I am bonding a small magnet onto a 5mm diameter rod and going to do a bit of fishing down the plug hole
Fitting the lower intake manifold, needed to tap a 6mm thread, dropped the tap onto the work bench and it bounced off the stainless plate the vice is
bolted to, onto the engine. Straight down the only intake tract with fully open valves
I am bonding a small magnet onto a 5mm diameter rod and going to do a bit of fishing down the plug hole
Unlucky once retrieved you will have to get a black cat!
Happy fishing
Bloody hell what are the odds on that 
Dont loose the magnet aswell or you will be up sh*t creek without a paddle
Crap, that's just unlucky! I find something like these to be really useful for when I drop stuff:
MAGNETIC PICK UP TOOL 2/5/8 LB PICKUP TOOL TELESCOPIC MAGNET EXTENDING MAGNET BN | eBay
OMEWARE2U
If it's difficult getting the magnet in on a rigid stick, could you bond it onto a piece of string so that it's easier to withdraw?
Motor Mech's Mantra, If it can go wrong, it will go wrong, in the worst POSSIBLE way, when it is most inconvenient, when you least need it, in the most improbable way, ....................... An Oh Fudge moment, guaranteed almost every time.
No way!
Lucky you saw it go in there, and not just thought it had disappeared somewhere on floor!!
Oh shite, good luck hope its an easy fix
good excuse to buy one of those usb snake cams off the bay to make sure its in there!
I had a similar issue then the magnet on the end of the rod fell off
Double bugger
After about 2 hours finally got it out 
The problem was the magnet picking up the tap near the middle, eventually fiddled it along to the end with another
piece of 5mm rod, and after the 3rd attempt manages to pull it out before it fell back in.
quote:
Originally posted by CosKev3
No way!
Lucky you saw it go in there, and not just thought it had disappeared somewhere on floor!!
Isn't a hole in one mean beers all round 
An acquaintance of mine (cannot call him a mate since he's an idiot) had a similar thing happen. Dropped a bolt and couldn't find it. Simply ignored it and started engine. Turns out it had fallen into the cam belt cover (top was off while he was fiddling). Broke the belt and wrecked a perfectly good 225 bhp Dunnell Zetec. Soon sorted with a brand new 225 bhp Dunnell Zetec.
My Dad Stripped the engine out of his diesel ford sierra (2.3L 63bhp IIRC). Sent it off to be rebored and new pistons etc. On putting it back in he
dropped a spanner onto the bore and chipped the rim. Out came the engine and it went off to engineers again. First time I saw my Dad cry.
My Dad left his brand new Harley Davidson Carb on his workbench and as I had a day off school I decided to make a bird box. Wood shavings everywhere.
He cried then as well.
On rebuilding a engine my Dad heard a weird ting ting ting ting ting on starting. Took the head off and a he'd dropped a washer in the
combustion chamber.
Makes my Dad sound a bit of a dope until you realise he spent 40 years as a breakdown engineer for the haulage industry. Claims to have rebuilt over
1000 engines. He must have done a good job on the Sierra as it went round the clock THREE times in his ownership and it was a taxi before he bought
it! Ford didn't rate it's own vehicles as the odometer maxed out at 100 000 miles
Many moons ago we were racing a mates Sports 2000.
He was setting some pretty impressive practise times until he suddenly span off for no obvious reason.
Car recovered back to the pits.
Transpires some previous numpty had the gearbox filler plug vibrate loose and disappear.
It surfaced (or words to that effect) in the gearbox where it bounced around until it locked the box solid.
Fortunately we were able to retrieve it without damage to the box and then wired it.
In fact we went on to win what was grandly called "The Irish Grand Prix" - eat your hearts out E. Jordan, F Synter & others!!
Cheers, Pewe10 
When I rebuilt my crossflow, I poked a rag in the inlet manifold to stop crap getting in. I completely forgot about it and bolted the carb on. It
started ok but ran a bit rough, then it hit me.......
Got away with a new head gasket and was lucky not to bend the inlet valves!
Whilst replacing the cams after doing the valve shims on my Benelli Tornado, I managed to drop one of the small cam sprocket bolts straight down the
timing chain tunnel After staring in disbelief for 20 seconds, with visions of stripping the entire engine down, I got out my magnet-on-a-stick
waggled it around in the timing chain tunnel and amazingly pulled the bolt out!
Lesson learned; stuff rags into every available hole on the engine, but remember to take them out again.
quote:
Originally posted by MikeRJ
After staring in disbelief for 20 seconds, with visions of stripping the entire engine down,
Removing chain driven DOHC heads is NOT a happy thought, just before the engine is ready to go in.
Result
Not build related but a mate of mine was driving along in his BDA Westy when he heard a rattle in the exhaust which quickly stopped. At home he did a spanner check and found one of the nuts that secure the ram pipes onto 40's missing and concluded it had come unscrewed, got sucked into the engine and luckily was spat out with no apparent damage. Replaced his Weber nuts and springs with nylocks, I did the same a few days later.
quote:
Originally posted by Paul Turner
Not build related but a mate of mine was driving along in his BDA Westy when he heard a rattle in the exhaust which quickly stopped. At home he did a spanner check and found one of the nuts that secure the ram pipes onto 40's missing and concluded it had come unscrewed, got sucked into the engine and luckily was spat out with no apparent damage. Replaced his Weber nuts and springs with nylocks, I did the same a few days later.
I had a spark plug shatter on me once on my fiesta (1.1 Valencia engine)
The big bits were stuck in the socket, but about 200 little ceramic shards fell in - couldn't afford the time to take the head off so I went
fishing with a grease covered rag on a stick for about 3 hours
Was never 100% happy, but the car did another 100k miles without any issue...
quote:
Originally posted by pewe
quote:
Originally posted by Paul Turner
Not build related but a mate of mine was driving along in his BDA Westy when he heard a rattle in the exhaust which quickly stopped. At home he did a spanner check and found one of the nuts that secure the ram pipes onto 40's missing and concluded it had come unscrewed, got sucked into the engine and luckily was spat out with no apparent damage. Replaced his Weber nuts and springs with nylocks, I did the same a few days later.
Surely they should have been secured using Thackery washers properly gapped?
Cheers, Pewe10
I stand corrected.
Note to self - read posts fully before committing to reply...
Cheers, Pewe10
Not car related but an incredible IMO recovery.
Was wiring a friends shower in the airing cupboard that is sbove the hot air heating boiler on the floor below in the kitchen. I didnt realise there
was no floor and my LED lamp dropped behind the boiler.
Due to boiler and air ducts, there was no way to get round the boiler to retrieve it so i tied a weighted hook to fish it out from above hoping that i
would catch the plastic hook on the lamp. I placed a LED cycle lamp on the boiker nd could just about see the lost lamp from the bathroom that was in
a corner 12 ft below. Luckily it had emded up vertical.
Thinking id be trying for hours, imagine my surprise when after 30 secs i managed to hook the lamp under the cap then slowly raise it.
Despite being turned on for oiver a week, the nicad took a charge.