The events leading up to the incident were as follows:

>Was pouring Oil into the Engine
>Not using a oil funnel because jug is almost empty
>Place the jug directly onto the engine for minimum gap of spillage possible
>Jostle the jug just right so that the last little tab of foil holding the no spill seal inside the jug gets ripped clean
>Downward current of oil pushes the foil into the engine amid the stream of lubricant


I looked down there with a light as best as I can and it was not visible.

My thoughts are that it could get sheared away or burnt up? Could the filter catch it and I'd find it on an oil change and filter replacement?

Two buddies nearby had different opinions:
1) it might get sucked into the oil return
2) it might float around in the cylinder wall


Thoughts.

 

Pull the valve cover off and find it.

 

↑ ↑ ↑ That's what I'd do. Don't start engine until you find it.

 

At the time of the incident I had 15 minutes to get to my final exam, I drove there and back.
I'll remove the valve cover and look for it but does your opinion on the problem get more dire now?

 

Unfortunately, I did.

 

good luck hope it's there. if you drove the car good chance it's stock on the oil pick up tube screen.

 

Well... it was a dumb move but I understand when it comes to exams and stuff. Been there.
I don't know how large the piece was. If it was a large chunk of it (size of a quarter or something) then it's possible that it's stuck on top of the valve train somewhere and didn't go down the oil return paths to be sucked back into the pump and compromise your oil pump and oil supply path (extremely small opening) - but that's if it didn't get caught by the filter (which it may have, and that would be good).
It's definitely a large surface area to weight ratio so it's going to just kind of "hang" in the oil, it won't settle out, like some metals chunks can.
You want to get it out though.

Btw you friend who said it "might float around in the cylinder wall"... doesn't know what he's talking about. I'm not an expert mechanic... but I know a piston has oil control rings and that oil seal piece is very deformative so it would just get scraped off no big deal in my opinion. It's not like a chunk of hard metal that can induce a scratch on your cylinder wall. I'd be more worried about it getting lodged somewhere in the valve train and causing damage that way. pretty sure if it made it's way down into the oil pan the oil filter would catch it which would be okay too. If you can't find it... do an OCI and cut your oil filter open and cross your fingers it's in there.

 

Thanks for the lengthy reply. I'm starting. The job now

 

don't go to crazy. how big of a piece are we talking

 

I hate these foil tab containers, and for this reason! Stupid, anyway I did the exact same thing to my Toyota pickup truck several years ago and I just said to myself i hope its ok, that was about 50k miles ago and i haven't given it another thought since until now. I think you will be fine. I think it would either find a permanent resting place somewhere on top of the head, or get chewed up by the valvtrain and filtered through the oil system. either way i don't see thin little piece of foil causing any damage. I wouldn't be too worried about it.