Hi all,

Today I was removing my fuel injectors so I could clean them. Long story short four of my injectors dropped a little plastic piece into the cylinder. I’ve tried to vacuum these parts out… no luck. I’ve been frantically searching the web to find any other options. The only thing I think I’ve found is removing the intake manifold. I’ve never attempted anything like this before. Would these even help me get closer to where the part may have dropped into the engine? Is there a chance the part dropped into an open valve and into the cylinder?

i assume this happens all the time. Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated.

 

What part did you drop in there? I did not think any particular part would fit. Did you remove the spark plugs? Because the vacuum won't work unless you can get some air flow. With both the plug and injector out, you may be able to shot them out one way or the other but its a long shot. And like you said, the position of the valve will make a huge difference. Odds are most will be closed. I think a scope could be your best friend to go down in there and see where they part is. I have bought some scope for under $60 on Amazon that work pretty well.

With that said, it's plastic. The engine will likely just chew the bits up and spit em out, more or less. It is an interference engine, I believe, but again being plastic I doubt any damage would occur.

 

I’ve read that on many forums… it’s plastic and the engine will eat it up. However, because there are four of these little parts (retainer clip?), that dropped into the engine I’m worried of the issues they might cause. I’m very inexperienced with any of this. If the intake manifold is easy enough to remove and will give me access to the top of the valves. I think I can find these parts if they didn’t drop into the cylinder. I guess that’s my question. If I remove the intake manifold. Will I have access to where this part could have dropped into?




This is the part that fell in from four injectors.

You can see the part missing here.

 

The injector caps are larger than the holes on the manifolds themselves. Did they break apart and fall in? Because physics 101 says they could not have fallen in. But removing the intake will certainly help by giving you more access to where they dropped. The intake is not difficult to remove. It is made of, basically, three sections. Black plastic main body and two side metal runners (or such) that stay attached to the main body. You would be best to replace the lower gaskets of course if you remove it.

But are you sure the caps are just not still sitting in the injector seats on the manifold itself? Like I said, they are physically larger than the port opening so they should not fall in.

 

I believe those are called “pintil” caps. I broke one on my wife’s Volvo and it was easier to replace the injector than find a replacement. An injector rebuilder will have them, but the cost of refurbishing injectors is often close to the cost of new injectors, and new ones will perform better anyway (if OEM).

Like Dakota said, they are intended to fit against a sealing surface in the intake, so they are larger than the hole they inject fuel through. Unless the caps got broken, they couldn’t have fallen in the hole. You should verify they aren’t still in the intake or have fallen somewhere else on the top of the engine.

Good luck! We’ve all been there. You’ll get it figured out 👍

 

Thought I'd throw in my .02. Had the same problem, and the pintle caps can definitely fall through the hole. I had three fall in cylinders 1, 3, and 5. I suspect it was the rebuilt injectors I used with shoddy caps, but after trying for two hours to get them out with every creative idea I could think of, I said a silent prayer and YOLO'd it. No strange noises, quick misfire code in two of the cylinders as the combustion process digested the plastic, and then she ran like new. No codes after I cleared the initial one. Can't guarantee everyone will be as lucky, but just thought I'd include this data point for anyone debating removing the intake manifold or not.