While changing my idle pulleys on my 07 4.6L I didn’t notice that the drivers side idle pulley bolt was longer than the passenger side bolt when I tightened it down it went true the timing cover. Will I have any problems with the small broke piece of aluminum from the timing cover that must have fell down in to the timing/oil pan I switched the bolts back to the right length bolt and put some high temp thread sealant and torqued them down to make sure oil doesn’t leak pass the bolt.
my friend told my to turn the engine over by hand to make sure if any metal pieces fell on the chain it would fall down into the pan before starting it. I plan on doing an oil change before I run it should I drop the oil pan and see if I can find any of the pieces.


The circle is where the bolt broke true.


also I noticed that new passenger side idle pulley has a real slight play if I try and move it back and forth is this normal.

 

I would do what your friend said, and change the oil like you said. But I wouldn't drop the oil pan because I'd figure the part that came off couldn't get past the oil filter so it wouldn't harm the engine. But you may want to drop the oil pan for the peace of mind.

As far as the pulley moving, if that's the belt tensioner pulley, it could have some slight play in it, but not on the shaft itself.

 

Thanks i ended up just changing the oil and turned the crank over by hand. I check my brothers f-150 with the 5.4l and the pulley seems the same so I’m guessing it’s just some small bearing clearance play and was over guessing it.

 

On my '04 F-150 and my '07 Mustang GT, all of the idler pullies have a very slight bit of play side to side. And they have been replaced over the years multiple times by me. They've all done it. Both the gates aftermarket as well as the OEM motorcraft all do the same thing.