How I got a dropped tool out of an engine(it's a secret)

[Julian]

I was thinking hard about what to do when I did a silly thing like dropping screwdriver bit down in the engine while setting the valves on a NHC-250. An obvious idea is to follow it down with a borescope and retrieve it, but a screwdriver bit will fit through passages smaller than many borescopes. Another idea would be to go in through the oil drain hole with the scope, but it takes too many bends to reach up under number two cylinder. I suppose one could remove the rectangular cover on the right side of the block and go in that way, but it is difficult to access. Last resort would be taking the aluminum pan off.

Aluminum pan?? that's an idea- maybe one could get a very strong magnet and hold it against the pan and find the offending bit. The bit would make a scratching sound against the pan to insure you were moving it. If the magnet was carefully and slowly moved from the bottom of the pan up onto the side of the pan, it could be slid slowly all the way to the back of the pan and down the side to just in front of the drain hole. It would then be just a simple task of reaching in with a finger and dragging it out. It would be good not to let the bit drop into the cavity between the oil pump intake screen and the front of the pan sump. That would require finding it again and sliding it up against the side and over the oil pump suction screen. I would guess the whole operation would take less than 5 minutes once the oil was drained.

I would think that the most important thing is the sound you might hear as the bit falls down- clink, clink, clink, clink, clank. If the last thing you hear is the clank, that is the bit hitting the cast aluminum oil pan. If the last thing you hear is a clink, you are sol.

I did get it out.(but I have not made it clear how)

 

[glassk]

Pressurize the oil system and float it out

 

[bigbird1]

Let it be, It will never hurt anything in the pan, the sump screen will keep it out of the oil pump.

 

[Julian]

The one big thing that electronic communication lacks is personality- I did drop the screwdriver bit in the engine, and I did get it out as described (it is not hypothetical).

 

[doghead]

And I edited your title a second time and edited your post to represent the situation correctly.

Originally, you posted as if it was a hypothetical question.

 

[Julian]

My apologies for being confusing; I was just trying to be humorous.
To be more clear:
I dropped the screwdriver bit in the engine under cylinder 2 and could not get it out with borescopes. After many hours of frustrated effort and thought, I got it out in less than 5 min by using a strong magnet on the outside of the aluminum pan to drag the bit down the side of the pan and place it in front of the drain whole where I pulled it out with my finger.

 

[162tcat]

Don't worry, I got it the first time

 

[armytruck63]

Let me be the first to say,

 

[skinnyR1]

My apologies for being confusing; I was just trying to be humorous.

I understood you originally, and appreciated the humorous angle to the post.

Its all business in here, at times.