What would you do if pillow stuffing got sucked into the engine?

[akashicfarmer]

Here's the short version - I couldn't find my airbox so my mechanic friend suggested we try a combustion test with starter fluid and material that was supposed to be a makeshift filter to determine if the engine would turn over. We spray some starter fluid and the engine turns over and we get excited and start to put it back together.

Not so fast - the vacuum of the engine pulled 100% polyester fiber throughout the engine during that first test, and now that pillow fluff is sucked throughout the engine. I started looking for it when we couldn't get the engine to turn over again. My mechanic friend was mortified and promptly left me to figure out where to go from here and hasn't been around since. I was able to see fluff in the spark plug sockets, fluff all the way to the exhaust tubes.

Now I have the engine removed and have been lead to believe that I need to remove the heads, have them re-machined and use valve spring compressors to pull the valves before I can separate the heads to get to where I need to finish cleaning out the engine?

I have the Clymer service manual but all this is beyond my level of understanding as to what I need to do and be aware of. We couldn't find the timing marks so I know I'll have to get the cam chains and everything synced up somehow. I find myself far too much John Sutherland instead of Phaedrus from Zen and the Art.

I watched a video series where a guy tore down his vmax and it had about 4 parts, but the 2nd part of the last video was him scrapping out the bike. I really love my vmax and could really use some pointers to not do any further damage.

 

[one2dmax]

I would have thought that any combustible material like that would be consumed and passed through the engine.

 

[user 16790]

can you get some kind of pick tool to reach through the spark plug holes or inlet and outlet holes and pull the material out, the kind that dentists use would be good or maybe just bend some stiff wire to make your own

 

[sdt354]

I can't understand why you need to do any machining. Pulling the heads now is no biggie.But, I strongly advise, get a decent wrench with some engine knowledge to help you.

 

[Fire-medic]

I'm with Sean I can't for the life of me imagine why you would need to tear down the engine and do any machineing! I think as far as I would go is to pull the carbs and see if there's anything between the carbs and the V boost manifold. If you saw something in the vboost manifold perhaps pulling the V boost to look in the intake ports would be appropriate. Anything that made its way into the combustion chamber I think would be vaporized. That's assuming the engine was actually running. If the engine was just turning over and there was no combustion, then I suppose that the material could actually possibly pass through to the exhaust.

 

[akashicfarmer]

I pulled the vboost and carbs and found that pillow stuffing was in intake ports- we tried to burn it out at first but simply couldn't reach any further into the engine.

So at the point where I have it now, can I just carefully break loose the hex bolts holding the heads down and pull that assembly apart? I should be able to see if there's anything else that needs to be cleaned out at that point.

Thank you for the replies!

Julian, we did try that at first - I had long hemostats that could reach as far into the intakes as it could reach and was able to pull out a whole mess of stuffing. After I can confirm that there's not any more of it in the combustion chamber, I should be able to try to put it back together. We couldn't see the timing marks for the camshaft in the view window so the cams got pulled and fixing the timing is going to be the next thing that is way over my skill level I think.

 

[sdt354]

I pulled the vboost and carbs and found that pillow stuffing was in intake ports- we tried to burn it out at first but simply couldn't reach any further into the engine.

So at the point where I have it now, can I just carefully break loose the hex bolts holding the heads down and pull that assembly apart? I should be able to see if there's anything else that needs to be cleaned out at that point.

Thank you for the replies!

Julian, we did try that at first - I had long hemostats that could reach as far into the intakes as it could reach and was able to pull out a whole mess of stuffing. After I can confirm that there's not any more of it in the combustion chamber, I should be able to try to put it back together. We couldn't see the timing marks for the camshaft in the view window so the cams got pulled and fixing the timing is going to be the next thing that is way over my skill level I think.

 

[akashicfarmer]

Thank you - that was another very fuzzy but important situation I needed help understanding. Great video.

 

[Wirenut]

Thank you - that was another very fuzzy but important situation I needed help understanding. Great video.

Heehee..... fuzzy....

 

[SpecOps13]

Sean, Fantastic Instructional video. As Always you do Awesome work to help Everyone on the Forum... Even though I don't have a Vmax anymore I help Maintain those that I've sold Friends. I'm not leaving the Forum, Too many Friends were made here...

 

[sdt354]

Thank you - that was another very fuzzy but important situation I needed help understanding. Great video.

Lots of info I've collected over the years. And it came from the very best. Sean, Damon, Gannon, Eric, Danny, Mark, and many more.Top notch Vmax people. Invaluable info I'll pass along for the asking.

 

[02GF74]

firstly I would have thought a filter in not necessary to get the engine to run for a short test? if the polyester was sucked in when the engine wat hot, then it would melt inside otherwise a vacuum cleaner could possible remove it - also if it got stuck between valve and seat, would there be piston to valve contact?

 

[desert_max]

I've heard of a lot of issues necessitating an engine tear down, but this is got to be one of those that hurts the most. I suppose if it sucked enough material in there, you may have no choice.

I just can't for the life of me imagine how it managed to ingest so much material without your being aware. And sorry to be blunt, but it seems that your friend is no mechanic. Maybe it's better that he stays away from the machine.

 

[02GF74]

And sorry to be blunt, but it seems that your friend is no mechanic. Maybe it's better that he stays away from the machine.

The term "fuckwit" springs to mind.

 

[akashicfarmer]

firstly I would have thought a filter in not necessary to get the engine to run for a short test? if the polyester was sucked in when the engine was hot, then it would melt inside otherwise a vacuum cleaner could possible remove it - also if it got stuck between valve and seat, would there be piston to valve contact?

This is what happened - when I finally separated the head, the valves are jammed with melted\hunks of pillow fluff. Next step is to clear it all out. Do I need to machine the heads at this point? And get new head gaskets and read the manual more. Trying to teach myself how to work on this without breaking anything else.

 

[Fire-medic]

I'd just clean the polyester crap off everything, lap the valves, and reassemble it. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to remove the exhaust headers, which means the entire exhaust, just to see if anything got that far.

Do you know the trick of using gasoline to check the valve sealing at the cyl head valve seats? Pour a bit of gas into each port, and see if the valve seat on the combustion chamber side stays-dry. If not, at-least a lapping.

 

[huw s]

You'll need a headgasket set, I would change valve stem seals since you might well damage them pulling the valves in and out while lapping them. Once lapped and reassembled you will need to check and reshim the valve clearances. If you do all this you will guarantee some success. And then I suggest your mechanic friend is put on your list of people not to ever call again.

 

[02GF74]

To clean up properly needs heads off and valves out.

My main concern would be piston to valve contact if the valves weren't able to fully close, hence checking for bent valves.

Check valves,; roll the stems on a flat surface and you should see any wobble.

Re. Removing the melted crap, try acetone which seems to be very good at dissolving plastics, or burn it off and scraping off the stuck on carbon.

 

[akashicfarmer]

So, I had to take the cylinder heads in to get machined at a shop. They put it all back together and saved me from having to do the shim clearances I think, and it's being put back together. Do I need to replace the hex nuts for the cylinder head? 90179-10414-00 - I was told that they need to be replaced because they stretch originally and couldn't be tightened again to the torque level needed?

While the machine shop was working on the heads, they found 2 bent intake valves, so those were replaced. No idea at what point that happened, or how, but I'm hoping this will run once it has the parts put back together.

 

[MaxMidnight]

Whilst I have heard of stretch bolts I'm not aware that there is such a thing as stretch nuts, nor many references in Google.

Neither is there any mention of having to replace them in the service manual, the only reference is the torque requirement.

Bottom line is that it is OK to re-use them.