Long story short: Somebody stole my rocker arms amonst other things over the winter. I found 14 out 14 of the valve cover washers but only 13 of the nylock nuts.

I am 95% sure it must have gone down the engine through the oil passage.

I have checked the boat thoroughly and even scrubbed the bilge and moved every wire. I removed the intake manifold and still no nut. They are not magnetic.

Do I have to pull the pan to find it? Can I take off the pain in the boat on a Gen 6? Any ideas where it might end up?

Should I ignore it?

Thanks,

F

If it falls all the way to the pan... why not just put a good size magnet on the s bottom of the pan. to hold it away from the pickup. I would imagine you'll have to pull the engine to be able to look in the pan.

I would think your insurance might get involved if due to the theft you have to pull the motor and have it dissassembled reassembled reinstalled etc...

Could be a silver lined cloud if you were thinking about upgrades. Sounded terrible as I read through it!

Could be laying in the valley by lifters. Have you checked. Know aneone with a fiber optic scope. It it was me I would pull the intake manifold before pulling the motor. Need to find the NUT or pull it down to make sure it is not hiding somewhere it should not. Man I fell for you. I would be . Hope your insurance helps.

Have you ever seen the inside of our motor? There is a screen over the oil pick-up... that would be my main concern. I know what would happen if it got sucked up the pump pick-up... I saw a Mopar 440 suck up a piece of safety wire through the screen... talk about freak occurrence... but the wire was just thick enough that it seized the pump and sheared off the drive... engine kept running.. no oil pressure... luckily the lifter clatter gave away that there was no oil pressure... we didn't blow the motor or cause any damage... In your case it's not likely that the possibly missing nut will cause any problems... other than inside your head.... if it is in the sump... it's not going to jump out of the oil and rattle around... it may come out with the next oil change if it's there. One trick I saw someone do years ago with the same situation... only it was on a car.. a little easier to do.... while he was draining the oil... he took an air driven "muffler gun" and put the hammer end against the oil pan and "rattled" the pan while the oil was draining... the vibration caused the nut to "walk out" with the oil. One thing ... put something between the oil pan and muffler gun so that the pan isn't damaged... good luck.

Tell your insurance company that the *******s lost parts in the engine and you have to pull it and at least take off the pan. How do you know the dumbasses didn't drop some other crap down there? If you take partial measures and the engine subsequently fails, it isn't going to be their fault. Go for it.

Pull it out and open it up. Be sure. Do it now before the season starts.

I have a friend who is local to you who can help pull the motor and his prices are real resonable. He is a fellow boater on the chain, but isn't on OSO.

Give me a P.M. if you need more info.

Dave

I would think this nut is too large to go down an oil valley. Can you see a hole that may allow this? If not it is just lost somewhere else, maybe not the engine.

I am with MitchStellin the rocker arm nuts, anyways if there is a part in the motor it will allways be in the back of your mind while boating.

pull the motor and yank the pan, a loose cannon will result if it is in there.

sorry for your mishaps.

I'd look again in the bilge. In order to drop a rocker cover nut into the engine the cover must be off, and the cover can't be off unless the nuts are already off. Unless the nut was dropped into the engine purposely. Still insist to the insurance adjuster that the engine must be completely disassembled, or let them take responsibility for any future damage arising from this.