Dropped valve shim

[Lukem3]

Long story short forgot to plug the oil valley holes, and dropped a shim inside. It's not near the spring or the valve, went into the oil hole between cylinders 3 and 4. No luck with a magnet or boroscope. Really don't want to drop the Pan, is there anything the shim could mess up. Or is it safe to assume it's stuck in the pan and the pickup should keep it there worst case scenario

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[sapote]

I think it's safe to assume the dropped shim will stay on the pan bottom. But I would manually turn the crank 3 or 4 turns to make sure it not jam anything before fire up the engine. No fun when this happened isn't it? I always use paper town to surround the valve spring just in case like this.

[Lukem3]

Yeah I've turned it by hand a good 50times. I had the little filters covering the holes. The head came back from the machine shop and they took them out. I'm used to not covering it and completely forgot until I dropped one, that the screens aren't there anymore. I just did my rod bearings last year and don't want to have to drop the sump if it's not needed. I'm just not sure if there's any passages on the way down that it could be blocking.

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[mrgizmo04]

You can drain the oil, and try to boriscope the pan from the bottom, leveraging the drain hole, the level sensor hole, and a strong magnet. It is tricky due to the ribs/baffles.

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[Cubieman]

I dropped something down the head a while back and was able to retrieve it on the 2nd try with a flexible magnet from up top. Pull up a picture of the oil pan for a reference as to where the shim may be. Try the bendy magnet from up top, the telescoping types don't work too well, you may just feel a nice "clink".

If you dropped it down where the screens are supposed to be there is a "ledge" there in the pan that goes from front to back, if your lucky it is still on this ledge, I think you may be able to get to that area from underneath.

[sapote]

I'm used to not covering it and completely forgot until I dropped one, that the screens aren't there anymore.

Are you 100% sure it dropped through that screen hole? Just make sure it is not hiding in the head and jumps out to destroy the valve spring or something.

[heinzboehmer]

Are you 100% sure it dropped through that screen hole? Just make sure it is not hiding in the head and jumps out to destroy the valve spring or something.

+1, there's a ton of nooks and crannies in the head. I've spent a good amount of time looking for a shim before finding it.

[eacmen]

+1 to above. Took me 90 minutes once to find a shim with a magnet.

[SandeepM3]

Lol same here. I spent 30 to 45 minutes on 3 different days before I finally found the shim.

[sapote]

Looking for shim in the head is not fun, and so I always assume a shim will jump off the valve during the process: I used tissue papers to make a wall around the valve I was working on, then build the next great wall again for the next valve -- each wall only took a few seconds to build.

[George Hill]

FYI, it doesn't help now, but new screens are $5 iirc and can be installed with the cams in place and the head on the block.