dropped a pintle cap. how berked?

So while chasing a fuel leak on the mpfi over lunch, I dropped a pintle cap down the intake/head. Tried everything to get it back without buying intake gasket set number 4. And yanking the intake.

So, it's one of the plastic kind. Very flimsy.

Part of me says to pull the intake, and pray that the intake valve was closed. Other potential says it will cause no harm, just get pulverized by combustion and shot out the exhaust.

Small block mopar with solid roller cam and indy heads. Lots of spring pressure on the valves, forged pistons, he beam rods.

Can you slowly turn the engine until a valve is as open as possible, then blow compressed air through the spark plug hole?

Hope for the best? If you think it has not gone into the combustion chamber, you can first try it with the valve just cracked?

I've pulled out injectors with pieces of Pintle caps still hanging on which means the rest went through the motor, makes me cringe but I've never seen any damage caused by them. Then again I don't want anything going through my motor that shouldn't. I understand not wanting to pull the intake for a 4th or 5th time. Maybe you can come across a borescope and do the "ye ole gum and stick trick"

Tried that. And the shop vac. And the flexible spring loaded grabber. And....

I know it's in there. Not exactly sure where there is.

I really don't want to pull the intake again. ..

If worst comes to worst, at least small block Mopar intakes are pretty quick / easy to pull...

How attached are you to the new motor? I think it's all up to how you feel. berkeley it and let her eat it, or pull it apart one more time

I'm going to order the gaskets tonight. Berk.

Can you turn the engine upside down and shake it? Lol.

Borescope? If it's sitting on top of a piston you can probably get it with tape on a stick though the plug hole. Or maybe even in the intake port if it's a 4 barrel carb manifold.

Can you borrow or buy an inspection camera if you dont already own one?. That way you might be able to locate it and then have a better idea of how to get it out.

If it were an older engine you didn't care to much about, I'd just say run it, its plastic vs metal, the engine should digest it no worries... But I can understand your cautiousness with it.

Edit: Broken yugo beat me to it.

Ooh! You can buy an inspection camera from harbor freight, retrieve item, then return it knowing darn good and well that turd camera will fail on you anyways, and nobody will care. Plus you'll get to sock it to China.

Walmart sells inspection cameras too, I have one. You know that you can return anything to walmart right?

I'm going ahead and pulling the intake again. Better safe than sorry. I don't want to, but it's for the best.

Am I the only one who read this thread wondering what a "pintle" is?

It's the small plastic top hat on the end of 5.0 and tpi injectors.

I wasn't sure either but I thought it was the plastic part. Any chance you can dissolve it with methyl ethyl ketone and it won't hurt your engine?

Lots of compressed air through the spark plug hole while turning the motor by hand. It should blow out one end or the other.

NOHOME wrote: Am I the only one who read this thread wondering what a "pintle" is?

Pintle caps protect the Pintle of Pintle injectors. Pintle Pintle Pintle. Anyways, as you can see most injectors by now (older style Pintle injectors not the newer disk style) have degraded apart and love to break apart inside motors. I'd like to meet the fellow who saw if fit to put plastic in a hot gas and carbon filled area and thought it was a good idea! They do protect the Pintle (little rod sticking out of the end of the injector) cause if it bends the slightest going in it's going to stick open or shut. Why they didn't just make the injectors have more meat on them to cover the Pintle no one knows...and it's hard as berkeley to find new ones!

I feel your pain dusterdb13

Your time and money. I'd just start it and blow it out. It's just a bit of plastic that I can't see doing any harm to the pistons or valves.

What if you remove the carb, put a plate (wood or metal) over the oepning and start blowing as much compressed air as possible in to the manifold.

Then start turning the engine by hand with the plugs out. It should come out, no?

Or hook the shop vac up to the cover plate and do the same thing.

You can duct tape a long piece of surgical hose into the end of your shop vac, so you can feed it in through the plug hole and the cap will "stick" to the hose. Shop vac isn't going to have enough umph to get it out otherwise...it will just pull air in through the open valves.

Tried all the suggestions but rotating the engine. It's on the compression stroke on that cylinder.

I'm pulling the intake again after work tomorrow.

No. I just didn't want to be the first to ask

NOHOME wrote: Am I the only one who read this thread wondering what a "pintle" is?

I bought two of the small tip inspection bore scope someone on here had a pallet of thinking I'd sell one localy and make back part of the investment...but never got around to selling it.. don't even recall how much they were... but I'd sell you the NIB unit.

Bumped for how you solved this since we know you did!