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Dropped a valve changing valve springs, how do I get it out?
Here's the valve almost dropping into the engine... how do I get that out? The only thing I could think of is hand crank it to where the piston comes up slowly on the valve so I could bring it up high enough to pinch out. Problem is, I don't know if it's on the up stroke or the down stroke.. If I go any lower the valve will drop..
Can anyone tell me if the piston in question is on the upstroke or downstroke off that last picture?? The two valves without the rockers are supposed to be all the way up.
I already tried a telescoping pen magnet and it wasn't strong enough.
Suck on it with a shop vacuum and see if it'll pull the valve back up. If it does, rotate the cylinder to TDC to hold it up when you remove the vacuum.
You could also push a bunch of rope into the cylinder and then rotate it towards TDC until the rope presses against the valve.
get a hose that will fit tightly over the valve guide... then get one of these
attach to a short piece of hose (clear hose would obviously be best so you could see what's happening) and suck that puppy up in to the hose... pinch it with something to hold while you remove or cut the hose out of the way...
vacuum is pretty powerful...
Good luck
Last edited by 73Corvette; 09-04-2015 at 10:11 AM.
Any time you change a spring in the future make sure that piston is at TDC. I usually put a zip tie in the spark plug hole and feel when the piston grabs it then I know its up.
Any time you change a spring in the future make sure that piston is at TDC. I usually put a zip tie in the spark plug hole and feel when the piston grabs it then I know its up.
Yup the horse is OUT of the barn already...but, a good reminder to keep those gates closed.
Two years ago while replacing the springs on my '03Z I dropped a valve as you just did. I tried many avenues without avail, until I rotated the engine and the valve came right up. Maybe someone with more mechanical inclination than I have can chime in...
Looks to be an intake valve. I am thinking with it that far down the piston is on or near the bottom of its travel. Good advice above to pull the manifold and then you can access it and move it back up to a closed position.
rotate the engine. if the valve starts to fall, rotate it in the other direction. won't hurt a thing. however, the valve may stick to the piston and go nowhere, so do it extremely slowly.
you can also soak a q-tip with brake cleaner and clean the tip of the valve. put a small amount of jb weld on a toothpick and stick it on there. be extremely careful that it does not touch the guide. you can shield the toothpick with a section of drinking straw to prevent touching the guide. wait a few hours and pull it on up. then clean the jb weld off the valve tip.
Putting air in the Cyl with the valve open will not work, the air will only escape out the manifold. Even if you block off the manifold the air pressure will act equally on all surfaces of the open valve and it will stay right where it's at.
The way I see it you could try adding some more magnets to the shaft of the telescoping magnet. You may get lucky and to combined force be enough to get it moving.
But your best bet is to remove the intake. I'd play it safe and take that route.
Putting air in the Cyl with the valve open will not work, the air will only escape out the manifold. Even if you block off the manifold the air pressure will act equally on all surfaces of the open valve and it will stay right where it's at.
The way I see it you could try adding some more magnets to the shaft of the telescoping magnet. You may get lucky and to combined force be enough to get it moving.
But your best bet is to remove the intake. I'd play it safe and take that route.
if you are doing this I would suggest that you wrap the whole thing in electrical tape, or heat shrink tube, etc. Don't want to add a magnet to the "wishing well"
Find out how deep that head is. From there you can figure out how much travel you have before it drops out the bottom. From the photo, it appears to have quite a bit more travel before falling out but measure to be sure.
Dropped a valve changing valve springs, how do I get it out?
You need a stronger magnet! Seriously. Those pickup magnets on a telescopic stick are usually too weak. There are higher quality telescopic pickup sticks used by professionals with magnets strong enough to pick up hand tools.
09-03-2015, 10:31 PM
Dropped a valve changing valve springs, how do I get it out?
