possible silicone in the engine head

[bumperbozo]

i was using silicone on my cylinder head getting ready to to put the valve cover on and i was putting it on my finger and going around carefully trying not tog get any in the head. it was like playing the game "operation" and then my finger slips and bumps the big gear on the intake cam.

I tried to quickly clean it up with q-tips, but it is hard to see back there and i'm scrambling to get the cover on before the rest of the silicone cures. i wiped between the teeth and then the tops of the teeth with fresh q-tips, but i didn't really get a good look at how clean i got it. i should have taken the dental mirror and gotten a better look, but i was sort of rushing as i said. i dabbed some more cam lube on there and the put the cover on.

now i'm having second thoughts. how big is the risk i'm taking? the worst case scenario in my mind right now is that there is a fragment or two of silicone that is about a millimeter square by three or four millimeters long that is gonna be floating around in there, perhaps first mashed between the cam gears. could bits that size make it all the way through the oil passages, through the oil pump, and into the filter, or would they get caught somewhere critical and mess up my engine?

is it worth pulling the cover again, possibly getting more bits of silicone into the head, and possibly having to wait for another valve cover gasket to ship to me, and blowing another half a day screwing around with it?

[bumperbozo]

well, my local store apparently has another valve cover gasket in stock for $20. i'd have to pick up another tube of silicone. still, is it worth it?

[bumperbozo]

i've been trying to build up some good karma by answering a bunch of unanswered posts, hoping someone might answer this one...

[BLUEMEANIE]

IMO, it should be fine because...
A) its small. There are metal shavings and other particles about that size that get trapped by the filter all the time and since you dropped it into the VC, it should pass thru the filter before hitting any small return or distribution lines.
B) its silicone, so its soft enough to work its way thru with out damaging any gears.

That said, if it were my car and I had the time for it to be down and apart, I might go back in simply for piece of mind.
...tho, I'm also the guy who drove his car eight hours to the track for the weekend to blow the carbon out of his primary cat rather than taking it to the dealer to have the cel cleared and things done right. lol.

[bumperbozo]

cool. so oil is routed from the valve cover area straight down into the pan? so if one of those holes that goes down from the cylinder head to the oil pan gets plugged up, it's not going to interfere with any lubrication?

[BLUEMEANIE]

I don't think the piece you described is big enough to clog up one of the holes.
Yes, I believe the valve galley is the beginning of the return on the 5SFE and it should hit the pan before it gets to the filter. Silicone is light tho and modern oils keep particles in suspension, so odds are, it will end up in the filter rather than in the sludge at the bottom of the pan.

[edit] I'm looking for a lubrication diagram that illustrates the oil flow path for the 5sfe

[bumperbozo]

awesome. that diagram would give me piece of mind.

[BLUEMEANIE]

Yeah, for sure. I'll let you know if I find one.

[BLUEMEANIE]

Spoke with a bud who's an ASE Master Tech and the expert opinion is that it wouldn't make it up thru the oil strainer in the pan.

Here's the 5S-FE oil flow diagram. I highlighted the oil return path from the valve galley to the pan. Before leaving the pan its gotta get thru the strainer.

[bumperbozo]

whoa, blue meanie, you are the man!

so we don't think any of the silicone is gonna get caught in the cam bearings or jam up the lifters before doing downstairs, correct?

hopefully the pan strainer doesn't have a bunch of other crap caught in it already. a little silicone caught in it will probably increase the resistance on the oil pump and tension on the timing belt.

all in all, would you still pull the cover if you were as slow as me (i'm pretty slow), or would you just let it ride?

[BLUEMEANIE]

Nah. I wouldn't think so. The pan strainer is probably close to the size of a 32oz soda cup lid, give or take. That little piece of silicone isn't going to cause any additional resistance. In the picture its the lowest piece in the pan. Its literally a wire mesh screen.

Have you ever dropped the pan? If not, sixteen years of sludge hasn't killed the motor yet. lol.

If you decide to drop it, arm yourself with a spoon, a role of paper towels, a can of kerosene and a can of spray carb or brake cleaner. The screen just pops out and you can swish it around in the Kerosene while you're soaking the pan. Then dry it and use the spray brake or carb cleaner to get the grit, if any, out of the pan.

[bumperbozo]

haven't dropped the pan, but from what it looks like under the valve cover i don't think it's too bad:



there's some varnish, but doesn't look like what my very inexperienced eyes would call sludge. the P.O. talked like she was religious about oil changes.

[bumperbozo]

by the way, dropping the pan is a total pain in the ass on a 6g celica because you have to remove the cross members and the exhaust!

[BLUEMEANIE]

The sludge won't be up there as much. It'll be in the pan mostly and it doesn't cause a problem until/unless it gums up the strainer screen and starves the pump, thus starving the rest of the system.

As I said, modern oil suspends contaminants keeping them flowing to the strainer, which keeps them in the pan, or passing them to the filter. Either way, the majority are removed when the oil and filter are changed.

I cleaned 60yrs worth of sludge out of my Chevy and only found about an inch of gunk at the bottom of the pan. And that was back when oil let debris settle and filters weren't offered by the manufacturer.

[bumperbozo]

alright, i'm gonna just let it ride, and i'm pretty pumped at our decision because the rest of this job seems like a piece of cake now that i'm not going to be pulling the water pump and valve cover off again. I'll add another post to this thread if it explodes, but probably not if it doesn't. you know how it is. you only talk to your mom about your girlfriend when there's something to complain about.