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Oil quart foil seal accidentally poured into oil fill - problem?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by quik912, Dec 3, 2012.

  1. quik912

    quik912 Junior Member

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    Routine oil change suddenly turned not-so-routine when a dime-sized piece of that stupid foil seal we all hate poking through on new quarts of oil additives became completely dislodged from the quart and made its way into the crankcase while filling. Couldn't see it through the oil fill, so I tried refilling with old oil to try to flush it out. When that didn't work, I dropped the oil pan, nothing there. Even running compressed air through didn't bring the dumb foil out.

    My question is this - I'm considering removing the valve cover and seeing if I can see it. Before I do I'm wondering what damage this little piece of foil could possibly do. Biggest fear is that it clogs an oil uptake somewhere. I can't imagine that it could possibly harm any internal hard parts???

    Engine has 203k on it and has a ton of sludge from previous owner not changing frequently enough (but I gave $4500 cash for it 2 years ago with 120k and aside from being a but "loud" in colder temps, engine's been fine.) Recommend de-sludging engine or might that cause more harm than good at this point?

    Many thanks for any advice!
     
    #1 quik912, Dec 3, 2012
  2. Joe 26

    Joe 26 Member

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    I would say it is worth pulling the valve cover to get the piece out. It may never cause a problem, or, especially with a sludged engine, could block an oil drainback port, causing oil to pool in the head. This would cause oil burning, leakage, and possibly oil starvation. Same holds true if it happens to get flushed into the oil pan. The pickup screen is relatively small, and combined with sludge, could block oil flow.

    As to de-sludging an engine, I normally recommend frequent oil changes (3 or 4 at 1K intervals) to slowly get rid of the sludge rather than using a special chemical.
     
    #2 Joe 26, Dec 3, 2012
  3. uart

    uart Senior Member

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    The good news is that the material is not hard enough to abrasively damage anything in the engine, but the bad news is that if it's "dime sized" then it's big enough to potentially block an oil drain. Chances are that it wont though. More likely it will just lodge itself somewhere harmless, but yeah it would bother me too.

    There was a guy over at "bobistheoiguy" who reported doing a similar thing, but it was only a few small specs of the stuff. The general consensus was that it couldn't damage anything, but those were only small "shreds" from around the edge of the bottle. Yours sounds like it's the complete piece.
     
    #3 uart, Dec 3, 2012
  4. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    I agree that the valve cover should be removed in an effort to find the foil seal. You will need to replace the gasket and also apply some FIPS sealant at the junctions between the cylinder head and oil pump cover.

    Next time, use a knife to totally remove the foil seal before inserting the bottle...
     
    #4 Patrick Wong, Dec 3, 2012
  5. quik912

    quik912 Junior Member

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    Def will. Will start the job tonight. Am planning on changing the plugs and PCV as well (all original as far as I can tell). Any other preventative recommendations while I've got the cover off? I'm going to clean up sludge as best I can without allowing pieces of it to fall into the crankcase.

    And yes, next time I'll completely remove the foil! Having a small funnel with a screen filter on it would have prevented this as well.

    Appreciate the responses.
     
    #5 quik912, Dec 3, 2012
    Dino33ca likes this.
  6. quik912

    quik912 Junior Member

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    Well, I've got the valve cover off, dropped oil pan, ad see no sign of the foil. I think this is as far as I go - not going to remove head (unless anyone has further recommedation short of that). Guess just wait and see. Ill keep an eye out for at my next few oil changes.
     
    #6 quik912, Dec 4, 2012
  7. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    Sorry to hear you could not find the foil.

    How about taking a few photos of the valve train? I'd like to see what sludge exists given your OP.
     
    #7 Patrick Wong, Dec 4, 2012
  8. uart

    uart Senior Member

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    I don't think it would fit down an oil drain in one whole piece like that, so most likely it got munched up in the valve gear with the remnants carried harmlessly through to the oil filter.

    I wouldn't worry about it any further.
     
    #8 uart, Dec 5, 2012
  9. quik912

    quik912 Junior Member

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    Yeah, I'm thinking (hoping) that it won't be a problem. I was a bit surprised that I couldn't find it as I haven't run the engine since it went in. My guess is that I would have found it had I taken the valve cover off immediately instead of trying to flush it out by pouring the old oil back through the crankcase. Oh well, hopefully this will assist someone down the road if it happens to them. My advice would be to immediately remove the valve cover and inspect rather than first trying to flush or blow it down to the oil pan.

    Sorry Patrick, already got it put back together. But my valve train looked surprisingly good. The bottom of the oil pan and some areas around the top of the valve cover have quite a bit of burnt oil caked on (what I refer to as sludge, though maybe incorrectly), but it was pretty hardened on there and wasn't "sludgy". I cleaned it as best I could and put it all back together.

    Boy, the original (I assume) plugs were pretty bad looking. Happy to have new ones in there. The PCV valve was pretty cruddy as well.

    Thanks all for your comments/advice!
     
    #9 quik912, Dec 5, 2012
  10. 2009Prius

    2009Prius A Wimpy DIYer

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    I assume you had a filter to catch the foil cover when you flushed the engine with old oil so it wouldn't have come out unnoticed?
     
    #10 2009Prius, Dec 5, 2012
  11. quik912

    quik912 Junior Member

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    Yeah, I've got a screen on my oil drain pan and didn't notice it in there. I may tear apart the oil filter next time I change it and look for little pieces of it.
     
    #11 quik912, Dec 5, 2012
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