CaptivaBlue

I'm in the process wrapping up the odds and ends of prepping my swap engine for install. Now, I've been all over the thing with my Helm's in hand, looking, searching, checking, but I know that I'm very accident/Murphy's law prone and I came up with an idea so I can sleep at night. The engine spent a little time here and there with my clumsy *** around it valve cover free. I can tell if I dropped anything in the head, but I have no means of checking the cylinders. I put 1 and 4 at TDC but I noticed it was still hard to see all the way down there with the head on. I DON'T HAVE THE TIME, RESOURCES, NOR KNOWLEDGE TO TAKE THE HEAD OFF. I had this idea to take a coat hanger, form it to a long line with a little "L" on the end. I could put this down the spark plug hole and spin 360* feeling for bolts, change, belly button lint, and whatever else. I thought of wrapping the tip tightly in duct tape to avoid gouging anything and grooving it. If careful and coherent, could I really do any damage doing this?

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<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CaptivaBlue &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> I had this idea to take a coat hanger, form it to a long line with a little "L" on the end. I could put this down the spark plug hole and spin 360* feeling for bolts, change, belly button lint, and whatever else. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I would advise against it. You can get small magnetic picups from Sears / AutoZone, etc. They look like a telescoping antena with a magnet on the end. I used one when I thought I had dropped a nut down into my oil pan when I was doing a valve adjust.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CaptivaBlue &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The engine spent a little time here and there with my clumsy *** around it valve cover free. I can tell if I dropped anything in the head, but I have no means of checking the cylinders. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Do you know if you actually dropped anything in there? How long was the cover off? I'd be more worried about stuff floating around in the valvetrain more than in the cylenders.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CaptivaBlue &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I DON'T HAVE THE TIME, RESOURCES, NOR KNOWLEDGE TO TAKE THE HEAD OFF. </TD></TR></TABLE>

If you can handle a swap, you can handle pulling the head. It's not that hard, especially if you have the helms, athough I'm not sure if you'd need to or not.

CaptivaBlue

Are all the bolts necessary magnetic? I don't think I dropped anything, it's just a "final check" type thing.

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<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CaptivaBlue &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Are all the bolts necessary magnetic? </TD></TR></TABLE>

Most are. I can't think of anywhere aluminum bolts are used off the top of my head.