Long story short....I was replacing fuel injectors on my '99 SE. With five already installed, and the sixth one in place, disaster strikes. As I went to place the cap on the last injector (#2 in my case), the little washer looking thing that is attached to the small rubber piece on the underside of the cap, falls off.

After 4 hours of searching for it, I came to the conclusion that it must have went down the intake. So I went and got a digital inspection camera, hoping to be able to see down in the combustion chamber. I've tried going down through the intake manifold.....the valves in #2 (the logical cylinder it would have fallen into) are open, enough for something as small as the washer to fall through, but not open enough for the camera to get through. Tried going through the spark plug opening, but it seems to shallow at the bottom and the camera can't make the angle. So essentially the camera is absolutely worthless at this point. I've tried everything I can think of, compressed air, sealed vacuum, magnets, ect..., and am out of ideas (except for pulling heads, and I'm not really willing to do that at this point).

I'm not sure if it's even down there, but until it's found elsewhere, it's definitely a possibility. If it did go down there, and is sitting in the combustion chamber, how much harm would it do? Or would it possibly just get swept out through the exhaust valve when the car is started? I'm now going on hour seven of looking for this thing and am about to say screw it, and just finish up and hope for the best. I'd appreciate any ideas, or even theories at this point. Please advise!

 

As silly as it sounds, try some realy sticky bubblegum and put it at the end of the magnet or something. Just make sure it on the something realy good so you don't lose gum in the cylinder. Worst case just unhook all the injectors and crank the starter away to try and launch the washer into the exaust without running it at high temp/speed.

 

I guess I'm not sure what piece it is exactly that you lost.

The pintle cap?

The O-ring?

If it's either of those, don't worry about it.

In the situation of injector failure, either of those (plastic and/or rubber) pieces are lost into and burned up in the c-chamber.