debris in engine

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semaj281

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When I last changed the oil in my car I opened up a 5 quart jug of Mobil 1 to use as the new oil. And as you Mobil 1 consumers know, there's an aluminum sticker type thing on the bottle opening to show that the jug has never been tampered with.
Of all the times that I've changed my own oil, this has never happened before but at that one time, I punched a hole through the sticker with my thumb, and some of it tore off and fell into the oil.
Then I tried to pull it out by pouring the oil into another jug with a mesh screen on top of the funnel. After pouring out about 2 quarts, nothing came out so I thought the sticker was stuck to the very bottom.
After this failed attempt, I proceeded to fill the crankcase with the mesh screen. All 4 quarts were poured out and there were still no signs of that sticker.
And today I had to top it off, so I got that same jug and used no screen because I'd completely forgotten about that sticker. When I was pouring away I saw a clump going into the oil filler neck and I immediately remembered what that was.
I guess the good news is I haven't started the car yet.
Would it just stay put on the bottom of the oil pan, knowing it's tendency to stick to the bottom? Will the oil filter catch it? What should I do?

--cliffnotes--
The aluminum sticker that comes on new jugs of oil fell into my engine. Car hasn't been cranked since then. Is there anything I can do?
 
You can try to drain it but even then it may not come out. If anything your pickup screen will prevent it from going into the engine. Thats why i always fill the case with a funnel with a small screen.
 
Originally Posted By: semaj281


What should I do?


The aluminum sticker that comes on new jugs of oil fell into my engine. Car hasn't been cranked since then. Is there anything I can do?

DON'T START IT!!!!! HAVE THE ENGINE PULLED AND DISMANTLE IT UNTIL THEY CAN FIND AND REMOVE THE .5 (SQ.IN) PIECE OF ALUMINUM FOIL.








Just kidding; just run it and forget it.
 
I bought an ElCamino once. Had the usual 350 Chevy. I pulled off the valvecovers to do something to it and under the valve cover that has the oil hole were 6 or so plastic green rings from Castrol bottles.
lol.gif


Atleast I knew that they were using a decient oil and not something from the dollar store.
 
Originally Posted By: beast3300
Oh noesssssss, what kind of car is it?

The 09 Versa in my sig.

Well it's good to know it would get caught in the pick up screen or be stuck on the valve cover. It would be a shame to ruin an engine with less than 20k miles from something like this.
Do all cars come with pick up screens?
 
Originally Posted By: rudolphna
Maybe you discovered the new Moly! Aluminum foil in the oil will plate itself to the cylinder walls!
28.gif


Yes. That's the secret that oil bottlers and car makers didn't want us to know.
 
the foil will likely stay in the valve cover. it might be ok or it might block an oil return hole - although the oil would likely just find the next hole.
 
Hmmmm... Start with draining the oil out and see if you can find it. If not lift the valve cover and take a look. If you still can't find it, forget about it. If it's small enough the oil filter will pick it up, if not the oil pickup screen won't let it pass. It'll show up in a drain one day.
 
Odds are that it won't be a problem.
But it sure could be!
At minimum, who wants a restrictor on the oil pick up?

Most modern valve cover gaskets can be reused - I'd get it out.
Hopefully, it did not flush down a drain hole to the crankcase.
 
Along the same lines, here's a funny story.

Back when I was a factory trained Land Rover tech in the late '80s, early '90s, I was performing an oil pan reseal under warranty. A common occurrence as they all seemed to leak. I had previously drained the oil, of course, but when I had the pan on the bench getting ready to clean it up for RTV, I noticed there was a work glove in the pan. A cloth, work glove, oil soaked. Well, it was the talk-o-the-shop for a while, of course. As for the glove, I squeezed out most of the oil and placed it into a ziplock bag, marking both the chassis and engine serial numbers on the bag with a magic marker. I had a plan.

A couple of months later, I was due for some England training, and part of that always includes a tour of the plant in Solihull. When on the engine line, at the appropriate place, I whipped out the glove, saying, with a smile, "Did someone here lose this?"

I may as well have been molesting children in a church from the response I got initially and I learned the divide between English and American humor was far greater than I thought. Though it was a great breach of PC, they did investigate and did find the person who "lost" the glove and, "had a word with him." To this day, I think it was funny, but the service and engineering people who were giving the line tour looked as though they were ready to feed me into some machinery. The US service rep who was our chaparone while in the UK thought it was funny but dared not tell me until later.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: hominid7
Id start with a flashlight and a dental mirror to see if it could be extracted via the oil filler hole.




This method worked for me once when I was changing my oil outside and a oak leaf fell from the heavens right into the oil filler hole. I'm like, what are the odds of this occurring. Mental images of the feather from Forrest Gump kept coming to my mind.

Anyway, it was sitting right inside the valve cover and I managed to get it out.
 
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