oops! I lost a bolt

when taking off my intake 351C, one of the short bolts stuck in the socket. and when I brought it (the air ratchet) over to loosen the next one, the bolt fell out and dropped in the distributor hole. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_evil.gif[/img][img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_evil.gif[/img][img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_cry.gif[/img]

Sh%t!!!!
I saw the top and tried to grab it with some claws, but lost sight of it.

Any ideas where it might have landed?

I'm hopeing I'll find it when I take off the front plate, or do you think it would have dropped straight to the bottom?

Any guesses? should we place bets?
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My bet is in the pan. I don't feel right if I don't have at least one in there!
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hopefully it dropped into the pan. But if you say you saw the top of it, it sounds like it came to rest on something. May times the end up on a counter weight or worse, the windage tray. If so, then you have to drop the pan or front cover.

First thing, drain the oil. And watch carefully to see if it comes to the drain hole.

If you cant see it, then rotate the crank slowly and listen if it drops and hits the pan (obviously you need to drain the oil to hear it hit the pan.)

use a magnet to try to catch it...

Drain the oil and get a flexible magnet, a long one see if you can't get it out through the drain plug hole. I got a oil pump shaft out that way, took a while.

Good Luck
[addsig]

If you get a magnet, get a Snap-On. It's strong enough to hold it through the twists & turns.
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the front cover has to come off anyhow to R&R the cam. I'll be taking it off in the days to come.

I'll keep you all posted.

And a magnet is a next purchase. (Snap-on)

My father gonna gave me a ton of hell,
"YOU KNOW BETTER THAN THAT" "WHY DIDN'T YOU STICK A RAG IN THE HOLE WHEN YOU PULLED THE THING OUT?"
He's a mechanic (Big Rigs) I don't get much slack.[img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Like qtrmiler said, it aint a rebuild unless you drop a bolt in the pan, or most likely the oil pump drive shaft[img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_lol.gif[/img]

I dropped a little red spray can nozzle in the pan once, no biggie, but I was really stressed about it none the less, found something to push it the rest of the way into the pan, then started pouring oil into it untill I saw it come to the drain hole then pulled it out.
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Pulled off the timing cover and found it resting right behind the cam gear.
It was wedged in enough that it would have created big problems if it was fired up.

[img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img][img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img] Good deal[img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img][img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img]
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