Straw fell off oil sucking hose

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by Brewgyver

Melt or dissolve???

Unless you're buying your motor oil in a 55 gallon drum, the container is plastic. Oil WON'T dissolve plastic, neither will most other liquids, including acids and most solvents. Some U.S. states and localities have passed laws forcing food vendors to provide paper straws because the plastic straws live forever.

Do you know what type of plastic the straw is made from? Do you know at what temperature that plastic will soften. Do you know that boiling it in oil will not break it down further?

I seriously doubt you people store your oil jugs at engine operating temperatures, so kind of a stupid analogy. You'll notice that most plastic straws say they are not for use with hot liquids.

[jamhass]

Pulled a similar move on an auto tranny. Had success using an endoscope attached to my computer. Had a hook attachment that caught the straw. Drain the oil first or the camera won't see much.

[girdasso]

Check with engine manufacturer. Is there a strainer on intake of oil pump? If so probably OK but monitor oil pressure carefully for a while until yuo feel safe.

[Tetepare]

At worst I’d drop the pan before I’d leave it there.

[hzcruiser]

Originally Posted by Tetepare

At worst I’d drop the pan before I’d leave it there.

That would be rather difficult on a boat... albeit the "best" solution.

[Moontide]

Many oil dipstick tubes can be removed from the block/pan from outside the engine. If so, you would have a larger hole closer to the oil to use to fish around in it.



As others have said kind of think it probably is not a killer deal. Only thing I would think could be a problem is if it get sucked against the intake for the oil pump If it did that probably not very pleasant.

[jimbunyard]

If it's a standard length drinking straw, chances are good that it's still in the dipstick tube. If you can advise the exact model engine we can check it out. If it is, a 1/16 tig welding rod with an tiny acute angle hook bent into the end can possibly be used to fish it out.

If you can't get it out, it's extremely unlikely to cause problems, especially if it remains in the d/s tube. If it doesn't, it's still very unlikely to cause problems; most common plastics melt at more than 300 F (except PE); straws are most commonly polypropylene, which melts at about 330F.

If it gets loose in the pan, again it won't matter. It's not large enough to block the oil pickup, which has (or should have) a screen on it, and in the very unlikely case that it somehow got 'ground up' by the rotating machinery in the crankcase, the filter would catch the 'plastic grounds' as they were circulated through.

[Seriously Slow]

Originally Posted by jimbunyard

If it's a standard length drinking straw, chances are good that it's still in the dipstick tube. If you can advise the exact model engine we can check it out. If it is, a 1/16 tig welding rod with an tiny acute angle hook bent into the end can possibly be used to fish it out.

If you can't get it out, it's extremely unlikely to cause problems, especially if it remains in the d/s tube. If it doesn't, it's still very unlikely to cause problems; most common plastics melt at more than 300 F (except PE); straws are most commonly polypropylene, which melts at about 330F.

If it gets loose in the pan, again it won't matter. It's not large enough to block the oil pickup, which has (or should have) a screen on it, and in the very unlikely case that it somehow got 'ground up' by the rotating machinery in the crankcase, the filter would catch the 'plastic grounds' as they were circulated through.

Exactly what I was going to write. This is what I would do. With a lot of patience.

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by jimbunyard

straws are most commonly polypropylene, which melts at about 330F.

That's the temperature at which it becomes a liquid. The heat distortion temperature is a lot lower than that. As a semi-solid it is more likely to cause problems.

I like your idea for fishing it out of the dip tube

[JPA Cate]

Hello RockinRick,

Agree that removal would be best, but would not worry, because if it gets into machinery, it will be eventually caught in the filter.

However, I think you might want to consider a couple of things:

1) Run the engine a while to thoroughly warm the oil before you go to suck it out.

2) Your hose, get a longer one. If necessary, warm it a little before use, so that it will uncurl enough to get down to where the oil is. Warming also helps the hose you use for syphoning from the jug to the tank.


On Edit: keep an eye on your oil temperature gauge the next time you go out. If your oil doesn't come up to its normal operating temperature, you may have a blockage.

Ann

[SeanPatrick]

Originally Posted by RockinRick

Plastic drinking straw with some blue tape on the end. I actually changed oil three times like this with no problems. Guess I should have retaped a new straw.

Where did the blue tape end up?

[gonesail]

we went thru this a while back here with a fellow that dropped a straw in his transmission. eventually spotted it with an endoscope and fished it out. maybe it is stuck in the dipstick tube? other than that it will be ground up by the oil pump or melted and end up in the oil filter? maybe a question for a mechanic.

[RockinRick]

I took off the dipstick bracket held on by two bolts which gave me more room. After about two hours of poking with my 4 claw reacher grabber, I finally got it out!!! So happy, all good! Thank you everyone for your help and comments!!

[SeanPatrick]

Glad you were able to get it sorted!

[Nord Sal]

Originally Posted by RockinRick

I took off the dipstick bracket held on by two bolts which gave me more room. After about two hours of poking with my 4 claw reacher grabber, I finally got it out!!! So happy, all good! Thank you everyone for your help and comments!!

Well done! I imagine you couldn't 'feel' the straw so you must've been searching blindly with the grabber. You'd have to have a bit of tenacity to keep that as long as you did. I wouldn't have wanted to have it my pan either and, after two hours efforts, it must've felt great when you pulled it out.