Learn from others mistakes.

[Frenchy]

Just a quick story to serve as a memo to everyone to STAY vigilant. Was doing my thermostat/housing today and had the throttle body off. It's fairly windy out here so I decided to stick a neat little ball of paper towel in the intake to keep nasty stuffs out (some already know where this is going). All went well, had it running in no time at all and took it for a test drive. During middle of the drive it felt like I lost a cylinder or two due to misfire... odd I thought, maybe it was spark plug wires getting wet and shorting out from the water I used to rinse everything off? Then it hit me, I searched the trash bin and interior of my truck, nothing. Ripped throttle body off and shoved a flashlight down in it and sure enough, a few tiny pieces of paper towel were all that remained of 3 full sheets.... I've said no less than 2 prayers now hoping that all will be ok in there. Seems to run just fine, so I'm truly hoping it all passed through with out issue. The worst part is I'm an industrial tech for a living, and I've never done anything like this when working. I guess when it's your own stuff you tend to get negligent... Learn from my mistakes folks, double and triple check these things while re-assemblying.

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

50/50 chance.... Have a snake camera? Might be worth pulling plugs and checking.

 

[scotts90ranger]

I work for a company that puts fuel systems on engines for industrial and marine use. We've seen about everything at work during production... 6mm lock washers don't do too much to a combustion chamber, 6mm bolts on the other hand... same with 3/8" nuts or washers... the latest one a month or so ago was an engine suddenly lost compression on a cylinder, stuck the bore scope down the spark plug hole and only noticed something on a valve seat, pulled the head and it was a piece of melted plastic, best guess is the cut end of a zip tie that burnt in the cylinder but didn't make it out the exhaust valve then stuck on the seat and it lost compression...

 

[scotts90ranger]

if it runs fine, chances are it made it through

 

[fastpakr]

I wouldn't spend a second worrying about paper towels going through if you aren't already hearing ominous noises.

 

[Frenchy]

I ended up using it yesterday evening to haul the boat to and from the lake, figured if something is wrong I'd rather find it now vs during the work week. She ran just like she always has. I won't stop worrying for at least a week or two just because I'm paranoid lol, but it would seem everything will be ok. Feel like a total cotton headed ninnymuggin, but after this I'm sure precautions will be taken to never allow this to happen again

 

[Blmpkn]

Don't feel bad.. A buddy of mine works in industrial maintenance and did the same thing with his 85' Monte Carlo and a red Napa rag a few years back. Bent valves were a good excuse for nice new aluminum heads lol.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Yeah, I can see where a rag would be a bigger problem than some paper towels. I’m usually guilty of using rags, so far I’ve remembered to take them out though. Perhaps I should reconsider my approach because the way I remember things.... lol

 

[bobbywalter]

Killed my not even broke in all the way brand new....new.....not reman, crate 6.2 with a rag.




I had to go in the house....

Ask permission from my wife to get my balls out of her purse....

And punch them.



Just because.

 

[Snoranger]

I wouldn’t worry about paper towels too much, but rags are a killer. I’ve seen rags take out turbos, engines and even an entire hydraulic system to the tune of $18k.

 

[fastpakr]

Ten or fifteen years ago I was working on an old MB diesel car and got side tracked for a few months. Came back to it and finished assembling everything but couldn't get the thing started. Literally spent days (maybe weeks) of frustration staring at it for a few minutes here and there as I had time but couldn't figure out. All of a sudden I had a eureka moment and remembered stuffing a rag in the intake pipe under the air cleaner housing to make sure nothing got down in there. It had gotten sucked in a few inches so I couldn't see it, but thankfully hadn't gone into the engine. Removed that and it immediately fired up like nothing had ever been wrong. Tons of worry before figuring it out, but it could have been so much worse.

 

[91stranger]

Always leave the corner of the rag sticking out in a very obvious way so it doesn't happen. We use yellow tape and a black marker. Pretty hard to miss yellow tape stuck to things when re-assembling. 5 seconds of good prep will save you 5 hours down the road.

 

[Shran]

I put the 2.9 from my Ranger into my old Bronco II - it lasted an awful long time and went through 7 or 8 different owners until I saw a Craigslist ad with a picture of it asking for an engine. I talked to the latest owner and he said that he got it cheap because the one before him had stuffed rags into the water pump ports in the block during a water pump replacement and hadn't removed them and it died pretty quickly after that.

 

[Dirtman]

Never play poker with a man named after a city, never get involved with a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her chest, the whirlpool jets are for external use only.

 

[fastpakr]

Never play poker with a man named after a city, never get involved with a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her chest, the whirlpool jets are for external use only.

Don't pull the mask off that old lone ranger either!