I had a shitty morning.

I went to replace my distributor because the rotor was trashed on my old one, and when i pushed it into the slots on the cam and started tightening it down there was a snapping sound, I rotated the rotor freely and was like oh ****, so i pulled the distributor back off, and sure enough the ears on the distributor had broken off! The worst part was it went inside the hole there where the camshaft sits. I tried using a flashlight, a magnet, and even drained the oil and pulled the valve cover but I cannot locate the tabs. Am I screwed? Where do I look for those metal tabs? I figured they would be resting inside that "housing" where the distributor plugs in but apparently they got tossed back farther. Maybe a diagram of that area of the engine, oil passageways, etc would help. What should my next step be?

1995 honda civic ex 1.6 vtec

 

Would a new head fix the problem? Or would I have to replace the entire engine?

 

I also have a spare F22 motor for the car that I currently own. Is that easy to install? I've done research but most people spend time **** talking the F and say do an H swap instead

 

Need pics.

 

The only pic I can provide is one of the spot where the dizzy goes..... Pretty standard procedure.

Us that what you want

 

Pic of head and broken distributor with your hand holding sign with handwritten "crazy".

 

You're talking about breaking what I call the drive dog, the little rotating/sliding part on the end of the distributor shaft which engages the slot in the end of the cam, right? Check that the cam is not damaged. You can take the dog off of another distributor by driving out the roll pin which holds it onto the shaft.

Most stuff that gets loose in the valvetrain area will find its way to the oil return holes in the front corners of the head which drop straight into the oil pan.

 

Mr. crazy may be trolling us, so you may want to wait for pics, though I don't want to interfere with your "help others philosophy" that I much respect.

 

All the tools in the world and he can't fix a simple broken dog ear

 

Only broken is gonna be his internet!

 

Yeah I'm sorry. I wasn't trolling. Didn't get pics. I wasn't sure if the pieces were big enough to get wedged in the oil channels and not fall into the oil pan. Does that mean I have to start the engine for a minute to let the pieces "fall" into the oil pan? I'm scared they might damage other engine components.

Ron I'm not trolling. You have my word on that, I wouldn't come back to tech to troll. I really need help here. Right now my car has the oil drained out, the dizzy off, and awaiting a tow Monday. I cannot provide pics at this time because its dark.

 

Yes the dog ear is broke. Both in fact. But.... The problem here is where did they go??? I am afraid they're trapped in my engine.

 

Still no pic's?

 

This is how it sits now. Not really sure what you want me to take a picture of, seeing how if I could SEE the dog ears I would retrieve them rather than make a thread about how to find them in my engine.

 

No pics of broken distributor... I returned it to autozone already.

 

I installed a new dizzy, put the oil back in, then started it. I didn't hear any "clink" noises or anything suspicious, engine ran great. I let it run for two minutes, followed by a few revs to be sure the oil was being pushed around. So if I drive my car around the pieces of metal should find their way to the corners of the head and drop into the oil pan, not damaging anything? And once their in the oil pan, can they be recirculated back through the engine again and wreak havoc or does it just sit in the bottom of the oil? My mechanic is doing an oil pan job and if that's the case it could be extracted then.

 

Bump

 

See in this picture here where the towel is stuffed into where the dizzy goes? This is where the dog ears broke off. I've ran the engine twice now without confirmation that they were extracted from the engine. It's quiet as a mouse, I haven't heard any scraping, rattling, knocking, or felt any tremors in the engine. I don't think those pieces are big enough to just "fall" into the oil pan, but in that cavity right there are they at risk for damaging anything? Is there any way I can retrieve the pieces without tearing the entire engine apart?

 

It appears as though i could remove those two bolts holding the cam cap down, but would I be able to move the cam at all to reach into that cavity better? A strong magnet wasn't able to pull either piece towards it, so they either fell too far away or they aren't there at all, but seeing how the dizzy was plugged in its not possible for them to have fallen out of the hole either. I'm really stressed out about this.

 

You can pull your valve cover so you can see better. If they fall into the pan you should be pretty safe. Even if they stick in the drain hole, there is more than one drain hole so highly unlikely to cause any oil starvation.

I think I would stick a pretty heavy duty speaker magnet on the side of the oil pan in the back for a bit and see if you can attract them that way. Don't want the tangs flying up into the crank or even the pickup tube if your can avoid it. I would think they would be too heavy for that, but who am I to say.

 

I can't see into that cavity by just removing the valve cover. Thanks for the advice

 

I have a hard time understanding what cavity you are referring to.

 

See pic above with towel stuffed into distributor hole

 

That pic doesn't show me what cavity you are referring to. Not sure how you cant remove the cam cap to get to it, nor see down the head with the valve cover moved off. You probably don't know your engine better than you think.

 

When I take the valve cover off, it appears that the spot on the end of the camshaft where the dizzy fits into it is isolated from the rest of the head, ie if I take the cover off and look into this hole in broad daylight, its dark in there. Take your dizzy off and peer inside. That hole, is the "cavity" I'm referring to