Small Gasket pieces fell into lifter valley

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evans68cuda

evans68cuda

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Hey everyone, I've been re-gasketing my 340 and when I took a wire brush to here the intake rests on the head, and got some small gasket particles into the valley. I had a cloth over it but I got it with the wire brush and it all flew in. Not sure how concerned I should be with this. Will tiny pieces really hurt the motor? Also I got a thin piece of silicone, about 3/4 inch long that fell into the timing cover, should I take that off and find that piece. Thanks!

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silicone will stop oil/plug oil pickup. the size your talking will not stop the oil, but it will sit on your oil pick up tube screen. Be careful that a strand of the wire brush itself doesn't make it into the engine.
 
318willrun said:
silicone will stop oil/plug oil pickup. the size your talking will not stop the oil, but it will sit on your oil pick up tube screen. Be careful that a strand of the wire brush itself doesn't make it into the engine.
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Ok I'll go back and check. Man this sucks
 
Could be worse. My first motor 289 Ford. I had it all put together, mostly. I found this funny looking hexagonal shaft with an E-clip on it in the parts box. What's this? Ratz! That's the oil pump drive shaft! Motor was in the Ranchero already. I'll slide that E-clip off and drop it in throught the top. The distributor holds it on the top, the oil pump on the bottow. No worries. I had it just about there when it slipped from my oily fingers and PING. It went to the bottom of the oil pan. Wouldn't have been so bad if i hadn't used red Cat gasket sealer on BOTH sides of the pan gasket. I had to beat that sucker off with a punch and hammer. The old man laughed beer out his nose when I told him what I'd done.
 
Unconventional said:
Could be worse. My first motor 289 Ford. I had it all put together, mostly. I found this funny looking hexagonal shaft with an E-clip on it in the parts box. What's this? Ratz! That's the oil pump drive shaft! Motor was in the Ranchero already. I'll slide that E-clip off and drop it in throught the top. The distributor holds it on the top, the oil pump on the bottow. No worries. I had it just about there when it slipped from my oily fingers and PING. It went to the bottom of the oil pan. Wouldn't have been so bad if i hadn't used red Cat gasket sealer on BOTH sides of the pan gasket. I had to beat that sucker off with a punch and hammer. The old man laughed beer out his nose when I told him what I'd done.
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Oh man hahahaha good one! Well I wouldn't mind having to re gasket everything if it was a gaurentee to get all the debris out, but since it's impossible to pick out every tiny piece of gasket.
 
If diesel were as oily as it used to be, leave the drain plug out and pour it through. Maybe drain it into a screen of some sort to be able to see the debris? Diesel is so darn clean now it doesn't leave much in the way of lubricant behind.
 
Clean what you can out of the top of the engine with a rag and shop vac...

Drain the oil, it should come out the drain plug hole...
 
The debris big enough to get stuck on the oil pickup screen is the booger. If there were enough to block a good share of the screen, oil pressure tanks, motor follows.
 
68cuder said:
Hey everyone, I've been re-gasketing my 340 and when I took a wire brush to here the intake rests on the head, and got some small gasket particles into the valley. I had a cloth over it but I got it with the wire brush and it all flew in. Not sure how concerned I should be with this. Will tiny pieces really hurt the motor? Also I got a thin piece of silicone, about 3/4 inch long that fell into the timing cover, should I take that off and find that piece. Thanks!

View attachment 1715085194
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I would never use a wire brush on that. A single edge razor blade on a scraper tool is pretty much all I use. I don't want little wires getting into the engine, nor what happened to you, getting the rag caught up in the spinning brush, nor worry about rounding off square edges on gasket surfaces. If you use those fel pro Teflon coated gaskets, they don't leave much , if any, gasket mat'l on the surfaces.
 
Does not look like a disaster. Pick out as much as you can; spend plenty of time on it. Get the largest bits so it does not get into the oil pickup, as pointed out. Then run it; oil dropping into the valley will slowly move it down to the pan. If it is all paper, then the tiny bits should go through the oil pump without damaging it and be caught in the oil filter. Change oil and filter after 100 miles and the filter again at maybe 500 miles.
 
On an original engine tear down seems you were likely to find bits of umbrella seals and cork gasket chips that were rattling around in the oil pickup as you shake them out. If washed down and drained I don't think the "soft" stuff you may have left is as much a concern as the possible wire from the brush getting caught up in something rotating.
Like others say, vacuum thoroughly, wash down with light weight oil, drain the sump, refill, run a couple hundred, change oil and filter.
 
68cuder said:
Thanks guys! I'm gonna go get 5 quarts of 5w20 and wash that thing down tonight!
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To clarify my post, I'm suggesting to pour some light weight oil over the cam before you drain the oil to help wash particles down.
 
How about using a magnet for any possible wire brush pieces?
 
Keep the wire brush away from any internal part of the engine, use a sharp putty knife and take ypur time. The last thing you need are pieces of wire going into the oil pump and into a bearing if it doesn't jam the pump and break the stock intermediate shaft or spin the gear.

Paper gasket bits are least concerning to me.
However they will end up in the pick up screen if it's still intact, enough bits and it will clog it.
If you just have a couple bits, don't sweat it, just get what you can....and buy a magnetic oil pan drain plug ....just in case a wire went in.
 
I remember when it was popular, for a min, to 3m pad all gasket surfaces... till one day our lead at the shop I just started at lost a bit of the pad....never found it.....till the car came back with a wasted camshaft.
 
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