Guess what I found under my distributor cap...

[JSM]

... a socket as I'm doing the timing belt, water pump service on my new $400 Z31 Turbo.  I still can't believe it didn't cause any damage to the rotor. Car did have a miss once in awhile.  

The hacks that were working on her before did all kinds of wacky things so I guess I shouldn't be to surprised. 

 

[Patcon]

It actually ran with the socket in the dizzy? How bought that!!!

[JSM]

9 minutes ago, Patcon said:

It actually ran with the socket in the dizzy? How bought that!!!

I know pretty crazy. 

[Zed Head]

Maybe it was a secret storage spot.

Was that broken piece of rotor in there or did you break it off?

[JSM]

Yeah it was in there.  It look like that piece came off the cap. All new cap and rotor on the way. 

Z31 plugs are a pain to pull. The plugs are a magnet for debri. You have to blow them out, spin a screw driver around then blow them again, losen half way and blow a third time. At least this is what I do. 

I found a injector spring clip at the bottom of one plug. 

[Zed Head]

I had a VG30E in a Pathfinder so I've seen the plug problem.  Pretty sure I felt a few grains of grit under the seat when I changed them.  Luckily, the ignition and engine control systems on those engines are so good you can get about 50,000 miles from a set of plugs.  Pretty sure I got over 100,000 out of a set.  Not quite right, but it was just an SUV daily driver.  Had 260,000 and still running great when I sold it.

I was thinking here, like it hit the socket once -

 

[Rainman]

"Hacks"?...   I resemble that remark!

[SteveJ]

10mm?

[SteveJ]

Count your blessings that you found it there and not like this.

[JSM]

20 minutes ago, SteveJ said:

Count your blessings that you found it there and not like this.

Dang!  

Yeah I was nervous about the spring falling in the cyclinder. Luckily after the plug came out I was able to get it out with a magnet. 

[JSM]

7 hours ago, Zed Head said:

I had a VG30E in a Pathfinder so I've seen the plug problem.  Pretty sure I felt a few grains of grit under the seat when I changed them.  Luckily, the ignition and engine control systems on those engines are so good you can get about 50,000 miles from a set of plugs.  Pretty sure I got over 100,000 out of a set.  Not quite right, but it was just an SUV daily driver.  Had 260,000 and still running great when I sold it.

I was thinking here, like it hit the socket once -

 

I think your right.  

[Kurbycar32]

10 hours ago, SteveJ said:

10mm?

 

Yeah, we really need to know if that was a 10mm socket.