Im in the process of changing valve springs on my 03 hemi. One of the valve spring keepers fell into the pushrod hole in the head. Obviously its in the cam valley somewhere. I tried fishing it out with a magnet and then using a shop vac with a small tube. No luck. Could it fall to the oil pan? is there anything else I can do?

thanks
nick

 

normally it would fall down into the pan. Why didnt you take paper towels and stuff in the heads to prevent this? If you havent yet, do it now and go fishing in the pan.

 

^^ ditto. Not sure if the keeper will fit through the drain plug hole, but if so, a flexible magnet wand should fit into there.
I doubt if it fell all the way to the bottom of the pan. Many things it can get caught up on....
I wouldnt start the engine until you find it. Good luck!

 

Im the king of hindsight!! I should have plugged those, I am now.

I used a flexible magnet down through the hole it dropped into. I would have thought i could snag it. Ill try the pan!

Thanks for all your help!!

 

The HEMI has a built it windage tray / gasket kinda all in one. So it would probably be sitting on top of the tray and not in the bottom of the pan. Or it could be sitting on the crankshaft/rods. If you don't find it...maybe turn the engine over by hand slowly and see if you feel any binding or if you hear a tink as it falls onto the tray....if it's not already there. Good Luck,Hope you find it without to much trouble. Pic of gasket/tray is from my free spare 04 5.7. Guy ran through a deep puddle and hydro locked cylinder 2 and shattered a rod.

 

UPDATE!!! The keeper did not fall into a pushrod hole, but the oil port at the bottom of the head. I still could not snag it. I am hoping its in the pan. i did turn the motor over by hand and heard no grinding or binding of any sort (other than compression).

My major question is: I changed all the springs and not one of them were broke. Im not at all upset because they got upgraded ones anyway. What would cause the misfiring issue? I also had codes that said throttle body issues.
Now the intake was split due to an intake backfire. I purchased a brand new one. All of the coil packs show good.

Should I just put it all together and hope for the best? Is there something else I need to be looking for? I also replaced the pushrods. None of the old ones were bent.

 

Nik.

When you say that you repleaced the pushrods, which ones did you use?
Did you buy new 5.7 stock ones or, like the springs, upgraded to 6.1??
I you have used 6.1 pushrods on a stock 5.7 cam, that I beleive could be a problem.
Al.

 

I replaced them with stock 5.7 rods. I have not put it back together yet and tried with new intake yet. just wondering if there should be something else to look for while I have it apart?

The only question I am wondering now is. What made it backfire and caused the intake to split? I replaced 2 coil packs that I believe got broke while trying to remove them. If all the valve springs were good. Could i possibly have a timing chain issue?