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I Did Something Stupid, Stupid, Stupid!! Please Help

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5.3K views 13 replies 12 participants last post by  Mslaughter  
#1 ·
I was cleaning my air cleaner and put a plastic bag over the tube. For some reason I started the engine then hurried to shut it off. Talk about panic. I took the hose off that is right before the turbo. The plastic bag was all wrapped up in the big screw at the enterance to the turbo (Looks like a big drill bit, think it is the turbine) and a few (about 5 pieces) pieces were around. The bag looks complete but I am worried as H*** some plastic pieces went past this point.

Do I need to look further or would that screw stop everything??? I am worried it will get into my engine or ruin my turbo.

Talk about being stupid!!!
 
#2 ·
I think we've all had one or two of those moments, like when your brain has taken a day off and gone to visit another planet somewhere, leaving your body on autopilot with random destinations and actions programmed into it.

I think the big screw is that you're referring is the end of the turbine shaft, see pics in this thread http://www.cumminsforum.com/forum/6-7-liter-general-discussion/31687-silencer-ring-removel.html
The turbine itself looks like a kind of fancy fan with slightly curved blades. I couldn't say for sure but if you didn't rev the engine up at all, then any bits of plastic may not have gotten right through the air intake system. I would try to take off the pipe after the intercooler, and the one before it, attach a vacuum cleaner to one end and blow into the other with compressed air, hopefully blowing/sucking out any bits of plastic debris that may have lodged in there. If you can get the vacuum pipe into the intake manifold then I would try that also. After that I would give it a good hard run up through a mountain pass to, hopefully, blow out any unwanted plastic debris

Other than that I rather think it's a complete head strip down and search for any bits that may have got in, but even if the whole bag had got sucked in I doubt if it would cause any major damage, might gum things up a bit. Would probably give a lot of black smoke if it gets in the exhaust system though.
 
#4 ·
Ah, well on a Dodge Ram it's at the front of the engine compartment right by the radiator but I have no idea where it would be on your diesel pusher. I can only guess that it would be in a similar position, somewhere where air can blow through the matrix. The intercooler, in fact, looks like a small radiator. Basically, there is an air pipe that goes from the turbo to the intercooler, then another from the intercooler to the actual air intake.
 
#6 ·
Pull the intake horn off. Most debris, will get trapped in the heater element grid, if it makes it through the intercooler.
 
#9 ·
If it didn't hurt the compressor wheel, I'd follow Wicked's advice and wouldn't sweat it. I think a Cummins can eat a plastic bag. I know they love Ford's!

We've all been there, part of picking up a wrench. For example, I recently discovered that many of the display features in a Ram run on smoke. If you let it out, those features don't work anymore..
 
#10 ·
Yes i would be most worried about the compressor wheel. I have seen a forgotten rag in the intake completly destroy the wheel, plastic bag is not quite as tough as a rag but you will want to make sure none of those fins are broken or damaged.
 
#11 ·
If it's any consolation, I heard of a guy who used to work in our shop (see where this is going) who left a rag in the intake of an engine he just finished rebuilding.
Once the engine was installed & started the rag made it through the turbo, & past an intake valve which then broke, which the piston then smashed, etc, etc.
It was a V-12 Komatsu in a 475 dozer. Since the Canadian dollar is almost 1$ US, I'll just say that the cost of a rebuilt v-12 back then (long time, I'm old) was about $120,000 . Plus, you don't just swap those like a 383 in an afternoon.
Honestly, this wasn't me. Oh, I made huge screw-ups, but I'll wait until I know y'all a bit better, haha!
I agree with the other guys...1 plastic bag per tank...nooo, 1 bag once, no sweat.
Besides, what's the worst that could happen?
Good Luck.
 
#13 ·
If it's any consolation, I heard of a guy who used to work in our shop (see where this is going) who left a rag in the intake of an engine he just finished rebuilding.
Once the engine was installed & started the rag made it through the turbo, & past an intake valve which then broke, which the piston then smashed, etc, etc.
It was a V-12 Komatsu in a 475 dozer. Since the Canadian dollar is almost 1$ US, I'll just say that the cost of a rebuilt v-12 back then (long time, I'm old) was about $120,000 . Plus, you don't just swap those like a 383 in an afternoon.

In the Aerospace industry they call that FOD- foreign object debris/ damage.

You DO NOT leave a socket, screw or rag inside of a million dollar turbine on a forty million dollar Gulfstream.