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Dropped a washer in Timing Cover


lifegrddude

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Wow I want to kill myself haha. :D I was installing some ARP head studs on my Z, and with moly lube on my fingers, it made things a little slippery. I ended up dropping a washer down the timing chain cover... Do I have to take the cover off to get it out, or does someone have another solution? I have been trying to see if I can fish it out with a magnet, but so far I haven't had any luck in the last 30 minutes. I really hope I don't have to take the cover off! :( And here I was, thinking I'd finally be able to get my Z running today.

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A few years ago I dropped a starter bolt into the bellhousing. A long magnet "extension" saved the day. ....But in your case its a long way down! Its worth a try but I expect you will have to drop the pan.

 

Or turn the car upside down and shake it out.

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If it is in the oil pan and not entangled in the timeing stuff, maby use a stong speaker magnet to move it into position so you can get at it from the top.

Like when you were a kid messing with magnets using the underside of a table to move a piace of metal or another magnet.

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Thanks for the suggestions guys. I used one of those long flexible magnets, but to no avail. I did find the washer by using a speaker magnet, and I have it by the drain plug, but it's too big to come out so I'm going to have to drop the oil pan to get to it. I wish I could just flip the car and shake it out! Life would be so much easier!

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About 3-4 years ago, I did the SAME thing, only with a cam cover bolt.

 

It was right before the MSA show, and I was hesitant to start pulling stuff off, and even more reluctant to turn the engine over. :confused:

 

Since I didn't see it in the front cover, it probably dropped into the oil pan. My buddie Bryan said start it up, and to my surprise it has been running fine ever since! :icon14: He even said I should drop another one down there to prove that it will still run fine, LOL!

 

[Edit: If I was in the same position today, I'd probably remove the spark plugs an "manually" crank the engine over slowly to see it there is a problem before I'd go bumping the starter. Good luck!]

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I dropped the washer for the cam bolt once (completely brain-dead moment!) and was able to fish it out of the sump with a magnet attached to a telescoping rod (like an older antenna). You can get them at Lowes and Home Depot for less than $5. It only took a few minutes. I might have been lucky, but it's definitely worth spending some more time with a magnet before dropping the oil pan - that's not fun with the engine in the car.

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While you have the pan down, go to a tranny shop and get a few of the tranny pan magnets. Set them in the bottom of the pan and they'll help catch magnetic crap from the oil. Of course, you'll end up having to drop the pan again to clean them every 100,000 or so miles, but it's worth the effort just to keep crap in the oil from floating around and/or clogging the filter.

 

Unless you have an aluminum pan/sump, they'll stay stuck to the bottom of the pan and do their job.

 

Alot of people say just use a magnetic drain plug, but they don't think about what happens when you pull that magnetic oil plug out...it usually deposits steel fragments in the threads of the pan itself...not what I'd want to put a threaded plug back into.

 

Just a suggestion and your mileage may vary.

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For those particles that get picked up and go through the oil pump, yes, but there are those that don't make it past the screen on the pickup that would stick to the pan magnets. Besides, it's better to trap them on a magnet BEFORE they go through the oil pump.

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