How Much Trouble Am I In If Any ?

Mustang gt 2001@

New Member
Apr 5, 2014
14
1
4
So I was putting in a BBK 78 mm throttle body/plenum on my wife's car. Everything was going great till I snapped a bolt that holds on the throttle linkage . I figure no big deal I can fix this so with everything else done I started the car and it seemed to run fine. I pulled the plenum back off to discover I had actually used the wrong size screw and punched into the inside of the plenum! Then I looked down into the lower intake and could see dust sized pieces of the screw down in it. Would that ruin the mother or being so small will the affects be minimal if any ? Thanks
 
  • Sponsors (?)


So I was putting in a BBK 78 mm throttle body/plenum on my wife's car. Everything was going great till I snapped a bolt that holds on the throttle linkage . I figure no big deal I can fix this so with everything else done I started the car and it seemed to run fine. I pulled the plenum back off to discover I had actually used the wrong size screw and punched into the inside of the plenum! Then I looked down into the lower intake and could see dust sized pieces of the screw down in it. Would that ruin the mother or being so small will the affects be minimal if any ? Thanks
I meant ruin the moter sorry darn spell check
 
Vacuum out the pieces of metal that fell into the intake. Then blast the inside of the intake for several minutes with The throttlebody open with some compressed air. Once you're done that, JB Weld the hole in the intake where it broke through, let it dry, then re-thread the bolt. You're probably okay for damage. Sounds like if there was any of the metal shavings sucked into the engine, it was minimal at worst.
 
Ok thanks for the advice ! I think, I'm going to take the throttle body to the speed shop that built my moter so I know its good for sure . I feel a little better knowing that I hopefully didn't ruin the moter .ill feel a lot better when it's running and I know for sure .
 
I don't see how anybody out in Internet land could possibly tell you if the shavings will or won't hurt the motor. It would depend on factors such as:
  • the type of shavings (metal or plastic).
  • the amount of shavings.
  • the size of the shavings
  • The location of the shavings.
  • has the motor been run or not?
IMO you have a number of "issues" to over come. Depending on your luck, even a tiny amount metal ingestion could cause an engine failure. The internal structures of the 4.6 intake manifold are very complex and difficult to clean. Hence the reason the "book" recommends getting a new manifold after an engine failure.

IMO if you want to be certain, then all of the debris has to be removed. Otherwise your fate is in the hands of the gear head Gods.
 
A buddy of mine had a centrifugal supercharger impeller blade explode sending shrapnel all the way through his motor and out of the exhaust. He didn't find all the pieces so he tore the motor apart to both check for damage and try to find the missing pieces. The only thing he found was a tiny little nick on one of combustion chambers. Luck I'd guess.

If any of that made it into one of your cylinders, I'd worry about it getting stuck between the piston and the cylinder wall, scoring the cylinder walls which may possibly lead to destroying the rings and compression. Just sayin...
 
As WMBurns said, it really is complete luck on what could happen.

On one hand, the tiniest of shavings could get stuck just right between the piston and cylinder and scratch it up, damaging the ring seating abilities and pretty much ruining the motor.

On the other hand, I broke off a 2" x 1" x 1/4" section of the top of my piston a few months ago, bounced it around violently inside the chamber, crushing it up into smaller pieces as it went, before finally shoving it past the exhaust valve and through the exhaust port. All without damaging the ring that was below the part of the piston that broke, or leaving a single scratch on the cylinder wall, or damaging the valves or seats. Just a couple of small nicks in the combustion chamber. Did not hurt one thing and the motor ran fantastic for several hundred miles after that.

Seeing as how relatively easy it is to pull the entire lower intake manifold, I'd yank it off, get everything out that you could, put it back on, and roll on. I very seriously doubt you'll have any problems, but even if you were, what else could you have done before those problems even happen anyway?