Paper towel sucked into engine while replacing intake manifold gaskets

[Elwood blues]

So I was replacing the upper and lower intake manifold gaskets and while i was cleaning the upper part of the gaskets i stuffed paper towel into it to prevent crud from falling into the engine. When i took off the middle section to gain access to the lower gaskets i stuffed paper towel into the engine to again prevent crud from falling into the engine. Well when i was done i took the paper towel out of the engine, but forgot about the paper towel in the middle section. well i tried to start it and it started then died and no more start after that. so i took it apart and saw paper towel down in the engine had to take everything off again and managed to get 2 full piece out and parts of the other 4 out but there was still some paper towel that got sucked in that went too far. I was told the paper towel would just burn up, but the engine did not really wanna start and after a while of trying to start it it started but it was not happy at all! so i shut it off and i have a hole in my exhaust right after the exhaust headers and it started to drip fuel out of it, so i am definitely concerned at this point. I understand many of you will probably laugh as i made a major rookie mistake but i seriously need some help with this as i don't wanna have to pull headers and valve covers to clean up this mess. PLEASE HELP!

 

[nathan mayden]

It's probably stuck in your intake valves now. Hopefully not enough to damage anything get a claw grabber tool and get as much out as possible.

 

[BKennedy]

What kind of paper towel? Is it those reinforced shop towels, or the cheapo's. If its the shop towels, I think you need to get them out of there. The cheapo towels might clear themselves.

 

[Elwood blues]

they did get stuck at the intake valves but they didn't go all the way in so i got as much out as possible. and they were the blue nice shop paper towels so they were a little bit nicer. how should i go about getting the parts of the towel that went past the intake valves?

 

[nathan mayden]

Hopefully they pass easy way I can think of remove headers blow air into intake ports and rotate engine maybe get pieces stirred up to come out with intake valves cleared it may run now.

 

[nathan mayden]

I don't know if these engines have enough valve overlap to do that or not.

 

[BKennedy]

they did get stuck at the intake valves but they didn't go all the way in so i got as much out as possible. and they were the blue nice shop paper towels so they were a little bit nicer. how should i go about getting the parts of the towel that went past the intake valves?

If they went past the valves, they will be in the cylinders and should burn off. Maybe you could take the spark plugs out, disable the fuel pump and crank the engine. Might blow them out that way. Run a bunch of carb cleaner or solvent through the intake to help dissolve them? I almost did that with some plastic sheeting I had over the intakes when I changed out my manifold gaskets.

 

[shucker1]

Maybe you could take the spark plugs out, disable the fuel pump and crank the engine. Might blow them out that way.

Or compressed air blown through the spark plug port with upper intake taken off. Rotate engine till intake valve is open. Air should blow whats left out of the intake runner.

On a different note I did once see a red shop rag get sucked down the carburetor of a race engine while running.

The results were not good....

 

[Justinwht]

Someone has to say it. That must suck.

 

[shucker1]

SSSSSSSSS!!!

 

[Elwood blues]

well I got my explorer all fixed up again I managed to get as much out of the intake valves as I could and the rest just burned up. the fuel problem turned out to be a stuck open injector that was just pissing fuel all the time. Once I replaced that she was back to running pretty like she used to. thanks for the advice guys!