HELP! Bad idea gone wrong
Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: Mar 2015
Posts: 168
Likes: 14
HELP! Bad idea gone wrong Well this may have been the stupidest thing I've ever done while working on a car. Installed my LSX B15 376 into my 96 impala, all was going smooth until I got to installing the 4 corner steam vent system. The factory put those press in rivets in the rears and I was trying to bolt the blower on before heavy snow/rain hit (working out of a tent) so I guess in my excitement I didn't think this through. For some reason I thought it was a good idea to punch them through and blow them out with compressed air out of the water pump ports. I figured they are tiny and should move right through the passages. They punched through very easily and left no damage to the head, but when it came time to blow them out I got nothing. Looking at a 5.3 block I have lying around I could see now how they could have gotten caught on a corner of a water passage in the block.
I'm freaking out now and don't know what to do. I'm going to try flushing it out with water from the hose hoping the water will carry them out better than air, but if that doesn't work I'm out of ideas. It would totally suck having to pull the heads off (whole reason I bought this crate motor was to avoid more work) and even if I did, i'm worried that depending on where they fell into I might still not be able to get it out with the heads off.
Any ideas? just run it?
I'm freaking out now and don't know what to do. I'm going to try flushing it out with water from the hose hoping the water will carry them out better than air, but if that doesn't work I'm out of ideas. It would totally suck having to pull the heads off (whole reason I bought this crate motor was to avoid more work) and even if I did, i'm worried that depending on where they fell into I might still not be able to get it out with the heads off.
Any ideas? just run it?
TECH Senior Member
Joined: Jun 2016
Posts: 22,308
Likes: 3,625
From: Central Cal.
I really doubt they will cause a problem. Something that small should not impede flow much at all. It might make it to the radiator tank where it will settle in the tank somewhere. Run it...
Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: Mar 2015
Posts: 168
Likes: 14
Thanks! That seems to be the general consensus amongst those who I ask, that it'll probably either settle somewhere in the block or radiator and not cause any issues. Best case scenario is maybe it'll come out when I flush it out with the hose, but I don't want to do that till I'm ready to run the motor in the springs since I don't want to cooling passages sitting for months with water in them rusting.
It would definitely bring me some peace of mind in they showed up somewhere though LOL
Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: Mar 2015
Posts: 168
Likes: 14
