Originally Posted by sandersonbhd
But short of taking out the entire cylinder head, does anyone have any other ideas?
Removing the head is about the only way to get to it.
Would taking the oil pan out give me better access?
Not unless it's fallen all the way to the oil pan, which would make you a very lucky person.
Does this have any affect on the oil pressure? Or is this benign?
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.