Dirt got sucked into intake manifold

V10SpeedLuvr

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Last Tuesday I had new motor mounts installed on my car. I dont have a lift, so I let a mechanic I've known for years do it. He's not a Viper tech, but just on mounts, I didn't see a problem. Well......stupid me:mad: I was at a carshow yesterday and when the hood was popped, I happened to notice both my smooth tubes and the hose running from the LH valve cover to the air box were disconnected. The smooth tubes were still fully connected to the airbox, but the bottom of each one had popped off the throttle bodies. The hose was still connected to the valve cover, but completely off the airbox. I reconnected them and called Tator. He said its just a "cross your fingers" situation that nothing bad occured while the tubes were loose. I work down a dirt driveway, so the car went from the dealership to work, from work to home, stayed parked until Friday night and then from home to Atlanta with the tubes loose. I'd say roughly 150 miles. The dealership is offering a free oil change to hopefully drain any crap that got ingested out of the engine (its now been ~300 miles after the drive back home last night). Anyone have any experience with this problem and any signs I should look for to alert me to further damage?

As a side note, I dynoed it after I reconnected the smooth tubes and hose and it put down a nice 404RWHP, 476 Ft/Tq which is the 1st time I've dynoed since adding Borla headers and cat delete, so it still has plenty of power
 
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Joseph Dell

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I wouldn't worry. if anything got sucked in, it got spit out. and the oil filter/mesh screen will catch it on the way out. unless you sucked in a mule. but even then, flesh wont' chew up pistons.

don't worry about it.

JD
 

Copernicus

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I would opt for the oil change just to be safe. I bet if you ran a UOA right now you would see very slightly elevated levels of silicon. 300 miles is a short duration, but you mentioned the dirt driveway, I would do it as a precaution anyway.
 
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V10SpeedLuvr

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After they screwed up the mounts do you really trust them with an oil change? :rolleyes:

I went by there and talked to them today. The tech said since the mounts were done from the bottom, he never popped the hood and therefore never knew about the tubes coming loose. I'm gonna do the oil change myself and they're just gonna credit the labor they charged me to do the mounts ($55)
 
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V10SpeedLuvr

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Are there any signs I can look for to let me know if anything did get damaged? Me and my friend swapped for a little bit this weekend and I drove his GTS and he drove my RT/10. I noticed when I was behind him that some smoke came out the exhaust on each shift, but he was driving the car kinda hard. But since I dont have cats or a muffler, I dont know how normal that is.
 

Copernicus

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If you are really concerned about damage, get a used oil analysis done. For any real damage as a result of the tubes not being connected (again very unlikely at only 300 miles), you will see elevated iron, aluminum, copper, etc with correspondingly high levels of silicon.
 

KepRght

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K&N filters pass dirt through too. Change the oil ASAP & dont worry about it.
 

snampro

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HOLY ****!!! YOUR CAR IS NOW JUNK. Since its now a salvage vehicle and we are buddies I'll offer you $15,000 for it.

Let me know.
 
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V10SpeedLuvr

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Oil change is done and I am going to send some of the oil off to be analyzed just for piece of mind. I'll post the results when I get them back. Ben, thanks but no thanks for the $15k offer. If I had $15k lying around, I'd just waste it on "making it rain" in the Pink Pony, so I better not :D
 

GTSnake

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Don't sweat it. A little dust won't kill anything. If you drove like that for a few thousand miles then you have something to worry about. Just change the oil like everyone else said and don't worry, be happy...
 

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