Over the last month I've had problems with misfiring in the 2nd cylinder. After replacing all 6 spark plugs and ignition coils to no luck, we cleaned the throttle bodies still no luck, Our next move was to replace the 2nd cylinder fuel injector and still had no luck but then we noticed that a section of the wiring harness connecting to the fuel injector related to cylinder 2 had been chewed threw by a rodent or something of the like. After successfully changing out this wiring harness I am ashamed to admit that I left the blue shop towels that I placed in the intake to keep anything from falling down there, in the intake and upon starting my car to no luck it was too late and the towels had been sucked down the intake. While we did recover the majority of the towels there are still bits and pieces caught in the valve seals. My question is does anybody know a good method to get the bits and pieces of paper towel out of the valve seals or is it to late and will I have to replace the engine?

 

Valve seals are not exposed to the intake. Do you mean valve guides? And I don't see how a paper towel could get caught in them.

 

i guess my terminology is wrong but I put the towels in the 6 holes under the plenum and that is where the bits and pieces are stuck is down in the bottom

 

You bolted the plenum on top of the towels?

 

Yes I just wasn't paying attention and forgot to take them out of the 6 holes that align with the plenum

 

I'd suck it up and remove the plenum again to get at those towel remnants.

 

We did that and got most of it out, removing the plenum isn't that big of a deal to me, im just wondering if any small amounts of the paper towel got sucked into the engine would the effects be fatal or do you think it would just burn up?

 

Blue towels are in fact paper so they'll just burn up or pass through the exhaust valves. The only real concern I'd have is maybe some bits surviving to get caught in the cats. I think they get hot enough to burn paper but I'm not sure.

 

Thank you for you help!

 

Catalytic converters operate in the 1500* F territory. So, safe to say, any paper that made it through the engine, will be burned up. The odds of anything surviving the combustion chamber is slim though, as that runs even hotter than the cat.

I once sucked a rubber sleeve through a turbo and into my engine, the results for the turbo were catastrophic, but the engine was "fine." We all make mistakes from time to time and while its certainly not good for an engine to ingest paper, my guess is that everything will be OK.

 

Been there done that, you should be good. We did the same thing on my buddies Trans Am several years ago, we kinda freaked out for a few minutes but the car never choked and drove normally thereafter.