Help - Dropped parts into the front of my engine

[Cxracer]

I had a bad Sunday afternoon. I would have made a lot more progress on getting my car up an running if I never went into the garage. I now have half a drill bit and a magnet somewhere in the front of the engine.

I've been installing a L28 engine into my 72 240 for about 2 years now. Yes, it has been a slow project, just ask my wife whose car this will ultimatly be.

Anyway, yesterday as I was prepping the inlet and outlet housings to change from 280 to 240 peices I broke a bolt off on the front of the head that was holding a coolant tube that was going from the thermostat housing to the outlet tube. It was one of the three 6mm bolts that hold the timing chain inspection port cover in place on the head. I tried drilling and extracting but even after soaking it in liquid wrench for an hour it was still so stuck that my extractor's tip broke off. I tried drilling out with a larger bit and eventually decided I'd have to tap it. Unfortunatly I didn't have much room to fit the drill in front of the radiator frame cross member (obviously I pulled the radiator and fan) and I guess the side load of the bit made it snap and it shot through the head and into the cavity where the timing chain runs.:stupid:

I got the plate off and tried to lower a magnet down into the cavity in hopes of pickign up the drill bit but succeeded in having the magnet catch hold of something and pull it's self loose of the extender it was on.

My question is:

Is it possible to pull the oil pan from the bottom of the engine while it is still in the car? My only hope is that if I can get the oil pan off I might be able to fish the parts out from the bottom.

Otherwise, I'm going to have to get a new engine and start all over.

I picked up this car without an engine and my wife was conserned from the start that it was going to be too much of a problem in terms of time and money to get it running. At this point I think I have done a very good job of proving her right.:disappoin

[MikeW]

Is it possible to pull the oil pan from the bottom of the engine while it is still in the car? My only hope is that if I can get the oil pan off I might be able to fish the parts out from the bottom.

I've seen it claimed otherwise but I distinctly remember pulling my oil pan to replace the gasket with the engine in the car. I believe the clearance was tight (perhaps the anti-sway bar was in the way).

[Z train]

Break the motor mounts loose and jack up the motor untill the pan clears.No problems.

[dano]

Sorry to hear about that! I recently faced the same specter of "part in the front cover" myself. (I got lucky, it wasn't actually in there.)

I've managed to pull and replace the oil pan with the engine in the car. It wasn't fun, but it is possible.

Good luck!

[Sailor Bob]

Been there, I lost a valve stem seal (twice - two different engines) - I decided that the parts wouldn't cause trouble in the base - left them there, so far so good. That was about two years ago.

[ktm]

Break the motor mounts loose and jack up the motor untill the pan clears.No problems.

Rotate the engine to TDC so that the crank journals at #1 clear the lip of the pan. Do not apply any pressure twisting the pan to get it to clear. As Z train stated, loosen the engine mounts (the single bolt on the isolator that goes through the engine crossmember) and jack up the engine about one inch.

I removed the pan from my old L24 with the engine still in the car as well.

[Cxracer]

Thanks everyone for the words of wisdom. I'll be giving it a shot this week. First I'll hit all the bolts on the pan with some liquid wrench so I don't go breaking more bolts.

Once the pan is off, what sort of access do I have up and around the timing chain to find the parts?

[Z train]

If this is a used engine,now is the time to douche the pan out real good.Also make sure the pick-up screen is clear.

[bobc]

I'd bet money, the parts are not in the pan, but stuck behind the timing chain cover somewhere. There's not a lot of room where the cover meets the pan for the parts to slip through and there's lot's of stuff (chain tensioner, chain, guides, gears, etc) for the parts to hang up on before getting to the small gap into the oil pan.

Bob

[mlc240z]

If this is a used engine,now is the time to douche the pan out real good.Also make sure the pick-up screen is clear.

So that's what Summer's Eve is really for!

Definitely agree, anytime a part is removed on one of the old beauties for some ungodly reason, definitely seize the opportunity to clean the 'wizz/crap' out of it!

[Z train]

So that's what Summer's Eve is really for!

Here's the applicator:

[JohnnyO]

not sure, but that looks like an enima bag. Maybe they are the same.

Nasty either way.