August 2, 200520 yr So... I... no... I mean a friend of mine in the town down the road was working on his 86 Brat. He had to change the gaskets between the carb and intake. When he got it back together he ran it and it ran like crap, he then realized that he left the paper towel in the intake that he shoved in there to catch the gasket scrapings. When he took the carb back off, the towel was too far down one side of the manifold to be seen... So he then had enough smarts to know to pack up the tools and call it a night before he did any more damage... Some thoughts on how to handle it; - Use one of those spring grabby things to try and snake the towel out of the intake. - Rev the hell out it and "burn" up the towel - Pull the manifold and fish it out. - Use a torch down the manifold to burn it up before it goes through the valve, figuring that it will be easier to intake ash than a bounty?? Any other ideas besides the obvious dope slap??
August 2, 200520 yr No on the torch theres fuel in the carb. Use the grabber to fish out what you can, then Id soak it in carb cleaner and then start it with hopes that it just burns up but have a fire ext handy. Youre friend is a total dufus.
August 2, 200520 yr Youre friend is a total dufus. Seconded... I bet you'll have... I mean your friend that owns a BRAT just like yours, will have to pull the manifold to get it out, its probably wrapped around one of the valve stems....
August 2, 200520 yr tell your friend to try using a shopvac with a smaller peice of hose attached some how, duck tape or something. i thought i was a stupid when i forgot to plug the maf back in and couldn't find out why my car wouldn't run.
August 2, 200520 yr Don't run the engine until the towel is out.This might sound rediculous but you can bend the hell out of your valves with a towel.I have seen extensive damage done to bb chevy from a towel left in the intake.I hope nothing is broken.
August 2, 200520 yr Yep, shop-vac. If you can tell which side it is in, pull a sparkplug and turn engine by hand so intake valve is open, you just might be lucky and get it out.
August 2, 200520 yr You ummm friend yeah you're friend really should've took a longer nap before going near her...see what happens when you are tired and start sticking things in her holes...BAD Things!!! Poor lil' Brat.
August 3, 200520 yr Author Well I tried to snake it... nothing... Pulled the Intake manifold up enough to reach a finger into the head... nothing... So I figured I had nothing to lose... put the intake and carb back on and started her up.... She ran crappy for a while, wouldn't even let me rev, finally it seemed like it opened up and I could rev the engine but it still wasn't ideling right... The battery was getting low from cranking, so I hooked up the charger and ran to Advance for some more carb cleaner. Came back and at first it didn't want to start, but after enough cranking she turned over again and ran nice up above 2k, but below that she still idled funny, after a few more minutes at 3k, she was able to settle down. So I shut her down to put the airbox on, when I started her back up there is now a whistling??? I'm guessing a loose vaccuum line??? I'll work on that tomorrow night, but for now she is fixed. She still has some funk to her idle, I figure there are remnants of the towel in there and they'll clean up with a little more running. Thanks all for the advice.
August 3, 200520 yr Just an FYI, using a shop vac around flammable stuff is deadly. 2 people made the 5:00 news that I can remember from doing that.
August 3, 200520 yr This sounds like something I've done before!!! So add one more to the group. Ran the car at high rpms for ten then opened up the exhaust enough to let big fire balls shoot up the intake when I closed the carb. I'm sure there are better ways but you won't get fire balls!
August 3, 200520 yr Just an FYI, using a shop vac around flammable stuff is deadly. 2 people made the 5:00 news that I can remember from doing that. did it say what they had sucked up? nitrogleseren
August 3, 200520 yr no just fuel vapor... in a enclosed container "shop vac" plus add the electric vacum motor that has nice sparks ... and boom simple.. but effective ghetto fuel/air explosive its a shame some people don't always think things out before they try them
August 3, 200520 yr I would have removed the manifold and done it right. Well, at least I would have RECOMMENDED that y... er, your friend ... remove the manifold. That is the only way of knowing that you have definitely removed all of the foreign object. The other methods are uncertain, and at some point you have to say "good enough, I think" and give up. no just fuel vapor... in a enclosed container "shop vac" plus add the electric vacum motor that has nice sparks ... and boomsimple.. but effective ghetto fuel/air explosive... BTW, same thing can happen with flour, cornstarch, or fine sawdust. ...its a shame some people don't always think things out before they try them If they did, who would win Darwin Awards???
August 4, 200520 yr no just fuel vapor... in a enclosed container "shop vac" plus add the electric vacum motor that has nice sparks ... and boomsimple.. but effective ghetto fuel/air explosive its a shame some people don't always think things out before they try them Not to mention that the just the air alone rushing through the plastic nozzle and hose creates some serious static charges. Ummm... another FYI, never, ever try to vacuum up blown-in cellulose insulation with a shop vac...
August 4, 200520 yr Not to mention that the just the air alone rushing through the plastic nozzle and hose creates some serious static charges. yeah there were a couple of kids that got hurt really bad or even killed i don't remember, but they were playing on a plastic slide and they wanted to go faster so they poured some gas on there and then the static came in to play and cought fire.
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