its a dohc ZC motor,
i accidentally dropped a small 1/2" round washer into the lower timing belt cover, i had the upper timing belt cover off, so it fell somewhere in the space around the cam gears,

can anyone tell me where that leads to ? whats at the bottom of the plastic lower timing belt cover that goes along the side down to the crank pulley ? does anything lead to any moving parts i should be worried about ? or engine related stuff ? or is there nothing to worry about ?

thanks for any info you can give, cause i would feel better knowing before starting my car up once i finish the valve adjustment i'm doing.

 

Worry about it

 

UUHHH yeah worry about it if you don't find it. You do not want that catching in the crank sprocket and timing belt.. if that happens.. You're gunna have a bad time. Just zip the crank pulley off then take the timing cover off. I'm sure it will fall out.

 

I absolutely agree with these guys. FYI:

Regardless of what type of engine this is pretty much behind the bottom of every timing belt cover. If you ever drop anything down there again on any engine for the rest of your life it should not be a question of if you should be worried about anything. You need to remove everything to ensure its all clear.

 

LOLL It happened me twice in one night.... on my zc. Take off crank pulley and then take off the plastics. Gl haha that sux

 

i'm not doing all that ****, noway, i had a guy do my timing belt for me and saw how hard it was to get the crank pulley bolt loose and all that and plus i don't have an impact gun like he was using and other tools he had, first i'm going to try to think of other ways, if i can just seperate the bottom part of the plastic timing cover prying it away just enough so the washer can drop out?, or drill a hole or cut a piece off the bottom of the plastic or something so it can drop out? and later glue the piece of plastic back where it was? i don't know?, i just was'nt planning on doing a bunch of stuff just cause i dropped a tiny little washer, but i know your going to say "if your going to do it, you mise well do it the right way".

i'll see what i can mess with and i might have to take everything off.

 

Just crank it then and come back and let us know what happend....

 

Have you tried a long flexible magnet ???

 

Subbed for the disaster.

 

this.

quit freaking out.

 

i was'nt freaking out, its just i saw how hard it was to get my crank pulley off when this mechanic i know did my timing belt recently, and he was using impact guns and jamming something into the flywheel or something by the starter to keep the crank pulley from moving and then after finally got it loose, then had problems with the starter or car not starting . . . . ., and i don't have those tools he had either, so i just was wanted to stay away from having to go that route, and was going to first try getting it out other ways.

i had an antenna with magnet at the end but could'nt find it, so borrowed my friends which had better magnet at the end, but when i went to use it, i tried extending it and the last piece at the end came off from it, so i could'nt use it, cause that part would fall into the timing cover also.

i talked to my friend whos a mechanic on the phone and he said it should'nt affect it since i have a rubber timing belt, and most likely fell to the bottom, and probably fell to the bottom and can try prying plastic cover out to let it fall out, but he said i should be ok to drive my car without worrying, also said since i was turning the motor by hand on the crank while going through the valve adjustment steps, the motor was turning smooth and showed nothing was caught in the timing gears,

so i decided to start it up and i drove it today just short distance and everything was fine, but i still plan on trying to get the washer out just to be sure.

i'll have to buy one of those flexible magnet things, i never seen those, thats good to have around, and a lot better than those antenna things.

 

I dropped one of the screws in once. I didn't know it fell in there and I thought I just misplaced it.
After driving about 20 minutes, the bolt jumped up when I hit a bump and the timing belt caught it - BECAUSE it's rubber. It flung the bolt around and sounded nasty. Seconds later I was stranded with a broken belt and a totally destroyed crank gear. (I have a pic somewhere and cant find it right now.) In a flash, the bolt wedged between the cover and belt and ground through the belt and through the metal teeth on the crank gear.

 

Wow, that's brutal brah. how much did that run you to get fixed?

 

About tree fiddy

 

holy crap, after hearing your story, i definetaly need to get that thing out before driving it again for sure, especially since i just got a new timing belt put on a year ago, cause it snapped on me going 60 on the highway but was lucky it did no damage, but don't want to have to get another one just cause of a little washer!

when i was searching i found this post of a guy who did same exact thing,
http://crxcommunity.com/viewtopic.ph...=18164&start=0
dropped one of those small grommets that are on the valve cover under the nuts, into his timing cover on a dohc zc, he ended up getting the grommet out by sticking chewing gum to the side of the timing belt and turning the motor by hand on the crank and he was able to get the grommet stuck to the gum and turned it back towards the top and got it.

 

You cant simply pry the plastic and have the washer fall out as the back of the crank pulley is right against the plastic. Fastest easiest way to get it out of the bottom would be to brake the bottom timing cover as little as possible at the bottom, and it will either fall out or be right there.

Or do it right and pay someone to zip your pulley off and remove the lower cover, nothing else has to be removed. A mechanic shouldnt charge more than 1/2 hour flat if you tell him what youre after

Definetely get it out of there, it can do a stupid ammount of damage in that area, pretty sure a dohc zc is an interference motor to