Yanmar 2GM Question

[WorldWind]

Is it possible that a lifter rod could fall through pass the camshaft without gernading and pass through to the oil pan while under power.
I am seeing no evidence of shrapnel or metal flakes in the oil or anywhere in the passageway.
The engine turns fine with the hand crank,no strange audible sounds.
I'm about to drain the oil and pull the pan and look around the light and mirror from below.
Just wondering if anyone has heard of this happening?

[familycruisers]

I'm thinkin' its impossible, why do you think its a push rod?

[perchance]

Pull the rocker cover and look.

[WorldWind]

I was told by the PO this was the case.
I looked through the bin of parts and only found 3 lifter rods.




He had started to teardown the engine but luckily never got passed the valve cover and injectors.
We knew the motor was not running when we purchased her.
Now I have started to dive into it and when I looked into the injector ports the piston heads look good,as do the walls,(as much as I can see w/out taking the head off).
I did find a piece of hard plastic,round thing that was on top of rear cylinder piston.
I pulled it out carefully after bringing rear cylinder close to tdc.I'll get a pic of this mysterious object.
See above pic.

[nes]

I have a Yanmar 2GM20, had a push rod that fell into the pan. Had no clue what to do, as we had only had the boat about 3 months, and we were dealing with dead batteries while vacationing at Catalina Island. Got towed to Oceanside by Boat US (GREAT SERVICE!). One advantage of their insurance no cost for me for what would have been a $2500 tow.
In any case the mechanic in Oceanside found the problem and got the push rod reinstalled, changed the oil and sent us on our way the next day.
Not sure how common a problem this is, we had about 300 hours on the engine at the time.
By the way, when this happened, we had just gotten a jump start from Boat US on a mooring in Avalon Bay. Planning to motor around the island to charge the batteries, got to the mouth of the bay, the engine made a "Clank Clank" noise and then died. Boat US tried to jump start us again, no go, towed back to our mooring got a mechanic who spent several hours (with a new battery) trying to get the engine to start finally we tried the decompression levers and found that wth one of the cylinders open the engine would almost run. That was when he took off the valve cover and saw that the push rod was missing.
We have been sailing/motoring with this same engine for another 3 years, have about 500 hours on the motor now. NO problems.

[WorldWind]

Thanks nes for chiming in,as well as all the others.
Much like you,I'd never travel w/out BoatUS.They are awsome and were the one's who towed our new acquisition back to our home port from where it was moored.
I'm starting to feel alot better knowing that pushrod is probably in the pan.
Engine looks well taken care of,so I'm hoping for the best when I drain the oil tonight.
Thanks for sharing your experiences,much appreciated.
Oh btw it's a 2GM15,very similar to the 20 for what I've heard of.
Fingers crossed on an easy fix.
I wanna' go sailing

[jewel114]

Don't see this happening. Harley

[WorldWind]

Finally got the time to drop the pan today,and lone behold,the 4th pushrod was sitting in the pan.
So it can happen.
Luckily no visible damage or metal flakes anywhere.
Ordering up a new pan gasket and some new crush washers for the fuel system,changing the filters and oil and we should be good to go.