sandersonbhd

95 Honda Civic EX 1.6 manual 2-door

While working on another problem, broken cylinder head cover bolt, a screw fell into the left bottom oil passage. A regular household, sharp pointed screw.
I broke the tip off a magnetic telescoping screwdriver and tied it to some fishing wire (all I had at the moment) and tried to get it out. I think I felt the magnetic tip contact the screw, but I could not get it out. After a little jiggling, because of the route of the passage, one immediate right and then another right, it cut the fishing wire. Later I got much more powerful magnet, tied to magnetic coil wire. I could not feel anything this time.

I've already tried draining the oil pan and used a powerful magnet to search around the outside of the pan to the hole. I think both pieces are stuck in the oil passage. The car seems to run fine - there are after all three other passages.

But short of taking out the entire cylinder head, does anyone have any other ideas?

Would taking the oil pan out give me better access?

Does this have any affect on the oil pressure? Or is this benign?

I plan to rebuild the engine after I put another 80K miles on it. Seems kind of a prohibitive to spend at least $500 on labor just for two bits of metal.

Thanks a bunch. Much appreciated.

S

Provocateur

I had something similar happen to me recently...I got a compression tester stuck in the spark plug hole and it wouldn't come out. Then the hose broke off, so we tried pounding a socket into the whole. That got stuck, so I had to remove the head and get a machinist to get it out. Kind of sucked since it was such a routine check and it ended up costing me over 12 hours of labor to get my car running again.

Anyways...I wouldn't run the engine without removing it first. It may get dislodged and screw everything up. I think removing the cylinder head is the only way you can get to it. Removing the oil pan probably won't help but I would try first since that is much easier to do. Yeah, taking off the head sucks but it is valuable knowledge to have and I wouldn't risk totally wrecking the engine because of it.

twinring

get one of those telescopic magnets you can buy one at home depot, or lowes or any big hardware store

1stGenCRXer

Removing the head is about the only way to get to it. Not unless it's fallen all the way to the oil pan, which would make you a very lucky person. Won't affect oil pressure, but it's far from benign. The screw fell down into an oil drain passage, while this doesn't pose an immediate threat, someday, somehow, that screw will finally make it's way into the oil pan, where it can cause some major damage.[quotes]I plan to rebuild the engine after I put another 80K miles on it. Seems kind of a prohibitive to spend at least $500 on labor just for two bits of metal.[/quote] "bits of metal" have caused more engine failures than you can count, and of a smaller size than a "household screw". Which leads to the question, what the hell was a screw doing near an open valve train anyways?

Good luck with your fix. Hopefully you can get a magnet to fish it out. Try to get ahold of the strongest small size magnet you can find, since you're lucky enough to have an aluminum passage that the screw fell into.

twinring

try the telescopic magnet!!!