hi guys, i feel like a total dumbass. i was changing my oil and when i was removing the foil/plastic seal from the oil bottle a pretty big piece of it feel in the bottle, i told myself no big deal, i'll be real careful when i pour the oil in the engine.... well i wasn't careful enough and that piece of foil/plastic seal went in my engine!!

so what i'm thinking about doing is not doing any thing until tomorrow so that maybe it will fall into the oil pan. my main concern is that what if it doesn't, what should i do? should i replace the oil pan gasket if i do remove the oil pan?

if this has ever happened to any one please help me out.

*flame suit on*

 

take off your valve cover, the foil should be there.

 

thanks dude, should i replace the gasket too? and you wouldn't happen to know the torque specs on the bolts for the valve cover would you

 

i just looked through the service manual and taking off the valve cover is going to be a pain so i'm going to try the oil pan first.

if any one knows a better idea please help me out.

 

good luck...post results..

 

It is highly unlikely that that foil would have gone down into the oil pan, especially if it was a big chunk like you say. If you do take the oil pan off I would replace the gasket, you dont want to chance a leak and then have to take it off again to replace the gasket. Best bet is to take the time to dismantle a bunch of stuff, it should be right there on top like Sean mentioned. Another option would be to borrow a micro inspection camera (a lot of plumbers have them ), its basically a tiny camera on the end of a thin flexible rod. You could look inside to see if it is on top before you try dropping the pan.

 

ok thanks a lot fellas, i'll take the valve cover first. i'll go to home depot and see if they sell those micro inspection camera to give it a try too

 

FINALLY, i got it out, i wish i had a camera to take a pic of the foil, its about the size of a quarter, don't even want to think about what it couldn've done to my car.

i went and bought a Ridgid Snake Camera and a mechanic grip from home depot and it took me about 20 minutes to get it out. good thing too because i really didn't want to take off my valve cover.

thanks a lot jenner1 for recommending the inspection camera, i would have never thought about it

 

Wow congrats, that must be a relief! That camera sounds cool, how much was it? I can think of all kinds of things to do with it lol

 

OH YES! Me too!

 

this is why i miss the old oil cans that you had to use the spout with. no little pieces of foil to worry about

 

No problem, those cameras are a really great tool to have in the shop especially in really tight engine bays. Prices have really dropped on them over the past few years too with a lot of new companies putting cheaper stuff on the market. You definitely bought a good product by going with the brand Rigid, they make a lot of high quality tools. Im glad you didn't have to pull the valve cover; pain in the *** over a small piece of foil.