Idiot Me! Drove off w/rag in Engine Compartment
 

Pulled over after hearing an unusual sound coming from the engine area. Saw the shredded pieces of the rag all over. I planned on backdating my heat this wknd; started it tonight after this latest act of brilliance. :rolleyes:

I see a bunch of thread in there. Other than that, I'm guessing there couldn't be too much damage, but if I'm wrong, please let me know. I'll update the "Admit to your stupidity" thread later. Thanks.

ooofff.

dude, i think i would take the fan off and vacumn out the bits from the top of the motor.

dont worry, i have done dumber.

I as well have done this one.

Something that was warned to me: If some of the rag gets caught up on/around/in the cylinder fins, it CAN POSSIBLY cause a "hot spot." A place where the air can no longer cool and from the inside of the cylinder creates excessive heat.

Paul

Most of the rag bits will be pushed back torwards the oil cooler it will block the airflow and cause it to run hot if any of it got back there.

Thanks for the replies. Earlier, I was trying to put pieces of the rag together like a puzzle so I can see how much is missing, lol!

Great, all I need is for my car to run a little hotter. Maybe a cool collar can offset that. :rolleyes: OK, no more putting crap to rest inside the engine compartment while working in there. Coulda been worse. I've put down wrenches, screwdrivers, etc. in there before.

"What stuff have you sucked into your engine?"

Interesting topic for a thread.

i worked as a porsche mechanic in the 70's and one day my service manager was checking the timing on a 911 at about 6000 rpm his tie fell out of his shirt and got sucked into the fan (lucky for him it was the short end) it almost jerked his head off spun him around in a circle. scared the living crap out of him as we all stood by and laughed our a*****es off. he was one of those kind of managers that you wouldn't mind seeing injured. hans, if your out there, were still laughing about it.

I'd venture to guess many here have done it. Fortunately, my rag was a paper towel.

I almost did the tie thing myself. Looked down and it was fluttering next to the belt. I moved away VERY carefully. Could have been horrible. Nothing like the time when I had really long hair (in the early '80's) and got it caught in a drill press.......

Take off fan an alternator and get a shop vac with the narrow upholstery nozzle. Have fun. :D

Sorry for your unfortunate accident.

BTW, this is one of the reasons I very rarely use a tie.

Reminds me of the sad story of Isadora Duncan (famous dancer at the turn of last century). She used to like to wear long flowing scarves... While taking a drive in a small convertible sports car, the long flowing scarf wrapped around one of the spoked rear wheels & axle dragging her out of the car and killing her. Loose clothing around a working engine is a no-no.

regards

jlex.

That is sad!

But that could never happen today. All scarfs are made in China. (Sorry, couldn't resist)

Happened to me. Broke the belt, hopped on the highway and soon engine started smoking. Got off right away and saw what I did. Thank goodness for spare belts and a tool kit. Put in the new belt and off I went. No damage luckily.

This happened to me too.changed the belt soon after as I was worried It may have damaged the belt

Now this is some technical talk I can relate to! SmileWavy

a) I learned pretty quickly to TIE UP my long hair when working in the engine compartment - one time having a loose strand whipped by the fan scared the bejesus out of me and from then on, I always tie it back before opening the deck lid! I'm probably lucky I didn't end up a back page idiot story with my head plastered to the fan housing!

b) I learned the hard way about rags - not in the engine, though. When I am finished adding oil to my car with my funnel, I tend to stuff a paper towel down in the end before I wrap it back up for storage. One evening, before I had the overhead lighting fixed in my garage, I was out there checking the oil in the dark, just using a flashlight. You see this coming - I got out the funnel, and started adding oil. Yeah. Oil EVERYWHERE, because I had not removed the paper toweling from the end of the funnel. Luckily it did not get washed into the engine, just blocked the oil I was pouring in and sent it alllll over the place. Lovely! Fun clean-up, no harm done, another little lesson learned!

Thanks for the replies. Interesting stories. Both my son, riding shotgun, and I heard the rag get sucked in. We were both like "what da fu..." (figuratively, he's only 8 ;) ). I pulled over immediately, which appears to have mitigated the damage. It was a small rag, as well. Most of it appears to have been spit back out. I cleaned up what I could, anyway. Got the heater backdated, too. More room now to leave other sh|t laying around in there. :rolleyes:

That IS comedy.

Left a red shop rag in the intake manifold of my Formula Ford whilst the carb was off. Weeks later I reassembled and started the car. Ran like crap. Then started puking rag parts out the exhaust like Wiley Coyote after a trip to the hen house. Nothing matches the feeling when you look around for someone to blame while the rag parts flutter down out of the sky.

It's said that the convertible sports car is a Bugatti.

The Isadora Duncan story from Wikipedia:

Duncan's fondness for flowing scarves which trailed behind her was the cause of her death in a freak automobile accident in Nice, France, on the night of September 14, 1927, at the age of 50. The scarf was hand painted silk from the Russian-born artist Roman Chatov. The accident gave rise to Gertrude Stein's mordant remark that "affectations can be dangerous."

Duncan was a passenger in the Amilcar automobile of a handsome young Italian mechanic, Benoît Falchetto, whom she had ironically nicknamed 'Buggatti' [sic]. (The marque of the automobile is open to dispute but the informed opinion is that it was an Amilcar, a 1924 GS model. It was regularly described and filmed as a more glamorous Bugatti.)."The automobile was going at full speed when the scarf of strong silk began winding around the wheel and with terrific force dragged Miss Duncan, around whom it was securely wrapped, bodily over the side of the car, precipitating her with violence against the cobblestone street. She was dragged for several yards before the chauffeur halted, attracted by her cries in the street. Medical aid was summoned, but it was stated that she had been strangled and killed instantly."
Yikes...cars are great, but BE CAREFUL friends.

regards,

jlex.

Hmmmm, ever live in San Gabriel Valley CA? We had a guy lose 1/3 of his hair to a spinning drill press.....in the 70s......he was a real rocket scientist, hope he didn't reproduce....:D

jlex, that's interesting!

Actually I heard about the 'Bugatti' from my wife when we walked by the Hotel Negresco on the Promenade des Anglais where the accident was said to happen. My wife was a fan of Ms Duncan and took the chance to give me a small lesson on trivial motor history. Sorry for the misinformation :-)

OK.....here's mine. I'll fess up to my stupidity. Recently I had my Webers off and on the bench, cleaning the jets, etc. While I was doing this, I had paper towels stuffed into the intake manifolds to keep stuff from falling into them. Well i remembered to remove the paper towels from most of the intakes, but...when i bolted everything together and fired it up, it ran great for a minute and then bogged down a little and shot flaming ashes and pieces of burnt/burning paper towel out the exhaust. Impressive in a very sad way.

regards,
al