HELP dropped a fitting into my motor!

[ssamsom]

I was putting the fuel pressure spring back into my fuel filter housing and took the two bolts out that hold the coolant line to the top of the motor and moved it to the side to make some room for my ratchet. Sure enough, dropped the brass fitting for the end of the spring down the hole right into the coolant port on the top right of my motor.

If i start it up my water pump and everything else will be done, so I am getting it towed to the dealer for a coolant flush of some sort I guess. What else can I do? Dealer says they will get to it in a few weeks as they are completely backed up...is this something a local shop can do?

[ssamsom]

[harley1rocker]

Originally Posted by ssamsom

if your mech inclined i guess you could do the job.just take the housing off.start taking stuff off till you get it...just remember were it goes

[majek5]

You could always try to flush it out yourself. Get the hose out and see what happens. It's always the easy mods that come back to bite you in the @$$. Or maybe you could just turn the truck upside-down and it should fall right out.

[Banshee365]

What coolant "line" are we talking about here that had to be off to install a regulator spring?

[ssamsom]

The line that goes from the top right of the rad to the top right of the motor. I was doing an EGR delete and had everything off anyways so I moved the line out of the way to make life easier...that was my first mistake.

Hey majek5, want to come help me flip the truck over? Not a bad idea hahaha!

Does anyone have some sort of diagram of how the coolant circulates in the block of a 6.0?

[PGreenSVT]

Damm ssamsom, that's a first bud. However, don't dispair! This should be an easy recovery. What you dropped the poppet into is the thermostat housing. Unless your thermostat is stuck open it should not have gone "into the engine". Just take the other hose off the housing, carefully unbolt the housing and lift it off the motor. If you can slip a couple of real thin flat blade screw drivers and seperate the thermost so that it stays in the housing that would be best. Then you can turn that upside down and shake the poppet out rather than turn the whole truck over.

[ssamsom]

The thermostat is on the end of the line i removed right? Held on to the motor with two bolts? If so, that came off with the coolant line is there another housing below this? Fished with a magnet even though its brass just to see how far down she goes and it feels like at least a foot or so.

If they get the part out with the flush at least it is an opportunity to switch to the Cat ELC right?

[majek5]

Try one of those spring loaded "grabbers", you know the ones that you push the plunger down and the claw comes out the end. They have saved me more than once.

[gary2070]

I don't think this is a serious a dropping something into the oil system. It probably will go through the water pump and get caught in one of the water passages somewhere.