Today is Ed's Moe's Birthday

[MarkD]

Happy Birthday Ed, have a great year!

MarkD

[bimmer nut]

Thanks Mark, I appreciate it.

[bimmer nut]

And what am I doing on my birthday, looking for a needle in a LIE STACK!

It's a long story, but the pin at the back of a DISA absolutely can not get sucked into the engine if the valves frame is intact! More later...

83308331

[632 Regal]

Looks like a fun little project to begin with let alone a missing pin! If it did happen to roll into a cylinder you might be able to grab it through a spark plug hole with a magnet. I wouldn't be turning it over with the starter to find it though. It is possible to pass one through without damage, the odds are not good but saw it happen once on a chevy.

[genphreak]

Update needed!

Ouch. It must be jammed in the manifold somewhere... I better get around to doing our e46's DISA retrofit... eeek!

[bimmer nut]

Nope, it 100% had to fall out when the mechanic took the disa out. Why I ever brought my car to a dealer, I will never know. Well, I lied, I know why, cause there was a recall, and since they had it, I asked them to diagnose the low power situation. my bad

As I stated above, the pin absolutely can not fall into the intake manifold except during removal. And during removal, the bottom of the inside of the manifold is plenty flat so unless you close your eyes, and have the shakes (extremely bad), it would never fly through the air and into a manifold hole 5 inches in either direction. So I call BS. The disa was removed, the mechanics eyes were closed, and it fell out into the engine compartment. period!

If you look at the pictures above, you can see that unless the frame around the valve on the disa completely falls apart, that pin is isolated (literally sealed) from the rest of the manifold. You can see the orange seal on the frame of the disa. That pin ain't going anywhere!

Anyway, I checked the intake manifold (of course, no pin was found), put the pain in the arse job back together, and the car is fine. It had a clogged cat (which I fixed), just as I told the mechanic when I bought it in. I said; "it just does not have power, runs like it has a clogged cat, but you guys are the experts, check it out and let me know what you find". Well, I shoulda just let them do the recall and figured out the rest of the issues myself!