So I had to change the Idle Air Control valve in my 1998 Ram 1500 (5.9L) and since I was going to be in there, I got a can of Throttle Body Cleaner spray. The engine was running and I was spraying into the throttle body with the straw attached to the sprayer. At one point, I opened the butterfly valve and sprayed and the straw came off the can and went down into the intake manifold!!!! I immediately turned the engine off but couldn't see it. I even ended up taking the throttle body off to give me a better view but still can't see the straw.

So if I can't find the straw, what is the worst that could happen if I leave it in there to melt? It seems to me that it would just burn away after a few minutes at operating temperature but would that do massive internal damage or would it be no big deal?

Please, please, please don't make me take the intake manifold off! :-0

Any help is appreciated.

Nick

 

Welcome to the site. I would assume that it would just melt and hopefully vaporize without any damage. I will move theis thread to the second generation Ram section,
FF

 

Get a small pocket sized mechanics mirror and put it down the TB holes to see if it caught in an intake runner somewhere. You might be able to get a pair of those flexible "magic fingers" grabbing tools to get it.

I really wouldn't leave it in there. Burnt plastic turns into a hard, black lump of carbon. If it gets caught on a valve where it seals, or in the piston's edge near the ring, you're asking for trouble.

If you gotta pull the intake, then that's what you do. It's your engine, maybe you'll get lucky and it'll blow right thru and burn up in the exhaust pipes, but that doesn't seem to be the way your luck's been breaking recently, does it?

 

A bore scope would good to use if you know any body that has one.

 

i want one of those. i just don't like the sound of 250$ for something i would only use occasionally.

 

welcome to df.

i wouldn't worry about it at all. if the straw made it to the bottom of the intake, it'll likely stick in the pool of oil from your leaky plenum, or in the light oil mist from the pcv valve. if i remember the intake shape right, the odd shape of the straw is unlikely to get sucked up into the runners, and even if it did, i think the valve will chop it into pieces and spit it out. i think its unlikely that it will melt in the intake, although it will soften up. intake temperature is what, about 150-200. if it did make it up to the heat where there's more heat, then it'll just melt and pass through.

if you want to keep fishing, form a stiff wire into a curve, and wrap some very sticky duct tape around the end. fish away. but - if the duct tape comes off, your adding to the foreign debris.... i'd fish around a little, then just forget it and not worry about it...

someday you'll want to fix your leaking plenum, then you can remove it.

 

if you want super sticky tape then get the 3m duct tape thats kind of a whitish/clear color. but with any tape, as soon as it hits the oil it won't be sticky any more.

 

Wait, i cant belive nobody said anything about this...


You were cleaning your throttle body with the engine running?!?!?!

 

Doesn't every body?

 

hey, everyone needs a little excitement in their life every now and then.