94GSRNewbie

Ok, to make a long story short, a piece of rubber (picture a dime but with a whole in the middle.. similar dimensions) from my Comptech short ram intake managed to get sucked into the throttle body of my car. I didn't notice it till a few hours ago and the car seems fine. (Could have happened a few hours to a few days ago.)

WHAT SHOULD I DO?

Since the car seems fine, I hope it went through the entire system and got pushed out the exhaust. Is that likely? (PLEASE!!!) What other scenarios could there be? (Stuck in a manifold? Melted in a cylinder? Etc..) Any advice on what to do? I'd rather not rip apart the engine, since the car seems fine. Thanks for reading this. Looking forward to good advice and possibly a side dose of laughter.. hehe

-94GSRNewbie

94GSRNewbie

UPDATE: I tried the vacuum idea with a 6.25 hp shop vac...

Attached vac hose to throttle body using duct tape, etc..
Held throttle wide open.
Took out spark plugs.
Ran vacuum while slowly turning crankshaft.
Repeated a few times sometimes holding open secondary runner open and alternating cranking fast and slow.

RESULT: Nothing came out. All 4 spark plugs I removed looked fine too. They all looked the same.

So I'm inclined to say the little piece is either melted and stuck on a valve, got burnt to crisp in the cylinder, never got sucked into the intake, or got flushed out the exhaust...

Either way, I think I'm done. I don't anticipate taking off the intake manifold, since I don't think I'd be able to get to it if it was melted on a valve anyway...

THANK YOU EVERYBODY FOR YOUR HELP THESE PAST FEW DAYS! I really appreciate it!

Just for reference (so you know what I've been referring to), below are some pics I took of the rubber piece. You'll notice where the lip got ripped off. The stack of coins in the last picture is to show how thick the lip woulda been and what the diameter was (imagine another lip with similar dimensions to the existing one). It's job was to hold the piece in place to the pipe. The lip was actually part of the piece that ripped off (the total height of the entire piece is the same as it is now.. the lip was part of the rim)





This is kinda what the lip looked like.. The intake tube was pinned in between the lip and the existing lip on the piece.

- 94GSRNewbie

92Si

I wouldn't worry about it man, if your car is running fine you shouldn't have a problem. If it was going to be a problem, it would have happend the first time you ran the car after the piece got sucked in. Now had it been a dime or piece of metal, I'd be worrying. Did you take the TB off to look in the manifold?

johng

Just the missing chunk is what was lost in the intake? Probably nothing to worry about. You'd know if it was keeping a valve from closing all the way. More than likely, it got roasted.




[Modified by johng, 12:47 PM 7/18/2001]

94GSRNewbie

No, the piece that broke off consisted of the missing chunk as well as a little lip (see pic of 2 dimes) that secured the rubber piece to the intake.

I'm glad to hear that if there were any problems, they would have happened by now. That makes me feel a lot better. Just in case, I may remove the intake manifold this weekend. I don't know if it's possible to just reach in with my fingers and a flashlight to find the piece if it's resting on a valve, but I figure it's worth the try. Thanks for the advice guys.

-94GSRNewbie

johng

Pull the fuel rail and the injectors first (5-10 minutes) and look into the holes in the manifold where the injectors fit. It might still be in there. This pic might help.





[Modified by johng, 12:57 PM 7/20/2001]