Bolt sitting on top of piston - Advice ASAP

[Brick]

As the title states... I have a bolt sitting on top of the driver's side piston closest to the firewall in my 05 3v. The head of the bolt is nearly exactly the same size as the spark plug hole, it actually hung there for a second (tried to snag it with a magnet, but the bolt is not magnetic) before dropping on down in.

I'm almost certain that the head is going to have to come off to get it out... unless any of you guys have another idea? It's a M6x25mm with a round allen head.

Lesson learned. Tape the holes or keep the spark plugs in.

 

[weather man]

Coat hanger with a small piece of gorilla tape rolled and stuck on the tip.

 

[Wes06]

Shop vac with a tiny end attachment?
Just need small enough to go through hole and get a decent hold on bolt to lift up

 

[WJBertrand]

How about something like this:

X-Long 36" Flex-Cable Pick-Up Tool 4-Finger Claw End Retriever Snake by Pro Tools: Cable Insertion And Extraction Tools: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41YUw%2BMsc3L.@@AMEPARAM@@41YUw%2BMsc3L

 

[Brick]

Coat hanger with a small piece of gorilla tape rolled and stuck on the tip.

I was able to touch it and lift it up but not get it oriented correctly to pull it back through, the head of the bolt is just so perfectly matched to the size of the hole there's no room for error. I'll keep trying though!

Shop vac with a tiny end attachment?
Just need small enough to go through hole and get a decent hold on bolt to lift up

I will try this next!

How about something like this:

X-Long 36" Flex-Cable Pick-Up Tool 4-Finger Claw End Retriever Snake by Pro Tools: Cable Insertion And Extraction Tools: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

Have one of those, too big to fit down the hole unfortunately.

 

[eighty6gt]

if the bolt is standing up in the right orientation, could put some 2 part epoxy on the coat hanger. Set it on the bolt head, would be a bit stronger than tape.

Unfortunately, you'd fill the cylinder with bits of 2 part epoxy.. but really who cares, just a 3V!

 

[weather man]

if the bolt is standing up in the right orientation, could put some 2 part epoxy on the coat hanger. Set it on the bolt head, would be a bit stronger than tape.

Unfortunately, you'd fill the cylinder with bits of 2 part epoxy.. but really who cares, just a 3V!

I was thinking a little glob of contact cement on the end of a stand of tape secured to the coat hanger touching the tip of the screw. Try to bring the head through last.

 

[Brick]

Thank you guys for all the suggestions, but so far I've been unsuccessful. The only thing I can think of now is if I could shoot compressed air down the plug hole and hope it comes out either the intake or exhaust valve?

I'm starting to accept the fact that I'll have to pull the head. Can it be done in-car? Can it be done without removing the cams, valves, springs, etc? Going to do some searching here on the process.

 

[Wes06]

i imagine the screw being JUST small enough to slip in the sparkplug hole, is to big to go through a valve opening.

yea you can leave the valve train on just removing the chain.
Pretty sure it can also be done in car, just be a bit snug more than likely.

 

[golkhl]

This is a long shot, but how about a length of small rubber hose that fits in the spark plug hole, and long enough to reach the piston top. Attach(thinking duct tape) the hose to the end of your vacuum hose attachment. I use this method to clean out the spark plug holes when i change plugs.

 

[05moneypit]

A steel M6 SHCS head is about 12mm (.474 inch). If you can get your hands on a valve spring compressor you can compress an intake valve spring to full coil bind and should have enough room to get the bolt out past the intake valve with gripper tool mentioned above. Of course you should be able to get back out the spark plug hole with those grippers if you can get a hold of it by the threads.

Personally I would try going out the intake port before I pulled the head.

Valve lift by cam alone will not give you enough room past the valve.

 

[Brick]

A steel M6 SHCS head is about 12mm (.474 inch). If you can get your hands on a valve spring compressor you can compress an intake valve spring to full coil bind and should have enough room to get the bolt out past the intake valve with gripper tool mentioned above. Of course you should be able to get back out the spark plug hole with those grippers if you can get a hold of it by the threads.

Personally I would try going out the intake port before I pulled the head.

Valve lift by cam alone will not give you enough room past the valve.

This sounds like it may work. I will try and find a spring compressor. I would love not to have to take the head off if I can avoid it, thank you for this suggestion!

In the meantime I will keep trying with my gripper tool out the plug hole, it fits down there now after I trimmed the prongs slightly. Unfortunately I can't see the bolt down there anymore, it's moved out of sight through the hole. Going to try and find a video camera scope also to make sure it hasn't tried to go out the exhaust valve.

Edit: heard it roll around, so it didn't try to go out the exhaust valve. I'll take that as a positive at this point. Continuing to try and fish it out with the gripper tool tonight and see how it goes.

 

[05moneypit]

Pull the intake manifold. Turn the crank until that cylinder is near bottom of intake stroke. Intake valves will be open and you can get a small light in the port so you can see the bolt.

Turn the crank with a wrench....don't use the starter!

 

[Brick]

Intake manifold is already pulled, was swapping to the FRPP one when this happened. I've turned the crank by hand (not even with a wrench, just grabbing ahold of the balancer with plugs out) and rotated it around so the intake valves are open. I can see the bolt again and can grab ahold of it, just can't get it orientated correctly. I measured an identical bolt and the head of it is round ~9.5mm or 3/8", so a little smaller than the 12mm. Hoping with some patience I may be able to pull it back.

 

[weather man]

This is where I usually start breaking shit

 

[loots06]

This tread remains me of a difficult game of Operation. What about a magnet! I'm sue you tried that already.

 

[Brick]

This is where I usually start breaking shit

I've been wanting to break shit for the last three weeks Started out as a simple cam swap, then I was an idiot and pulled the wedge too soon and had to pull the front cover and re-time it. Then realized one of my early-2005 phasers was going out, so replaced both phasers and all timing components and re-timed again. Finally sealed it up last night and was swapping the manifold today when I dropped this bolt down the plug hole and I'm up a creek again without a paddle from a stupid mistake.

I love working on my car and learning more about it (I run our farm shop at home working on tractors all day) but I've learned a lot of lessons during this project I never want to learn again

I'm really thankful for this forum and the guys on it, it has been a huge help.

 

[Brick]

This tread remains me of a difficult game of Operation. What about a magnet! I'm sue you tried that already.

That was the first thing I did before it completely fell down in the hole... unfortunately the bolts aren't magnetic and it fell down the rest of the way as soon as the magnet touched.

 

[05moneypit]

Intake manifold is already pulled, was swapping to the FRPP one when this happened. I've turned the crank by hand (not even with a wrench, just grabbing ahold of the balancer with plugs out) and rotated it around so the intake valves are open. I can see the bolt again and can grab ahold of it, just can't get it orientated correctly. I measured an identical bolt and the head of it is round ~9.5mm or 3/8", so a little smaller than the 12mm. Hoping with some patience I may be able to pull it back.

You can get it, just be patient and it will work. It went in it will come out.

 

[Phil1098]

Not that it matters, but what does the bolt go to? I don't remember any aluminum bolts on the motor. Hang in there, you'll get it. Sometimes I will walk away from this type of problem for an hour and come back and get it right away.