This is my luck...I have started cleaning my intake valve at every oil change, so yesterday, I went to spray cleaner into it, the plastic tube flies off the can, into the intake and down into the engine. I am thinking, "What the heck did I just do!!!" So I disassemble the intake and as I am doing so, the one bolt that is most hidden on the right side of the intake is very loose. All other bolts are tight - looks like Ford engine forgot to tighten this one. I am thinking maybe this is a good thing to happen, because I would never have known to check these bolts. After I take off the intake, I still cannot look down into the engine because the opening is back too far under the body. I get a flashlight and a small mirror and sure enough, there it is all the way down in the right side. AT this point I am out of faith that I will get this thing out. I get my little flexable grabber and stick it down in there. This is one of the most ackward positions I have been in for a while because I have to hold this mirror, rest a trouble light just over the opening enough to get some light down into the engine and then manipulate my grabber over the plastic tube with the same hand I am holding the mirror with. eventually I got it out and all is well. Who would have known that that bolt was loose. After about 30-60,000 miles, I could have developed a leak and could have been looking for hours for a vacuum leak - or maybe nothing would ever happen at all, you never know. So my advice is to MAKE SURE YOUR TUBE IS NOT GOING TO COME OFF BEFORE YOU SPRAY INTO YOUR INTAKE.

runnert

------------------
2000 Black F150 XL 4.6L 5speed Sport 4X4 Extended cab towing package 3.55 rear limited slip

 

I didn't think we could spray anything into the intake of our engines. I thought there was a label telling us not to spray carb cleaner into the intake. Maybe I seen that on a different vehicle. Anyways, glad to see you removed the plastic piece.

 

chuck wheet,

What you are refering to, Ford use to coat the inside of the intake with teflon, which meant if you clean it, the chemical can remove the teflon. I don't know what model year they quit coating the inside, but mine does not have any coating nor any warning to not clean out the intake.

Runnert

------------------
2000 Black F150 XL 4.6L 5speed Sport 4X4 Extended cab towing package 3.55 rear limited slip

 

I think that since it was only a thin soft flexible hose I would have just pretended it never happened and started the engine, now if it were metal that would be different

------------------
2000 F-150, XLT, SC, 5.4, 4X4, 355 LS, ORP, Black/Silver, class III, single CD, sliding glass, med. gray, keyless, elect. shift, engine date 8-18-99, Superchip. '93 Harley Fatboy Black & tons of chrome

 

Ouch -- I'll bet you could have just forgotton about that plastic tube and it would never have caused any problem whatsoever -- even if it had managed to get into an open valve -- the fury of fire that would have resulted for the few cycles would have pulverized it as it ingested it.

Now, I have a bit of a similar story -- but first it is important to remember that back in the 'olden days' we had carbon-makers instead of throttle body or multi-point fuel injection -- and when the choke would stick closed on cold days, they'd really flood things out.

A common one-person remedy for a severly-flooded engine was to take off the air cleaner and jamb a pencil into the top of the carb to hold open the choke while starting the car.

Coincidentally, back then Bic® pens were running commercials touting their strong Dyamite Tip - and pens were literally shot from guns into 2x4's, strapped to ice skates and soes of Latino dancers, and other idiotic stunts to prove that the tip was truly tough (Today's Bic® pen tips are plastic -- and only LOOK like the metal used in the early pens).

It also happens that the clear plastic barrel of those old Bic® pens was intolerant of gasoline -- and you wouldn't believe how much damage to the top of a piston and underside of a cylinder head can result when a Dyamite (however it was spelled) tip gets sucked off the end of the pen and jostled around the inside of a cylinder bore.

'Glad your story has a happy ending.

 

Next time this may help. I've been using a flexible rubber tether that attaches the tube to the spray can whether or not the tube is in the nozzle. It's called "Use it or lose it" by Energy Release Products, www.energyrelease.com. Another simple "Why didn't I think of that?" idea.

[This message has been edited by Ghz (edited 02-19-2001).]

 

You can also poke a hole in a thick rubber band with an ice pick, push the tube through the hole about 1/4", insert the tube in the nozzle, and let the rubber band lay around the top of the can/nozzle. Cheap and effective.

BTW. Been there before..........ONCE. Except I shot the tube directly into one of the cylinders through the spark plug hole on the drag bike. We had to lube the cylinders after a day's racing. The fuel we used was so corrosive it would rust the cylinders and valve seats by the next day.

------------------
98 F-150 XLT 4X4 ORP Super Cab Short Bed, 4.6, Auto, 4.10's, Mag-Hytec diff. cover, Magnacharger supercharger, K&N FIPK, Superchip, Gibson single cat-back, 80/100w German head lamps, 80w amber fog lamps, Warn HS9500i winch with semi hidden mount, Wrangler dual battery kit with red & yellow top Optima batteries, 285/75R16 Goodyear MT/R's, 16x8 Center Line Hell Cats (JUNK WHEELS), Rancho RSX shocks, B&M deep aluminum trans pan, Rhino bedliner. Needs one more door.
http://hometown.aol.com/ninetyeightfword

 

I thought about just leaving it down in there, and I would have if it was impossible to get out, but the way my luck is sometimes I thougtht I had better try. I try to fix about anything I can myself, but I don't know that much about engines and I had no idea what would happen. I thought it might melt away, but I didn't really know what would happen. Always best to just try, that's how I see it.

runnert

------------------
2000 Black F150 XL 4.6L 5speed Sport 4X4 Extended cab towing package 3.55 rear limited slip