Stupid thing not to do
 

Greetings, thought I may share yet another lesson learned. Just finishing my rebuild of a 71' engine. So far everything has been going great, took my time and enjoyed the process as this was the first 911 I have done in awhile. Well, just about to mate to transmission and decided to remove distributer to detail it a bit. Of course I did not place a rag in the newly exposed hole and of course the SS screw I used to mount the condenser decided to fall into the hole and of course it ended up under the left bank chain in a cavity that can not be seen. After rotating the engine, trying various magnets, tapping the engine, talking nicely to engine and then removing cam covers I finally gave up and took it entirely apart. Lesson learned.

oh my

I think I would put it back on the yoke and spin it forever before I did that ..

Bummer, man. Where did you end up finding it?

Oh sorry to hear of your trevails. Not the same order of magnitude but had to re-split a VW case after forgetting to include the oil splash washer on the crank. Big oops.

Trust me, I thought of everything I could before I got the wrenches out. Thought that by rotating the engine on the stand it would magically pop out, also thought that by removing the oil strainer this would enable me to view or gain access. Magnets were worthless with the SS screw, then of course I imagined that it had already popped out so was in a sense relieved when I split the cases and discovered it below the left bank chain in a small little cavity, strange as I had taken the chains of the sprockets. Only positive is the assembly is going quicker this time.

I would have tried a shop vac with small hose with an empty tank before I would have taken her back apart but good for you and thanks for sharing.

Fuch! :eek:

Would a cheap endoscope had made your life easier?
They are super cheap now, so cheap we all should have one in our tool box.

2 5 7 10 15M 6LED USB Waterproof Endoscope Borescope Snake Inspection Camera | eBay

Similar thing happened to me with distributor gear pin spinning out. Can't see into that space at all with borescope or xray vision. You made the right choice. Definitely don't try starting it no matter what anybody says, ask me how I know. No don't do that, too painful.

It's just UNREAL how these things that seem highly unlikely just come up to bite you in the arse...lesson learned indeed.

Many many moons ago I rebuilt a VW TDI engine. We get it all back together and she just wont run. After days of trying to chase down the problem we decided to pull it back out and start over. So as it turns out, we left a shop rag shoved into the turbo. No idea how it happened but there you go.

I made nearly the same mistake.

Distributor out. Hole not covered. Wanted to re-install and noticed I did not have the nut to fix the dizzy. I was 100% sure it fell into the hole. Looking for hours until late at night I finally decided that I needed to pull the engine....
I go in next morning to start the process. Put on my overalls and....the nut was in my pocket....

a good reason to put the spark plug wires back in the holes if you have the plugs out.
I also cover the outlet of the turbo when I have the IC off.

Done this. I had a small screw driver fall in the intake. Sitting nicely on the valve. I found it after taking the MFI stacks and fuel lines off, again...

oops
 

stainless steel not magnetic