I was changing out my #6 injector on my 04 excursion 6.0 after the dealership assessed it and said it was bad. Pretty easy job. I was pulling the bad injector out when my Torx bit slipped off and disappeared.

It's gone.

I spent close to 6 hours looking for it with inspection camera and magnets. I drained the oil and tried to see if my magnet would pick anything up (hoping it fell into the oil pan) but I have not been able to recover the bit.

What's next?

One other forum said that it will just settle in the oil pan and the screens won't let it circulate. They claimed spool valves fall apart all the time and never do any damage etc...

Any experts out there that can talk me off the ledge?


Thanks,
Alex

 

Chances are it fell down the oil return passage. It is far from a fun job to do but I had to loosen the motor mounts and use a jack to give me enough room to get my hand up in there between the block and oil pan to fish around for the half of a pick that decided to separate from the handle on me. You could try dumping a quart of oil down the return hoping to push your torx bit all the way down where hopefully it will be in the bottom of the pan or sitting on top of what looks like an oil baffle and you can use your magnet to pluck it out. It might not cause your engine to grenade but for me I didn't feel right about leaving a tool in there not knowing if a little time now fishing for it might save me a lot of swear words and $$$ down the road.

 

Thanks man, I agree with you, doesn't feel right leaving it behind. Is there a gasket in between that pan and block?

 

Fair warning if you pull the pan pull only the pan. The bottom of the engine is in 2 parts the pan and the bedplate. Many by accident remove the bolts that hold the bed plate thinking it is part of the pan.

That plate is heavy and is actually the bottom half of the main bearings. Do not remove.
The pan has a reuseable gasket. The bedplate does not.
Just so you know.

 

The pan is to parts, both are aluminum.
That being said there is a pick up screen in the engine, it won't make it threw the gears.
Stick a rare earth magnet to the pan.

 

Drain the Oil and insert a scope ,Hopefully it sitting close enough to mag it to the drain hole or get real handy with a Magnetized coat hanger .

 

Just an fyi the bung in the pan is raised, so you would need to get it over the lip.

 

Hey Alex and welcome,
I know your pain. My story "Truck runs rough, numbers show anything". Ok when you lost the bit did you hear how it sounded as it went down? A tin sound means it probably is on the bottom of the pan. What I would do first is locate the oil galley next to that injector ( bright light here) and slowly run a flexible magnet down that galley give the magnet a chance to draw the bit to it rather than shoving the bit farther down. If no contact then run your camera down the galley, slowly. What you are looking for at this point is (I don't know the technical name) a u shape cross member. There was one that ran under the galley mine went down, mine went on to the pan and I was looking for access to the pan from the top but I found this bar and it has a valley that could catch a bit and that was a bad location. Now lets say it's in the pan, it is not that easy to find believe me. I saw mine and then it took a lot of work to get it out. This is my suggestion based on how I finely got mine out: #6 is on the driver's side so go in the drain plug angling the camera from the right side toward the left. Keep the camera on the bottom of the pan (easily said harder to do) and work to where you can see the side of the pan and move forward. Have patience, have it quite because sound gives you an idea where the camera is better than sight as there is no reference point once inside. Then it's a cat and mouse game. Patience is a must I wanted to give up and I had seen mine on the bottom of the pan but I just couldn't bring myself to leave it in there as I could see the crank not that far above it. Good luck!

 

Thanks Mike I was Hoping you would Chime in

 

10-4. I sure don't envy his situation but it is do-able without removing the pan. Note to others locate the oil galley near the injector hold down clamp your working on and place a rag over it before beginning injector removal/installation. I was able to finely get the Snap-On T40 bit and I do not think it will fit down the galley and should be strong enough to do the job. Just don't want to do any injector work for a while. Now back to Alex and his situation.

 

Thank you all so much for your input. I'm glad I'm not the only one this has happened to, but I would sure like it to be in my past!!

I'll be in search of a scope with a narrower head to fit in the drain plug and if that doesn't work I will try to drop the pan a bit to get my scope in up there.

You guys are great. Thank you for taking the time to type out your detailed replies. It is appreciated.

 

"I'll be in search of a scope with a narrower head to fit in the drain plug..." Milwaukee brand Bore Scope 199.00 at Home Depot (keep telling yourself I'm saving money by not paying someone else to do the original job and you get to keep the new tools) The camera head will fit down the oil galley and in the drain plug hole. The camera comes with an attachable magnate and the built in light is good. I used the camera first to locate the bit because once installed the magnet obscures the camera's view, again it was not an easy or fast job and I knew mine was in the pan from the very beginning, then I installed the magnet attachment carefully bent the metal just enough to kinda see past the magnet but not to compromise the way it mounts to the camera. After fishing for a while and the magnet grabbing the bottom the rod caps and such and me having visions of the magnet sticking and coming detached from the camera, I wraped several rounds of electrical tape around the mounting (looking back now wiring heat shrink tubing if large enough would be a better way to secure the two together). Keep a watch on the tape to make sure you don't lose it but mine never gave me any problem. After my experience I have a new appreciation for the deep sea robotic operaters. But when you finely see the bit laying there the feeling of knowing exactly where it is is indescribable. There next great feeling you will have is when you feel the thud of the bit attaching to the magnet.

 

What a nightmare. still can't find it even with the better camera. not sure how far to take it. I'm seriously considering Cheezit's recommendation of putting a giant magnet on the pan and just hoping it finds it. gonna try to separate the pan and see what that can do for me...

 

One other thing to try is take the oil you drained out (You did save it/?)
and use that to flush the bit down into the pan. That is assuming (we all know
what that can do) that it is in the drain channel. It should end up in one of
two places. The happy place would be in the pan and the not so happy place
would be on the top of the oil baffle.

Now on the scope size. Snap-On makes a scope that is small enough that
it can fit into small places like the glow plug or injector hole and that should be
small enough to fit into any place you need to look. They also make a 2 way
vision head that lets you look straight ahead or at 90º to the axis of the cable.
The one that they don't make and would be the killer one to have is one that gives
you remote articulation of the camera head from the control handle (BIG BUCKS)
but if you know someone Beer and Steaks can go a long way. I have 2 of the Snap-On
scopes with the dual view heads they are nice. One of my units needs to go in for
repair

If you do start digging in deep let me know and I'll see what I can do to get you
the workbook pages for the pan removal.

Good luck and I hope you don't need to dig in deep.

Sean

 

Hey Sean, wanna come over for some beer and steaks? Come on man, It'll be fun!!!

I borrowed a buddies snap on scope and the light wasn't very bright and I had a hard time seeing anything with any detail. May check out that Milwaukee from Home Depot and see if it has potential.

I ordered a couple powerful magnets to put on the outside of the pan and see if I can't collect it that way.

Digging around on Google it seems this has happened to quite a few people before. The comment that I'm clinging to said that the channel "goes to the pan" and "I've had a tx30 in my pan for over a year".

I'm gonna try to turn the engine over by hand a few times and make sure it doesn't bind anywhere before I fire it up (sometime next week). I just hope the part fell through to the pan. Or if it's on the baffle that it falls down and makes its way to one of the magnets.

If this seems ridiculously negligent/ignorant/stupid to any of you let me know. I just don't know where else to go with it. I did consider pulling the pan down a few inches but got under there and couldn't make sense of it... Unfortunately, I may be out of my league if I tear it down any further.