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Debris in Cylinder Head

10K views 11 replies 9 participants last post by  Zeeshan 
#1 ·
While gapping down my spark plugs, a piece of porcelain evidently fell off while pulling the plug up with a wrench and fell into my cylinder head. I thought it fell under the car and thought nothing of it because the porcelain is on the TOP of the plug. With new plugs in, I started the car for *ONE* second and immediately shut it off when I heard it. I pulled the plugs out and noticed the plug in cylinder 5 was mashed down, meaning that bit of porcelain obviously fell in there.

Here's what I'm looking at right now:

A) Taking an air compressor and trying to blow out all the porcelain pieces. Upside: Costs nothing. Downside: If even one little tiny piece remains, new shortblock time.

B) Taking the head apart. $1500-2000.

Any recommendations? Has anyone ever been in this situation before, as idiotic as it sounds?
 
#2 ·
Ouch. You'll need a boroscope to assess the damage. If you're lucky and there is none:

A) A small vacuum hose might work better but if it got crushed, I doubt you'd ever get it all out with blowing and/or sucking.

B) If you go this route, don't take it to a dealer. Find a good Supra mechanic who can pull the head off the block without removing the turbos and IM. It will be a lot faster, easier and cheaper.

Maybe someone else has some more ideas...

David
 
#4 ·
My brother's idea: turn the engine over by hand really carefully, until cyl #5 only has the intake valve open (during mid/late intake stroke, or just at the beginning of compression). Cap off the throttle body and any vac hoses. Put the car in high gear (and press the brake) so the motor can't turn.

Seal the cyl #5 spark plug hole as best you can, with your thumb, or maybe the plug (maybe with an o-ring at the tip, anything so that you can unseal it really really quickly). Use an air compressor to shoot compressed air into the manifold (use a large vac hose and a lot of air pressure). Remove the seal of the plug hole as fast as you can. Hopefully maybe the debris will blow out through the plug hole.

Shiva

Shiva
 
#6 ·
Yea...you can remove the head with the stock twins still bolted on, it's just harder to do from the extra offset weight. Really a 2man job to do it safely without bashing anything.
 
#7 ·
lilmatty96 said:
is it possible to remove the head without taking off the stock turbos?
yeah i've had the head off twice with the stock turbo's, but in reality it only takes ~1.5 hours to pull the motor and have the ability to work without breaking your back.

just my 2 cents



marc, i'll have time on sunday, i have a really nice vacuum with good suction that i'll adapt to fit a small hose and hopefully stuff enough of it in the cyl and wiggle it around we should get something. and if not at least knock the pieces into view to grab with some claws.
 
#8 ·
I know you don't want to hear this....but why take the chance with a vacuum and all??

Just pull the head and clean it out that way...only way to be sure in the end. You don't want to start it up again and find out you missed somethin and really mess things up.
 
#9 ·
Funny this happens to you because yesterday when I went to replace the coil packs/plugs/clips/pcv hoses I noticed there was a ton of debris there :rant:
to make matters worse the rear pcv hose was totally missing and the back two cylinder plug holes were filled with oil. I didnt realise there was oil and bits of debris there and when i pulled the plug, guess where most of it went. Needless to say i spent over an hour with a vaccuum, magnet, needlenose pliers, an air compressor, towel etc trying to get most of it out.
I started the car and drove it for a few minutes today and thank the good Lord everything was ok
 
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