while trying to find the right nut for the carb mounting studs, i accidentaly dropped a nut into the left intake hole on my 289. besides using a magnet (tried it, no such luck, as the block is steel so the magnet just sticks to the block) and witout removing the manifold, is there any way of getting it out?

 

Fire up the motor and wait for the piston and valve to exit the block/head and then pick the nuts out of the rubble.

Take the intake off and hope it fell somewhere with a closed valve. If it didn't then you pull heads till you find it.

 

Yeah=/ Intake's gotta come off, at the least.

 

ai gues ill do it sunday, wha exactly will i have to do?

 

Remove the carb and intake, look down each of the intake ports to see if you can find the nut. If not, it fell into a chamber with an open valve and you might have to pull one or both heads. Let's hope that's not the case.

 

Go buy a telescoping round magnet first, it's like a magnet on a stick. If it's still in the intake or sitting on a closed/semi closed valve you might be able to retrieve it that way.

Other than that, yeah, like everyone else said, take things off.

 

Is it in the car or on an engine stand. If it is on a stand, roll the engine upside down then use a magnet. If the engine is in the car it is much harder to get the engine upside down.

 

Unless you got a borescope, you're pretty well stuck

 

The magnet-tipped stick is still worth a shot.

The nuts are unique carburetor nuts, fine thread 5/16 with an undersize 7/16 hex, and a washer face on the bottom. The Ford nut is on the right, the ordinary hardware store nut on the left.

 

I can think of plenty of ways to get it upside down, just for one it's cheaper to take the intake off, and its kind tough to hit rolling speed with a nut in the chamber..