Some metal may have fallen into combustion chamber? Please help

crisp006

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 3, 2020
Location
Vancouver, Canada
TDI
2000 Jetta TDI
Hi guys,

I was working on swapping the injectors on my car (still a work in progress) and after following DBWs advice to clean the injector port bores with a 12 gauge shotgun brush (the one I have is phosphor bronze) I noticed that the bore on the #3 injector is chipped in 3 places along the edge of the bore... each chip being obviously a small fraction of an inch in size. I will attach photos to this thread.

Now, I’m not really sure how that happened. I’m thinking maybe the spiral tip of the shotgun brush clipped the edge of the bore when the drill was spinning and caused it. Aluminum is soft but that still seems like a long shot. Perhaps they were already damaged and I didn’t notice? I only noticed this for the fight time when using a bright flashlight to peer inside.

Two questions:

Because the chips are small and don’t span the full width of the bore between the inside diameter and outside diameter, will this cause an issue with sealing? I’m really hoping I don’t have to get the bores cut/sanded.

If those small chips of aluminum fell into the combustion chamber, could that damage the engine? I have not started the engine but *may* have hand cranked it depending on when/if the pieces fell in, as I recently did the timing belt (car is in the final stages of an engine swap). and if so, how would I even get them out?

In advance I want to say I appreciate any help or advice you guys can render.
 

jmodge

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jun 18, 2015
Location
Greenville, MI
TDI
2001 alh Jetta, RC2 w/.205's 5speed daily summer commuter and 2000 alh Jetta 5spd swap, 2" lift, hitch, stage 3 TDtuning w/.216's winter cruiser, 1996 Tacoma ALh
the chipped edges look kind of gray and old, like they were existing, from the photo anyway
 

rwthomas1

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2002
Location
Wakefield, RI
TDI
'03 Jetta
Vacuum the area as well as you can. You have two options: Spin the engine with the starter. Anything in the combustion chambers will be ejected, violently, through the injector holes. Or, simply reinstall the injectors, start the engine and don't worry about it. Those chips are extremely small, many, many injectors have been changed and bigger bits of debris have fallen in engines with little ill effects.

RT
 

tgray

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2004
Location
Marengo, IL
TDI
'02 Beetle, '05 Golf, 2000 Jetta, 2001 Jetta, 2002 Jetta
If it is just aluminum of that size it will just melt, wear itself to nothing or just blow out the exhaust. I would not worry about this at all. Something like sand may cause a score or 2 but not what you see. The turbo is the biggest concern for stuff flying out of the engine exhaust but your debris looks pretty minor.
 
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