yeah, thats worst case scenario,
but it drove fine for a 10 mile drive,
(aside the movie projector noise that its had since i started all this crap)
i noticed the noise and wanted to heat the engine back up to try again being more precise.
when i got back i got the engine cover off and thats when i noticed it was missing.
(i had that look on my face like )

now correct me if im wrong,
but i can only see two possibilities here.
1. The nut fell into the pan by the grace of gods
or
2. the nut feel off as i turned the engine off


now i think this because i did not hear any different noises than before and no real drivability issues.
(if you have any other possiblities, no matter how bleak, id like to hear them)

needless to say, if i get that nut outta the pan, im puting it back on and driving it straight to a mitsubishi dealer... hell i might even tow it.

 

ok, im not freaking out anymore.
im taking the golf to work.

when i get home im gonna do whatever i can to see if i can salvage the nut.

my friend gave me this industrial strength magnet to check for the nut,
where do you suggest i look for this? I was thinking oil pan,
but i though you guys might have some ideas too,
id love to hear em.
thanks.

 

Joho,

I see it in 1 of 3 places. In the valtrain assy ie; cam, springs, etc, in the oilpan which you could drop and look in, or on the ground because somehow you took it off and it was bumped off. While you take out the oilpan, you could plumb for turbo and cap it off.

Hell, your this far.. you could get an RRM cam and do a complete teardown and gain performance. By now you know how to set TDC and you'll gain a few HP.

Maybe this is bad advice. If I were in your shoes, I'd probably do it. I'll probably get flamed for this, but I've taken some large risks in life. Something to pit against your self confidence.

I have faith in you brother love.

 

thanks for the confidence bro,
i just blame this all on me being too damn cheap and lazy to pick up a friggen torque wrench.

as for the teardown idea, it wouldnt be too bad if i didnt only have about 200$ in the account.

im gonna scour the head one last time before i drain the oil and search the pan.

 

aye.....this has turned into a nightmare. I am hoping that the missing nut is in the oil pan (crosses fingers for you).

Is this the first time you have opened up an engine?

 

no,
5th time in 4 days.

but i think its in the pan, oil return in one of the springs in the head and i just havent seen it.
but im not too freaked anymore.
if it was somewhere doing some damage, i woulda heard something rough in that 15-20 min drive when i tried to re-heat it.

 

I don't think it would've been able to make it into the springs (coils too close and they move too fast for something to sneak by), but check there anyways. Get a nice bright flashlight and look in all the crevices and around where the cam is. It's most likely, though, that it's down in the bottom of the oil pan.

If it makes you feel any better, the first time I did my valve lash, I stupidly didn't take apart my feeler gauge assembly so I was only holding the gauge I needed, and while I was setting the lash, the nut holding the feeler assembly together spun off and droped into the engine. I felt retarded, had to pull the oil pan to get it out.

 

you know,
that did make me feel better.
the guy i share an office with is about 60,
told me about the time he snapped a spark plug off below the nut...
that was a good story.
well i bet its in the oil pan too, or in the oil return...

if i dont find this nut... what are my options though?

so to get this crap out, think i should use a filtered funnedl and empty this oil (cause its still got like 4k left in it) into a clean container and go from there?

 

The nut is going to sink right to the bottom, so it likely won't come out with the oil. Check the oil returns with a flashlight to make sure it's not down there (unlikely it'll be there, anyways.) If it's in the oil pan, first thing to try is to drain your oil, then use a strong magnet to see if you can "walk" the nut over to the drain hole and get it out from there. If that doesn't work, you'll have to remove the oil pan and take it out that way. Oil pans aren't hard to remove, but I still recommend you get help if you do that. When removing them, you must be very careful to not bend the lip of the pan, otherwise it won't seal right when you re-install it. Installing an oil pan is easy, too, but it requires patience and attention to detail when prepping the mating surfaces and applying the gasket goo.

 

ok, so were thinking its in the pan...

ill need the following to get my car back to par after.

- fuel rail bolt,
- engine block bolt
- filtered funnel
- clean container that can hold 4+ quarts of oil
- new gasket for oil pan
(missing anything?)

puting the oil pan back on isnt that hard,
i had to do a tranny oil pan on my old 199X shaddow once,
you have to put the bolts on on in a good order... kinda like the
way you put a car tire on in star formation.
(right?)

 

right, tighten slowly a little at a time so you don't warp anything. part of the oil pan is aluminum too, so be extra careful.

 

me? careful?
its my middle name...
hhahaha, what a mess... over an $xx.xx torque wrench i was too cheap for.
what would a TW with inch pounds run me anyway?

 

Just change the oil while you're at it. With all the times you've taken the head off, you might as well change the oil. I'm sure there's something in there, especially if you took it off and had it exposed for a while working on it.

 

Depends on teh company and the store, prob like 50$ for a cheap on maybe less, 100$ for a nice one.

 

Engine block bolt and fuel rail bolt?

There is no oil pan gasket. You need to get that liquid gasket stuff designed for imports (the gray stuff.) Every auto parts store in the world will have it.
http://www.amazon.com/Permatex-ULTRA.../dp/B0002JN22W

If you have a Harbor Freight near you, you can pick up good torque wrenches for under $20.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...l_Store_ID=147