imported_SaYjAiBaO

i'm such an idiot. i took off my valve cover today and when i put it back on i overtightened one bolt and broke the thread. i managed to find one of the pieces that broke off but the other fell into a hole. i'm guessing it's where the oil goes through. i didn't have a magnet pen to retrieve it so while attempting to take it out i pushed it down even further and now i can't even see it! i put everything back together and drove it probably a total of 30kms on highway and city. i didn't notice any leaks on the valve cover and i haven't noticed any problems with the motor but i didn't push the car pass 3k. i just want to know where that piece of metal went and i'm wondering if it's dropped down to the oil pan by now. even so i'm nervous that it'll get stuck on something and blow my motor or if it's still stuck in the head and is restricting the amount of oil going to the pistons. i haven't noticed any temperature increase though.



you can see where it broke off and how it should look like on the right side. the arrow pointing down is where the piece that fell down into the hole and i can't find it. it's not too big of a piece to block the hole completely but was big enough to cover half of it.



i want to know how safe it is driving around town for now. i'm going to try to drain the oil tomorrow to see if i can find it in the oil.

zeeman

iTrader: (1)

i'd drop the oil pan if draining the oil yields nothing.

imported_SaYjAiBaO

and if it's not in the oil pan where could it be?

kwikb16a2

theres a strainer before oil goes to the pan....i dunno for sure but maybe zeeman knows

kwasley

why didnt you torque the bolts accordingly?

imported_SaYjAiBaO

i didn't have a torque wrench and i was in a rush to go out to dinner with my family. i've taken it off a bunch of times before but i was just careless this time. yeah i know it was very stupid of me but if anything i'll just buy another head.

imported_SaYjAiBaO

i think there's where the chunk of metal went but where does it go through after that? i'm trying to find diagrams.

imported_starboy869

I would pull the oil pan. 4L of oil and a gasket should cost around $30 max. I would assume that line would go straight down.

You might get lucky and that chunk comes out when you drain the oil.

dingus888

well if you can't find it from oil pan drop etc then I would say there is nothign you can do....just drive it and hope the strainer for the oil pick up does it's job.

imported_SaYjAiBaO

where's the oil strainer? the chunk isn't that small so i wouldn't want it to get stuck and restrict my oil flow.

imported_italstallion

that picture that you showed at the bottom is where coolant goes to the water pump i had something like this happen when i was rebuilding my motor and i found my allen key in the pan .id for sure drop the pan if i were you.