OK first of all I know this is gonna get a chuckle from some of you, but I am really in a jam. I was spraying T/B Cleaner in my T/B and the stupid *!@#$% spray tube shoots off the nozzle and right down into my intake!!!!!! My first reaction was to shoot myself but, then I proceeded to start taking stuff apart. I have done this before so dont think i am just yankin stuff out. anyways I am sitting here with my T/B and elbow off and I dont see the damn thing down there. NOW WHAT?!!!

 

Get a piece of coat hanger. Wrap a piece of duct tape around the end, overlapping it onto itself. It should end up looking like a flag, with the "flapping" part of the flag being the uncovered part of the duct tape.

Slide that down into the intake, twisting it slowly, moving it around. With a little luck, the tube will get stuck in the sticky side of the flag and you can retrieve it.

Good luck !!!

 

Thanks B-Man I will give that a try, I will keep you posted!

 

Any way to rig up a shop-vac or something?

 

OK I have tried the duct tape trick, but all that comes back on the tape is black/brown crap! Can anyone tell me the easiest way to get that top manifold out or maybe another trick to try or am I just screwed?!

 

Turn the truck upside-down and shake it. You may need to get a couple friends to help.

 

and how long will it take you to get here from connecticut Bancho?
I sure could use your superior intelect to help solve my problem!

 

That depends, what kind of beer do you have?

 

alright all kidding aside i have even tried the shop-vac with a clear 5/8 hose duct taped to the end. nothing is coming out of the intake. Now it either went somewhere else, but I dont see it anywhere, or it is stuck down there where I cant get to it. How many bolts are we talkin to get the upper intake out? or should I just put it back together and pray? One final thought, seeing as though I have apart this far does anyone make an intake for the 5.4?

 

I would start the engine and let it eat the nozzle, its only plastic, I don't think it will hurt anything.

 

Ditto MotoF150. It's plastic.

 

Unless it gets hung up on a valve on the way in. I'm assuming this is an "interference" motor (I could be wrong). It may be safer and wiser to take the intake off.

Then again it may just get in there and burn too but who knows?

On a separate note, I feel your pain ffej72, since I had a similar incident when I was transplanting a 1989 police 5.0 motor into my old 4cyl 1979 Mustang. I had to do a bit of disassembly to fetch the offending bit of metal (in my case).

 

ffej72,

Have you tried looking in with a mirror on a stick, it may be just around the corner down there.

This comes from the fact that I did the exact same thing. I was able to retreave mine with a mirror and one of those pincher type things that looks like a throttle cable with a thumber button on one end and four expanding fingers on the other.

I wouldn't try to start it, I'd be afraid the straw would catch on a valve and hang it up, then the piston would hit the valve and then....well we don't want to go there.

I wouldn't think that a vaccum cleaner would move enough volume of air the intire intake to pull it out of a corner. The only part of the intake that would be moving a lot of air would be runners on a cylinder that happen to have both the intake and exhaust valves open at the same time, and that only happens for a very short time during a engine rotation. So the chance of your motor stoping with the valves in that position are slim and none that it happened on that cylinder were the straw in laying.

Good luck!

Gene

 

I would be tempted to start the truck and rev it up to about 3500 and let the motor eat it, but thats not smart. Start tearing into it, youll come across it eventually.

 

I am not thrilled about the whole start it and let the truck eat it. I could get caught and cause a valve to hang open couldnt it? I would try the mirror thing and if that doesn't work I would start tearing into it.