Nylon rope trick gone wrong

[solitaire]

Hi Team,

Doing a cambelt change on a 1uz, the crankshaft pulley bolt would not come loose so I used the rope trick after exhausting all other options.

It worked brilliantly, right up until the nylon rope knotted itself, and then snapped after a good 45 minutes of trying to tease it out, so I now have a small length of nylon rope in the #1 cylinder - awesome.

So jokes aside, any suggestions? I've got the engine manual and can pull the cylinder head but that involves a lot of gaskets and a lot of time - I would love to find another solution if I can.

Ideas:

1. Blow torch in controlled bursts and burn it out???
2. Try and fire the engine (I think this will end up damaging the valves or simply (k)not work)
3. Pull Head (yay)
4. any combustible chemical that will disolve nylon rope without damaging the engine and can happily get sucked out/blown out afterwards?

cheers

[Dell'Orto]

Doh! Burning it may work, provided it doesn't form a solid ball. Otherwise off with your head!
Actually, a seal pick/hook may be able to drag it out?

[DVSMOTORSPORT]

Wait..... what???? You stuck rope in your cylinder so you could undo the crank bolt?

Is this engine in the car or on a stand?

Id advise a lot of ways to try to get it undone, but never this way. But its done now, so, by the sound of it, its probably crushed under a valve or similar, so id be removing the rocker cover so you can keep an eye on the valve clearance of that cylinder and then turn the engine back to the point you can get a piece of welding wire or similar down there to try and hook it out.

[solitaire]

Wait..... what???? You stuck rope in your cylinder so you could undo the crank bolt?

Is this engine in the car or on a stand?

Sadly, it's nicely tucked away in the engine bay

It's a tough one eh, I did a lot of research on the options, found far less cases of this method going wrong than I did with the other options I had found (even had a toyspeed member stating he had done it heaps of times and never had any issues at all) - I made a decision based on all my research and it ended up biting me in the arse, let's just say I will be avoiding the ol' rope trick next time.

If anything it's taught me I really don't have time for this stuff anymore - got two kids and a wife that I don't spend enough time with as it is.

But anyway: I'm leaning towards the burning option, any suggestions on a method for doing that with the least likelyhood of lunching the engine?

Failing that anyone want to buy a dead celsior?

[DVSMOTORSPORT]

Nooooooo dont burn it, it will melt into a ball, possibly go between the piston and bore, maybe melt to the valves,it will make a mess that you will need to take the head off for.

If I lived closer Id give you a hand, but I think you should try getting it out with welding wire or similar before anything else, especially sell it.

[solitaire]

Nooooooo dont burn it, it will melt into a ball, possibly go between the piston and bore, maybe melt to the valves,it will make a mess that you will need to take the head off for.

If I lived closer Id give you a hand, but I think you should try getting it out with welding wire or similar before anything else, especially sell it.

Problem is that the knot is bigger than the whole it has to come out of.

Looks like it's head off then, was really hoping to avoid that but if that's the way to do it then that's it!

[RS13]

Can you heat up a wire or junior hacksaw blade, try get the knot near the hole and melt a chunk off it? You don't need to blast heat down the hole that way.

[phoenix]

Exactly which nylon rope did you use?

I take it the piston was at BDC when you fed it in? As mentioned I'd pull the rocker and see what the #1 cylinder valves are doing. It may give a clue to as to what's caught where. I'm surprised that the rope has managed to tie a complete knot in itself while it was in there (did you insult it's mother before sending it in???)

Will a claw parts retriever fit through the plug hole?

[KwS]

Can you heat up a wire or junior hacksaw blade, try get the knot near the hole and melt a chunk off it? You don't need to blast heat down the hole that way.

This idea seems to make sense to me, use something hot to melt/soften the rope a bit and make the knot small enough to fit through.

[evil_si]

I think your pretty screwed, take the head off to save any other issues going wrong,

Id never personally feed anythng into a cylinder to tr and lock up the engine, thou im guessing youll never try that again

[solitaire]

I used some nylon rope about half the diameter of the hole it had to fit through, i wouldnt say it was bdc, but it was certainly close to it.

I had tried to melt through the knot, it's just too fiddly in there to get anything done - im pretty much resigned to pulling the head now - i've got the engine repair manual so I should be ok.

yeah safe to say will be speaking up and strongly recommending no-one try the rope trick in the future - but as I said of the people that had tried it I didn't have anyone saying it had gone horribly wrong - in fact they said it was smooth sailing.

BUT - I did have alarm bells when i was doing it, I should have trusted my gut instead of my research but hindsight is 20:20 - I put myself in this position and need to dig myself out.

[Mr Revhead]

Hopefully it wasn't at bdc about to start an exhaust stroke.
Really seems to be only two options.
Keep trying to hook it out.
Off with its head.

Go burn some of that rope elsewhere and see why it won't work in place.

With a hook I'm sure you can move it round etc and get it out. Unless it was on exhaust stroke and is jammed around the valve.

[solitaire]

:?
Hopefully it wasn't at bdc about to start an exhaust stroke.
Really seems to be only two options.
Keep trying to hook it out.
Off with its head.

Go burn some of that rope elsewhere and see why it won't work in place.

With a hook I'm sure you can move it round etc and get it out. Unless it was on exhaust stroke and is jammed around the valve.

I don't believe it was on the exhaust stroke, i purposely didn't put it down too low as i didn't want to have to put too much rope in there in case it got tangled , its floating around in there happily - its just too big to get out the hole - very frustrating.

[Mr Revhead]

Ok, then if be trying to pick strands off to break it up

[BlakeNZ]

hook it firmly with wire. hold it up to the hole. Give it a quick blast with the butane torch or similar, this will soften it and change shape slightly. Then pull out. The short term heat is unlikely to damage anything. It's a engine cylinder-handles heat!
i wonder if a soldering iron would provide enough heat to soften it.

[Jdawg]

What is the access via the intake or exhaust ports like?
If you have to tale exhaust/intake maniflod off to do the head you may be able to tease it out past the valves

[strx7]

What is the access via the intake or exhaust ports like?
If you have to tale exhaust/intake maniflod off to do the head you may be able to tease it out past the valves

unless it has massive cams in it i doubt you'd even get it out through a valve. most toyota cams are in the 8-8.6mm of lift area.

[solitaire]

Well, i think i got all of it out, if it didnt its just a couple of <1mm strands but i cant see any.

I bought a grabber and a little etching hook and a butane pen torch and really long screwdriver from mitre10.

Tried positioning the knot at the hole and burning it but the torch was getting suffocated before i could get it near the knot (really deep spark plug hole).

So instead i heated up the really long screw driver with a butane torch and used it to melt through the knot. This freed it up enough to come further up the spark plug tube - which i then fished out with the grabber and hook and other long grabby things i had in my garage, it came out in several separate lengths, but its out.

Fingers crossed any tiny strands left in there that i cant see either burn up or make their way out the exhaust and fingers crossed i have not damaged anything.

Only way to know is to finished the cambelt change and fire it up.

I just wanted to say thanks for all your suggestions - I was expecting the douchbag brigade to show up and just rub it in my face but lots of great suggestions and constructive comments - cheers guys

[iOnic]

Brigade is on holiday. Back again next week :-p

Glad to hear you got it out. Screw taking the head off for something like that. Starter motor trick next time?

[Mr Revhead]

Am waiting until any potential crying is out of the way before I put the boot in

Yes, defo the starter flick trick! Although last time I did that it snapped the head off the bolt however that was due to someone fitting the wrong bolt previously