Dropped by mistake a sheet of aluminum foil (2 in x 5 in, crushed into a ball) into the oil fill hole. Without knowing this drove 20 miles so far. Cannot track where the ball went (sure that it went into the upper part of the engine).

What could be damages?
Should I open the engine manifold and track the ball, or would it split into pieces, enter cylinders, and burn out over time?


Thanks,
2008, 4 cyl.

 

Just take the valve cover off. It should be right there. Only smaller objects would be able to fall down into the oil pan.

If it did get into the oil pan it should come out with the next oil change.

 

thanks mk378. I got the foils out.

Do I need to replace the valve cover gasket (everytime the cover is opened? For 4 hrs and 50k miles, I believe the gasket was not replaced).

Do you know the torque for tightening the cover nuts?

 

if your gasket is not crusty.. should be ok to re-use, dap some silicone on four corner of the cam ring (whatever it called).

shouldn't need to torque, there're stopper on the bolt, you can only tighten so much.

 

I'm not familiar with the 08 but on the old models it is easy to break the studs off. Be careful not to over-tighten. Slightly more than hand tight is all you need.

 

yea mk is right dont over tighten i over tightened barely on a y7 i had and broke the whole chunk of metal off that it screws into. yea it fell all the way to the oil pan but i had to replace the bearing cap i believe. more work than you want just from over tightening.