Near-death experience

[JerryS]

This weekend I was continuing to get my 52 8N ready to crank up after several years. I was multi-tasking (which is a modern term for starting to do one thing, then you get distracted by something else and forget the first thing you had started to do).......uh, where was I?

Oh, yeah: Still have my hood off, and I had the plugs out to spoon some oil into the cylinders. Then I began to install a new ignition switch. Long story short, I came within a whisker of raking a 3/8 nut into an open plug hole. I had to sit down.

Anyway, I just got to wondering if any of you guys have ever tumped something off into a cylinder, and if so, what you did about it.

 

[JMOR]

(quoted from post at 12:32:15 08/23/10) This weekend I was continuing to get my 52 8N ready to crank up after several years. I was multi-tasking (which is a modern term for starting to do one thing, then you get distracted by something else and forget the first thing you had started to do).......uh, where was I?

Oh, yeah: Still have my hood off, and I had the plugs out to spoon some oil into the cylinders. Then I began to install a new ignition switch. Long story short, I came within a whisker of raking a 3/8 nut into an open plug hole. I had to sit down.

Anyway, I just got to wondering if any of you guys have ever tumped something off into a cylinder, and if so, what you did about it.

Some other J.A./ SOB hanger-on did & didn't tell anyone what he did. Here is the nut. Hundreds of dollars & a lot of work later it ran. Lesson don't let people hang around your job.

 

[Bruce (VA)]

I've never dropped anything in a cylinder but I think I hold the worlds record for dropping screws in a distributor.

I also left a framing hammer in a wall once. That took a real case of CRS.....
50 Tips

 

[old]

That is exactly why I tell people to ALWAYS put the plugs back in after filling the cylinders with ATF etc. You should never leave the plugs out for any length of time because it is easy to get dirt and other worse objects into a plug hole and then you could end up with one big boat anchor

 

[lha]

That's why I keep a small magnet with me in my tool box,has saved me a few times,screws in carb,etc.---lha

 

[TheOldHokie]

(quoted from post at 12:41:51 08/23/10)

(quoted from post at 12:32:15 08/23/10) This weekend I was continuing to get my 52 8N ready to crank up after several years. I was multi-tasking (which is a modern term for starting to do one thing, then you get distracted by something else and forget the first thing you had started to do).......uh, where was I?

Oh, yeah: Still have my hood off, and I had the plugs out to spoon some oil into the cylinders. Then I began to install a new ignition switch. Long story short, I came within a whisker of raking a 3/8 nut into an open plug hole. I had to sit down.

Anyway, I just got to wondering if any of you guys have ever tumped something off into a cylinder, and if so, what you did about it.

Some other J.A./ SOB hanger-on did & didn't tell anyone what he did. Here is the nut. Hundreds of dollars & a lot of work later it ran. Lesson don't let people hang around your job.

Found a nut that looked a lot like that mangled one in the intake port on a brand new TR6 rebuild I did. Made one heck of a rattle when I fired it up and the intake valve on one cylinder stuck open almost immediately. Motor sat in the garage for some time without the carbs on it and I ascribe it to one of the inquisitive boys but I'll never know for sure....

TOH

 

[36 Coupe]

You dont need oil in the cylinders.

 

[36 Coupe]

I put some paper towels in any dist that might eat screws.Down draft manifolds get a rag cover fast.

 

[Ken(Ark)]

Anyway, I just got to wondering if any of you guys have ever tumped something off into a cylinder, and if so, what you did about it.

I have learned the hard way that a sandblaster is an engines biggest enemy .

I have also learned that an N motor that has sat outside for ten years and has lumpy oatmeal looking oil really needs the oil pan removed and cleaned . Even leaving the drain plug out for a couple days and a few flushes is not sufficient for the almost nonexistent N's oil filtering system .

I have not tried the nut through the spark plug hole yet .

I did buy a nice 8N with Sherman under/over and lots of new parts real cheap because the owner gave up on it . Turns out it had a 7/16's lock washer wedged in the #1 exhaust valve holding it open .

A 7/16's is too big to go through the spark plug hole , gravity and or exhaust pressure would have moved it away from the exhaust valve .

The head had not been off but the manifold gasket had been replaced . I guess it was dropped in the intake port , then a one in a million shot to make it up and past the intake valve to the other side of the exhaust valve . That's just a wild guess , I don't know for sure .

 

[36 Coupe]

I took the head off a JD 40 that had a knock.One piston was full of dents and the was a piece of a 5/16 bolt in the cylinder about 3 threads.Boss said replace the rings and bearings while you have the head off.No idea where the bit of bolt came from.

 

[Dunk]

I dropped a small screw down thru a carb, on a chevy small block V8 one time...

The engine raised Ell for a couple of minutes, and apparently eat it, and spit it out.

It was fine for many years after that..

I think I was just very lucky...

 

[TheBoro]

When I took my head off I noticed a good size washer stuck inside of it. I guess it went in through the radiator hose? Not sure what the PO was doing with it. Could not get it out.

 

[Ultradog MN]

Probably wouldn't have been as bad as having a bunch of coolant in your cylinders and trying to pull start it with a pickup.

 

[LeoinMI]

Didn"t drop anything into a cylinder,..but my mechanic found three broken off dip sticks in my hydraulic sump of my NAA while working on it last week. My draft mode wasn"t working properly,so he pulled the top cover and replaced the cam follower pin and a couple of "O" rings and adjusted the linkage and the quadrant. While doing all that he found the broken dip sticks. Kinda unusal to loose three of them. The previous owner never mentioned it.

 

[old-9]

My dad Took off once after a rebuild on his T-Craft ( small Airplane) barely got airborne when loud noise from engine. Glided into a bean field, Had a small nut go through a piston. New jug and airborn again.
He told me that is why one pratices "dead stick landings."
joe

 

[Fairlane6t9]

Where I used to work, someone forgot to move a step ladder and lowered a Boeing 757 down on top of it. They had to replace the entire engine cowling for that engine (which they had just done an engine swap)!!!!!!

 

[Chuck (CA)]

Was real tired once and got off to adjust the rear scoop on my TO30... felt a tap tap tap on my leg and looked down to see the PTO rubbing against my pants. Didn't sleep too good that night.

 

[Bob Harvey]

Glad I'm the smart one. Never did anything stoopidd in my life, never injured in any way shape or form due to an error on my part. Now if someone could turn up the volume and point me to the TV/ bar combo, I'll be good for another day --speak up, my laigs don't werk! ; )

 

[Dean]

I inherited my first car, a 1947 Pontiac, from behind the barn where it had been parked for a few years after my mother stopped driving it in favor of a 1957 Chevy. If memory serves, I was 11. This car as well as a go kart, lawnmowers and other small engines is how I learned mechanics and taught myself how to drive.

When 12 or so, I decided to do a valve job on the 239 CI flathead six. I remember that I had to have my father lift the cylinder head off after I had removed all of the bolts and replace it after I had finished hand lapping the valves because I was not strong enough to do so.

While the head was off, I talked a friend into having his father mill it .100" it as Pontiac offered both standard and "high compression" cylinder heads in the day, the difference, according to the local machine shop being .100" accounting for an increase of half a point in CR. To this day, I have no idea if the cylinder head on my engine was the standard or high compression head prior to the cut.

Parts were everywhere while it was disassembled for a couple of weeks. When I hit the starter after reassembly, it went rrrrrrrr, clunk. Somehow, I had managed to allow a thick (approximately 1/4") spanner washer for the intake/exhaust manifold to fall into the #2 cylinder without noticing it.

After disassembly and retrieval of the washer, I fired it up without incident but about 6 months later I noticed air puffing from the crankcase breather at engine frequency. Grounding the #2 plug reduced the puffing noticably but did not eliminate it.

The impact of the washer between the piston and the head had cracked the #2 cast iron piston but the crack did not open and become noticeable for some time.

There was another different 1947 Pontiac with similar 239 CI engine behind the barn so I removed the #2 piston, rings, connecting rod and bearings from the donor engine and installed it into the other engine. It was still in there thirty some years later when I sold the car.

Dean

 

[gahorN]

Our company's flight department purchased a used prop-jet (Grumman Gulfstream I) and for two years we tried everything we could to calibrate the co-pilot's remote compass. It gave goofy indications that made no sense.
The previous owner has spent thou$and$ on the task and gave up, and sold the airplane. We spent thou$and$ more and was about to give up when the right wing developed a fuel leak which required opening up the wing to make the repair.
We found a steel (magnetic) screwdriver with a "Grumman Aircraft" logo on it, inside the wing adjacent to the compass flux-valve which had apparently been there since the airplane left the assembly line 15 years earlier.

 

[rustyj14]

Back around 1986-7, i worked for a Chrysler Dealer, in the body shop. Outside the body shop section, along side the spray booth, was the mechanic shop.
There was a young guy working on a 1986 Chrysler 4 cylinder, Mitsubishi make, installing a new head gasket. He was laying the nuts and bolts on top of the firewall, on a ledge. I told him i thought he ought to get a box to hold the parts, but all i got was an invitation to mind my own business!
So, he got it all together, but couldn't find two small nuts. He looked under the car, carfully swept under the car, asked the other mechs what they thought. I said the parts are probably inside the engine. WOW!! He got bright red, and i got told off!
Then he started the engine, and soon it began to "tap"! He had a perplexed look on his face. Of course, i had to tell him what was making the noise. Later on, an indignant young mechanic had to remove the cylinder head, and dig one nut out of the piston. He started to reinstall the head, so i said he ought to look in the intake manifold for the other nut, but of course he knew better. And when he thought he had it right, the tapping began again----------UH-OH!
Yep-second nut showed up! Had to replace piston, one valve, and assorted other parts.
But-we became good friends after all was done.

 

[oldtanker]

While still in the Army and home for a weekend before I retired my mother complained that her Simplicity 616H was "making a funny noise and had not power". I loaded it in my pickup and returned to Ft Riley as I had no time to work on it there. At Riley I tried to start it...it ran but had a banging noise. I found that the aircleaner wing nut had been dropped (I think by a grand kid) and had passed throught the carb. It couldn't pass through the valve and the banging was the vlave banging against the lifter because the valve was still open. Got the nut out....new gasket and it ran fine till the hydro died several years later!. All that mowing 5 acres a week!

Rick

 

[Pete76NY]

Dropped a lock washer in the cylinder of one of our ends through the spark plug hole...fortunately I saw it go, used my lil "pen" magnet and got it right out!

 

[Pete76NY]

Dropped a lock washer in the cylinder of one of our ends through the spark plug hole...fortunately I saw it go, used my lil "pen" magnet and got it right out!

 

[Pete76NY]

Dropped a lock washer in the cylinder of one of our ends through the spark plug hole...fortunately I saw it go, used my lil "pen" magnet and got it right out!

 

[Pete76NY]

Dropped a lock washer in the cylinder of one of our ends through the spark plug hole...fortunately I saw it go, used my lil "pen" magnet and got it right out!

 

[Ken(Ark)]

Dropped a lock washer in the cylinder of one of our ends through the spark plug hole...fortunately I saw it go, used my lil "pen" magnet and got it right out!

Dropped a lock washer in the cylinder of one of our ends through the spark plug hole...fortunately I saw it go, used my lil "pen" magnet and got it right out!

Dropped a lock washer in the cylinder of one of our ends through the spark plug hole...fortunately I saw it go, used my lil "pen" magnet and got it right out!

Dropped a lock washer in the cylinder of one of our ends through the spark plug hole...fortunately I saw it go, used my lil "pen" magnet and got it right out!

Dang Pete , I figured you would have learned your lesson after you dropped the first three washers , he he .

 

[awhtx]

I have about 1000 hours of right seat time in the G1 flying for Chaparral Airlines out of Abilene, TX. We had 5 G1's that had been taken back to the factory and had 2 "plugs" installed in the fuselage, lengthening it by 10'. I didn't make Captain so I never got the G1 type rating- sure wish I did. We used to say that the G1 was built by Grumman Iron Works- there wasn't any plastic in that airplane. I'll never forget the size of those Dowty Rotol props or the whine of those Rolls Royce Dart engines. There was a sign hanging on the wall in the maintenance office that said something to the effect of "The Legend will live on as long as the whine of the RR Dart is heard anywhere in the world".
Chaparral flew under a contract with AA and was later bought by Metro Airlines- another AA contractor. Metro was bought by AMR, the parent company of AA and AE. That's how I wound up working at American Eagle.