Dropped plastic in valve cover

I apologize if this topic has already been covered, I searched the forum and didn't find anything... if there's a thread please point me to it, I really need your expert help here.

I have a 97 Wrangler, 4.0L. Time for a smog check, and since it hadn't been done in a long while, I decided to change the PCV valve and also the PCV elbow at the front of the valve cover because the edge was broken about halfway around.

The elbow was so hard that it cracked and I had to take it out in pieces. One little piece (about 1/4") fell into the hole and I couldn't find it to get it out.

Do I have to take off the valve cover and try and find it? Or will it eventually work it's way to the oil pan and I can drain it out? I'm really stressed about this as I have to get it fixed before I go back to work on Monday. I was afraid to even start it to see how well it ran with the new PCV.

Please help me...

I have found lots of debris in various engines I have worked on. Finding remains of gaskets, silicone sealer, plastic etc in an oil pan is surprisingly common. I have even found a combination wrench and a roll of electrical tape in one pan.

IMO if the piece really is that small, just leave it. The worst that will happen is it will get stuck in a drainback hole, and slow the drainback in that one hole. However, you enigne has (3? 4?) several drainback holes, so, unless your engine is hugely sludged up inside you will not have a problem.

However, don't expect it to appear the next time the oil is drained. You may never see it again, but thats okay. Your oil pump pick up tube has a screen on the bottom, which keeps such debris out of the oil pump.

Thank you MagicRat, I feel better now.:bigthumb:

I was having awful visions of starting the engine and having all sorts of bad things happen.

A combination wrench?!?!? WOW.

Same thing happened to me . A stuck pcv valve had to be broken into pieces before it would come out and one of the plastic pieces went into the valve compartment and disappeared out of site. I was not willing to take off the cover and fish for it, but I was not comfortable in leaving the piece of plastic in there. So I got it out using a shop vac. Fist I emptied the shop vac so that I’d see the piece if I was able to vacuum it out. Next I used a shop vac adapter that had the suction hole small enough to tightly fit over the pcv hole. I turned on the vac and tried to form a seal between the engineand the vacuum. After a few seconds of vacuuming I heard nothing being sucked out so I stopped and looked into the hole. To my delight I saw the plastic piece wedged in the pcv hole. From this point I was able to use a pair of tweezers to wrestle out the plastic piece. Shop vac to the rescue once more!
79k10
:)