What's the damage from doing this?
 

I was topping up my oil with Redline, and noticed that along with the oil, the little round paper/foam insert in the bottle cap went into the engine. I'm not sure if it's made out of paper or styrofoam since it was my last bottle. I am fine to ignore it and assume it either melts or gets shredded by the valvetrain...or maybe it just sits in the sump..where does the oil go that you pour in, the top end or directly into the sump? If anyone knows for a fact this is a problem, let me know. I suspect this happens all the time. Thanks.

That seal is probably too big to fall directly down an oil passage down into the sump unless it was curled over. No worries, oil that's already free in the valve cover must fall and be filtered again before it is pressurized and used to lubricate. If it's just sloshing around, it won't cause any damage. It'll probably end up in pieces once broken down and be stuck to the oil pickup screen.

If you want, you can pull the valve cover and find it before it goes anywhere else.

Did you use a funnel? The funnel I use is too small to allow that or anyhing bigger to fall in.

My funnel even has a strainer in it. That being said, I just topped the car up using a bottle directly. Bummer that happened. I'd be nervous too.

See if you can shine a light in thru the valve cover and see if you can fish it out with a small piece of coat hanger? I wouldn't leave it in there.

:iagree:

pull the valve cover

:iagree:

Thats 2nd of course :tiphat:

Again, from somebody who has built and torn down engines regularly, it'll be fine. You'll be amazed at some of the crap I've pulled out of the oil pan of some of my builds. Many huge chunks of RTV, seals as described above - none of it has ever hurt anything. At WORST it will get stuck on the oil pickup in the sump as I said, and it may block a bit of flow. In that case, you'll want to pull the pan to fish it out.

The bad news, that paper is already stuck on the pickup if it was going to end up there anyway. It honestly depends on where the oil return passages are on the head, and how the filler hole interfaces with the valve cover baffling and such.

Id try to get that out of there regardless..potential to blocking the pickup flow can't be good imo..

yea especially on an engine that revs to 7500 rpm. if you get that thing clogged in the wrong spot you could have some major issues and warranty would not cover it

I have decided to just ignore it. I am not going to pull the engine apart. I opened another bottle of oil and confirmed that the cap seal that fell in is a paper material, it may even disintegrate over time as it absorbs oil and cooks at 230F.

You'll be fine then.

It's probably already broken down under the heat. If stuck on the oil pickup screen, it won't take long to just fall apart and get filtered away by the oil filter.

I'd be afraid as hell.

Ya I'd be as well

Amazing the **** you find in an oil pan, what was it, and where did it come from!
That's more than likely what will happen.

yeah if its just paper id just leave it alone..i thought the redline bottles had some sort of paper & aluminum looking caps on the underneath..huh?

I'll find pieces of o-rings from working on valve stem seals on the car, valve stem seals, chunks of RTV sealant from where a bead was in excess. Stuff like that.

What you've gotta understand is that it's not the end of the world if you drop something down into the oil pan... like I explained before, such debris would have to make it through the oil pickup screen, through the oil pump, and through the oil filter in order to cause any damage. All of the wear surfaces within your engine are basically sealed under pressure, and the pressure is always pushing "out" so really nothing external can get between a bearing and a journal, for example, unless it was already between the two surfaces during assembly or it somehow makes it through the entire pressurized filtration system first.

i dont think the OP is worried about the cap making it through the system from the pan..instead i think he's worried about blocking flow from the pickup which would def be no bueno..

i could of sworn that cap has some sort of aluminized material on the bottom of it...not too sure if that would ever break down in the oil??

Such a thin piece could never block much flow. The oil would end up distorting the piece and flowing around it. And under that kind of flow and heat, it wouldn't last long.

You'd have to have really bad luck for that temporary blockage of oil flow to cause any issues. It would have to get stuck there in the middle of sustained WOT operation (i.e. drag racing)... And even then, it would only be causing a small restriction relative to the total surface area of the pickup screen holes.

He said it was the paper piece that is in the cap of the bottle, not the seal that is on the bottle neck itself. That piece is just paper, no foil.

ive never seen our pickup...hopefully it has multiple holes or its angle cut instead on a flat hole on the bottom..

Pics here: http://www.the370z.com/diy-section-d...an-spacer.html

It's a hemisphere-shaped mesh pickup with a baffle around it (which is the hole/slit you see at the bottom of the pickup). Looks like a little circle of paper wouldn't do much at all...

man that looks penis shaped...nevrmind...just leave it alone dude.:ugh2:

Get a cheap deep-fryer, put some veggie oil in, and drop in another paper cap from another bottle. See what comes of it.

Yes, it is just a peice of stiff paper, no foil. I suspect the paper would break down under the heat, absorb oil, disintegrate, and end up in the oil filter.

I considered doing the oil fryer experiment, since I have one handy - being a scientific type, but I'm just not worried enough to bother.

This happened to me with redline oil. I usually use nissan ester which doesn't have the white foam piece. I poured 5.2 quarts then the next day added a bit more and the white foam piece was stuck to the top of the bottle and fell out as I poured oil. Luckily, I do use a funnel that has a small neck.

:eek2: