ok, try and stay with me on this one, and if you have ANY advice, I'd appreciate it.

I took the top of my airbox off, took the old filter out and installed a K&N cone today. it was my first time doing anything like this, but with the help of my friend who had something similar to his sentra before, I figured we'd have it figured out no problem.

everything went pretty smoothly, until I started my car after I was finished, and the car started shuddering pretty badly, and I heard clanking coming from the engine... then my friend realized what went wrong.

while I was using a wrench to unscrew one of the screws that held the top of the airbox on, I accidently cracked a piece of plastic in the plastic piping area that the K&N attaches to. it made a hole in the plastic pipe, but I figured it wasn't a problem, because I needed a little spot to mount my MAF sensor anyway.

what I didn't realize at the time I broke the piece of plastic was that it FELL IN. so now I think the shuddering and the clanking is the 1cm piece of plastic that got sucked into the engine when I started the car.

after the engine idled for about 20 seconds, the shuddering kept up, but it clanking got quieter, as if the piece of plastic got stuck somewhere... can't fit through a valve or something.

so, am I totally screwed here? I don't know how to go about getting this piece of plastic out of my engine... and I'm afraid to drive the car because I don't know if letting it run through the engine will cause massive damage. after all, it IS a VERY small piece of plastic... about a centimeter, if even that large.

help... thanks.


p.s. - you're only allowed to make fun of me for screwing up something so easy if you provide valid advice or help. =p

 

wow......

i'd recommend taking your intake manifold completely off and seeing if it's stuck on top of or around one of the valves by looking down through the ports. if it's a piece of the piping i'm thinking of, it's still going to be too big to get into the combustion chamber. if it actually manages to, kiss your engine bye bye. either way, it can still do damage. get a good mechanic buddy to help taking the intake manifold off and see what you can find!

 

how did the piece get through the little net that is between the stock box and the midpipe?

 

I believe he used a piece of plastic piping for a midpipe rather than the usual 3" exhaust piping. I either case, I'm with JDM4Life on this one. Remove the intake plenum completely. Get a good flashlight, and Look down the lower manifold into the the top of the intake valves. If the piece was too large to get into the chamber then you'll see it. If it's in the Chamber, then it looks as though you'll need to pull the heads to get to it. In either case, it's no fun, cuase if you can see it, I have no idea how you will get that small piece of plastic out.







Now... What the **** were you thinking by building the intake and not checking it inside and out before putting it on the car and starting it up? God Almighty!

 

update!

I called my brother who's a little more mechanically saavy than I am, and he told me to start the car again and describe exactly what everything sounded and felt like.

I started the car, and the clanking had apparently stopped, but the engine was still shaking like crazy. He told me to give it a little rev, so I brought it to about 4k RPM and voila, problem solved. I guess the piece of plastic was small enough to have melted. I know I got VERY lucky.

I drove the car around the block a few times, and when I brought it back home and parked, I left the engine on and got out, and noticed some not too thick white smoke coming from my exhaust. nothing that looked alarming, and it didn't smell too much different from normal exhaust, so I figured it was either oil on the new filter burning off, or actually the plastic piece that melted burning off. either way, the smoked dissipated, the car feels great, and the sound is incredible.

the broken plastic that I dropped was in from plastic piping between that wire-mesh screen and the rest of the engine... BEHIND the wire mesh, so obviously there was nothing stopping the plastic from being sucked right in.

anyway, thanks for the advice, I got lucky, I'll definitely be a little more careful in the future.

 

jeebus, you should be glad that it wasnt a big enough chunk to do any damage... still might have scratched something or messed up a valve, so keep a close eye on it for sure.

 

I think he means the MAF adapter. Either way it wouldn't get through into the engine cause the MAF net is there to stop bigger particles from getting into the engine. The spuddering you had was probably due to a loose connection or something. If infact a piece of plastic get into the combustion chamber it's probably very bad, even if it did melt...

 

yea, thats what i was saying...going through the intake would be a very bad thing, i imagine that chunk is probably still in the partical net.