Just think if I didn't have a sump plate

[dtw]

Was installing a couple new rocker shafts while doing a valve adjustment. Had the 8mm Allen key, filed down short, in there to hold the rocker shaft nut, and managed to drop it. It slithered right down an oil return tube.

Oh *****.

Flipped the other bank up, shook it a few times...clink. It just went in deeper. Oh wait, I have a sump plate. 8 nuts later and the key was out. I was just left thinking, "What if this was a 3.2??"

[Jim Richards]

Nice save, Dave! I think engines have a natural attraction to tools and various small bits & pieces...just to keep us humble.

[ChrisBennet]

A shop rag stuffed in the oil return holes will save you a lot of heartache.
-Chris

[sammyg2]

LOL unless you forget to take the rags out afterwards.

In high school I worked at a gas station. A guy pulled in and asked if I'd look at his engine, it was running "funny".
Evidently he had lost his oil cap some time back and substituted a shop rag for the cap, just to plug the hole
The rag had worked it's way into the engine and was basically everywhere. I closed the hood and told him "I don't see anything obvious" and suggested he take to a shop for further evaluation. I wonder how far he made it before the engine blew up.

[Tim Walsh]

don't ask how I know, but these motors also have a propensity to swallow kimwipes and that they make a nice WHUMP sound when the crankshaft hits said kimwipe