good idea, at the very least, to rotate the engine by hand, as the washer may be sitting on the crank/rods.

Before you start pulling stuff apart, drain the oil with the car at as high an angle as you can safely, if it fell all the way into the sump, it may wash out with the oil.

If not, fish one of those flexible magnets around the bottom of the pan through the drain hole and see if you get lucky.

We'll keep our fingers crossed for you....

Joe

At least you didn't drop it down a cylinder.

What if you drain the oil and just keep pouring it down the valley area where it fell? I would do the tilt thing as someone else mentioned too. Maybe hot oil would work better?

Put big magnet on pan drag it to drain plug.

Some more good ideas coming out here... I will rotate the engine by hand and drain the oil and refill through the valley a few times. I have a fairly large speaker that I can use as a magnet too to drag the bottom of the pan. It shouldn't take more than a few tries to know whether or not its going to work!

Thanks again

I'd let it go! it'll get washed down into the pan when it starts & oil is splashing and it wont make it past the fine screen on the pickup

I wouldn't rotate the engine until you've found it just on the odd chance that it's fallen in to a spot that it can get wedged between something.

You could well end up dropping the pan, pouring oil in might not be enough flow over it to make it move.

Run it

I'd nt worry about it. It's too small to damage big parts but big enough to not get sucked into the oil pump.
It will likely end up in the bottom of the pan and stay there for the next 1000k miles.

Here is another identical lock washer with a penny for scale to show the size... it really is a tiny thing.

Raise the rear of the car up high and dump kerosene , or mineral spirits , what ever is cheaper in and wash it toward the front of the pan , if you wash it to the rear it might not make it to the sump.

If you pull the pan and the tray and it's not there put the magnet up and over the rods til you find it .

Fugetaboutit

Hey guys

I drained the oil and dumped it back through the valley three times and didn't find the washer in the pan with a magnet.

After doing that, I crawled back under the car last night with the intention of dropping the pan, but just couldn't bring myself to do it. I know that it could very well come back to haunt me, but I'm just gonna leave it in there.

Thanks for the advice guys!

Ain't going to hurt a thing.