Ideas on how to fix this?
 

I screwed up and need some good ideas on how to fix the problem. I put my car away for the winter a few months ago. Someone had advised me to scatter those dryer softener sheets around the car to keep the mice out so I did this. I also slipped a few into the engine compartment for good measure. So . . . this spring when I came back to start the car up, I forgot about those sheets in the engine compartment. I started it up and several sheets were sucked into the fan and are evidently lodged somewhere in the heat exchanger. Needless to say, I've got some odd smells and some white smoke coming out of my heater now. Any ideas on how to get rid of the unwanted dryer sheet debris in the heat exchangers?

Ralph

I would think a few hundred miles would cure the problem. The option might be to get a long pickup tool - the kind with metal "fingers" that stick up once you press the plunger. You would want to stick it down the heat exchanger where fan air enters it.

Interesting, to say the least.


I would try shooting some compressed air around the engine from underneath. A flashlight would be helpful as well. If you can see them you could use a tool of some sort to dislodge them.

Did you find any mice?

No mice were found!

I would pull your fan and get to as many as I could out of the motor. You do not want to restrict your cooling at all.
:D

Yep, and that's a good time to see if mice had built any homes or stored food in there.. not a big job and well worth the time.

I already pulled the heater duct tin off of the right and left side of the engine and looked around with a flashlight. I only saw a few chunks of the dryer sheets and removed them. Everything else is clean and no signs of mice living in there. The bigger problem seems to be that more chunks of the dryer sheets were sucked all the way into the heat exchangers.

Most definately. Also, while you have the altenator out, clean the tops of the cylinder fins and oil cooler with some engine cleaner and lots of water. I try to do this once a year. It is amazing how much crud gets washed out.