Ok, I shot the plastic spray tube into my engine

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Cleaning the throttle body on my boat...using Justice Bros.TB cleaner...throttles pushed all the way open.(enigne off)..cleaned one engine fine. Engine #2 half way through the little 5" long plastic spray tube shoots off the can into the TB and is GONE...
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So I call a trusted wrench and he tells me: " Do what I would do...close your eyes and turn the key and see what happens" SO after an hour of contemplating taking off the TB...no gasket kit at the dealer...I turn the key and hit the start button. Fires right up...no noises, vibration...nothing..running smooth as silk...so I let it run for 20 minutes pushing the throttle up to 3000 rpm revs...nothing.
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Went back later...fired right up...smooth again.

Has anyone else ever done this?

Would you pull the TB or just let it go?
 
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I would just let it go, but you may be able to reuse the gaskey. You could go to a auto parts store and and get a sheet of gasket material and make a new one, its really easy to do.
 
Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
I think "The Critic" also did this.


He done did as I recall! Don't amember the outcome. At least when my dawg eats some hunk a plastic I see the outcome.
 
As teenagers my friend had a big block Chevy engine in his 65 Pontiac LeMans (yes it was custom). We were tunning it up and the throttle return spring broke. The engine revved up, and out of fear of floating some valves we threw a rag over the Holly carb to suffocate the engine. Well a big block is a giant air pump and it sucked up the rag, made a slight dip in the RPMs, then revved back up. We all looked at each other with big eyes and turned the key off. We removed the manifold and heads to look for the rag, and see if we bent any valves. We could not find anything. About a year later we removed the mufflers and found the rag in the muffler with a few burn holes and covered in carbon.
 
Originally Posted By: Loobed


As teenagers my friend had a big block Chevy engine in his 65 Pontiac LeMans (yes it was custom). We were tunning it up and the throttle return spring broke. The engine revved up, and out of fear of floating some valves we threw a rag over the Holly carb to suffocate the engine. Well a big block is a giant air pump and it sucked up the rag, made a slight dip in the RPMs, then revved back up. We all looked at each other with big eyes and turned the key off. We removed the manifold and heads to look for the rag, and see if we bent any valves. We could not find anything. About a year later we removed the mufflers and found the rag in the muffler with a few burn holes and covered in carbon.



Well...my boat engines are GM 454 EFI 380HP 500 ftlbs torque Mercs. They have forged pistons as well. My boat mechanic said if the straw makes it into the combustion chamber or one of the intake valves it will be vaporized due to the operating temps. My problem is that I know better because I have had this happen before just not on a TB. On my cars I remove the TB to clean it. But the TB on this engine is huge and a lot of work to take off. Chalk it up to lazy.
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I wouldn't worry about it. I seriously doubt anything will come of it.

We got an interesting one in at work the other day. It was a Chevy 1-ton truck with a Duramax diesel in it. Had low oil pressure among other things. A co-worker of mine took the thing apart and found a 1/4" ratchet and a 10mm socket sitting on the grid heater IN the intake. Didn't hurt anything- couldn't get past the grid heater. But I find it hard to imagine exactly how that happened.
 
Originally Posted By: Pablo
Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
I think "The Critic" also did this.


He done did as I recall! Don't amember the outcome. At least when my dawg eats some hunk a plastic I see the outcome.


Yup, it was me. I freaked out and had the car towed to my mechanic. He basically told me what the others are telling you-- just start it up and it will be fine.

The Saturn was very difficult to restart, but after about 15 tries it started. This was more than 5000 miles ago and the car has not experienced any problems.
 
Same thing hapened to my FIL, we were trying to clean up the carbon biuldup in the intake manifold on his Jetta TDI, the straw went in, we decided to start it up to see what happens, the car started no problrem and we thought that the straw got stuck in the manifold.

A few months later we decided to do a proper mechanical carbon cleanup, as previous cleaning with throttle cleaner did not do anything, and removed the manifold, the straw was nowhere to be found.
 
Your engine will be just fine.

I once had a briggs engine come into the shop that would only run wide open...so I took air cleaner off and found the butterfly valve in the carb to be off the shaft and wedged in the bore. Not a difficult problem to fix, but the problem was that I could never find one of the 2 screws that held the plate to the shaft. Pulled the head off to check everything out...and all looked good. I assume that it went through the motor - but I would think that something metal would have to cause damage.
 
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
LOL my bet is the straw was eaten, digested, and later came out in the exhaust.


Yup, little to worry about here from my experience.
 
Lol wow. How on earth did a rag make it past the intake valves, then OUT the exhaust valves? I would think it would sit and fly around inside the cylinder.... I bet that the straw vaporized in the 3000 degree combustion chamber gasses.
 
The plastic could hang a valve open and bend it so it doesn't seat right. It may melt in the cylinder around the rings or valve.
You could probably use that TB gasket over again. Maybe use a bit of sealer with the old one.
 
Originally Posted By: mechtech2
The plastic could hang a valve open and bend it so it doesn't seat right. It may melt in the cylinder around the rings or valve.


I thought the same thing...but my Merc mechanic said no way a piece of hollow plastic tubing that you can bend between your finger and thumb at those temperatures could overcome the force of a forged crankshaft or forged piston or the valve springs.
 
The worst that can happen is that melts around the intake path, creating a baked-on carbon streak. You'll be deeply embarrassed the next time you have to show the inside of your intake manifold in public.

Most likely it will melt enough to reach the intake valve, be sucked through the engine, and vaporize before or at the catalyst. A hot valve isn't even going to notice the soft plastic.
 
Let it go. If it were to get wedged in an intake valve, the very first time the cylinder fired it might cause a backfire, but at the same time the plastic would be vaporized. Problem solved. If it were bigger in diameter it might hold a valve open enough to risk kissing a piston, but as skinny as those little tubes are combined with the fact that the spring pressure would squish it- no worries.
 
Originally Posted By: djb

Most likely it will melt enough to reach the intake valve, be sucked through the engine, and vaporize before or at the catalyst.


No catalyst on my boat as it is a MY 2000. Straight water cooled marine exhaust
 
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