Desertdogs

Hi folks. This will be my first official post here, unfortunately, it ain't for good reasons.

I have a low mileage LS1 (<32K miles), that I am putting into a hotrod project, and decided to replace all of the sensors.

All was good until I pulled the camshaft sensor. It came out filthy!! with all sorts of black dust and metal flakes on it. Mind you I was puzzeled, as I knw this motor was taken care of by the previous owner. When I looked back at the engine, I noticed the void where all the clutch dust n particles gathered, and of course, as the sensor was pulled out, stuff coated it and some fell into the hole. Engine has no oil in it, so everyhting was dry. So I grabbed my hi-power shop vac and vacuumed everything out, and even made a modification to get down inside the hole.

So I am wondering...do I need to crack open the motor to clean it out?

And of course this has me wondering how the dealer techs replace a camshaft sensor without knocking stuff down in there.

myk

iTrader: (4)

I may be wrong here, but I don't think that such a small amount of particulate can do any serious damage. After all, isn't there always a small amount of debris floating around inside an engine anyway? Before I would tear the motor apart I would just oil it, then run it, then maybe do an oil change immediately. Hopefully someone else will chime in here...

dutinsss

iTrader: (2)

my guess is, since the cam sensor is magnatized, any small metal flakes stuck to it as the oil circulated through the motor. it would worry me too, but if they were small, you should be fine. you'll see that on a lot of car on the oil drain plug magnet. as far as some trash falling into the cam sensor hole, like myk said, i'd just put fresh oil in it, maybe some seafoam, run it and change it again just to be on the safe side.

garygnu

maybe put a pen magnet in there to remove any thing that will stick to it.maybe use a cotton ball attached to a medical clamp to clean it out better.

1lejohn

iTrader: (9)

Dump some oil down the cam sensor hole , then add some to the crank case then dump it out. you should be fine

COSTIGAN86

iTrader: (8)

You would be surprised at how much debris in the oil it will take to damage an engine. The sensor is magnetized, so all the metal debris floating in the oil will stick to it. I think you will be fine.