Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

If it were me, I would assume nothing at this point. Don't think I'd turn that motor over again without at minimum removing the head. Get ready to cry, in fact you may want to buy your beverage of choice in advance of pulling it. Just google leaving a nut in a cylinder... sure there are countless pictures. Good luck..

"The reason I think there is potential to have dropped a 3/8" nut in the cylinder is because when I was working on the starter, I set the 3/8" nut that fastens to ignition wire to the starter terminal on the engine. When I went to reinstall the starter, the nut wasn't there"

What opening would have allowed a nut to enter the engine? Were your spark plugs out? There's been only time I've seen a nut end up putting a hole in a piston. It happened because the fellow who owned a six cylinder '57 Ford truck always insisted on putting one of those cheap chrome air cleaners on which had the nut on the bottom of the bolt. The vibration of the engine worked it lose, it was sucked through the carburetor and put a neat, round hole in piston number eight.

A nut has to have a way to get into an essentially closed system. How would that have happened to your car?

Steve

Hi Steve,

Yes, unfortunately the plugs were out. I hope this isn't the second time you see one

@MJG: Full bottle of bourbon is on hand

I am expecting the worse but with the compression readings being satisfactory I am not without hope.

And I may be wrong, there may not be anything in there but I will know soon enough

Heavens! Always! Always! Always! Screw the plugs in if you're working with any small lose parts around the top where they could accidently enter the engine! Never plug an oil passage with a rag thinking you'll remember to remove it later!

Better get that nut out of there before it causes any more damage! Call it an opportunity to de-carbon the combustion chambers like you intended to do it... Good luck!

Steve

Thanks Steve, I appreciate it...

Lesson learned!

The other thing I would be concerned with is, how much metal has ricocheted off and circulated somewhere you don't want it? If my car and found the piston and head not obliterated I may drop the pan in conjunction with some oil changes in short intervals. I've never experienced this, but wouldn't want to.. I feel for you! Hate jumping on the Monday morning quarterback band wagon but plugs don't leave my engines one second longer than needed.

Thanks MJG - should I find that something was in fact dropped in I will definitely be dropping the pan and at least 2 oil changes will follow after a bit of engine time. I don't feel you're Monday morning quarterbacking at all and appreciate you taking the time, this is obviously a lesson I needed to learn and even if I find that nothing was dropped in the engine consider this learned!

Many years ago I made a very foolish mistake with a Packard flathead 8 engine, I removed the spark plugs without first blowing any debris out of the plug wells, or at the least carefully inspecting them before removing the plugs. The result - a small pebble, no doubt just road debris, had landed in a plug well and fell into the cylinder when I removed the spark plug. I decided to bring that piston up to near TDC in hopes I would be able to see and remove the pebble.

And the result of that was a blown piston followed by some very expensive engine repairs. I learned my lesson the hard way.

Here's another tip.

With my kick panels out, I accidentally dropped some small parts from the dash down inside the frame. I dragged it a dozen times trying to get them all out, with limited success. The magnet kept sticking to the walls and frame. Argh. Very frustrating. Finally I got the wet vac, taped a skinny attachment from the regular vacuum to it, and sucked up everything, then retrieved them from the wet vac bucket. (I learned to stick a hand towel in the kick panel cavity before taking things apart.)

You might do something similar using a tube taped to a vacuum to save pulling the head. If any chips had broken off, you'd get those, too.

A small tube on a vacuum might be a good way to clean out the spark plug recesses before removing the plugs. You could use a compressor to blow air around them, too, but don't forget protective glasses.

Jason75,
A cheap, lighted, endoscope camera (+/-$50) would tell you if there's anything in the cylinder before you go to all the work of removing the head. Not sure how your car 'times', but if through the bellhousing hole like mine, these are also a great tool to be able to view the timing marks while holding the timing light and moving the distributor, a task which I find to be quite a handful. Chris