Nope lol, the bearing is not crushed or broken, not compromised at all actually. I do have a magnetic sheet that I cut a strip from

 

Would wonder if it was there at all in the first place. Tough call. I can't see the needle escaping if the tool was fully inserted.

 

I’m cautiously optimistic that it was missing from the factory. I would expect some damage to the bearing but I don’t see any. I’m gonna try the magnet and then flush the cam hole and see if I get anything

 

Generally speaking when metal is suspected, flush the case and the oil pan. If I have the cylinders off, then it is easy from the top. In your case, I would use a funnel and hose to see if you could develop some pressure with the flow. Use a gallon or so of kerosene. Do an oil change afterward. Also make sure to disassemble the pump and inspect. You have the manual?

 

You are going to have to be the one to make the call on this. If your bearing install tool does not got all the way into the bearing it is possible for one needle to come out and go into the crankcase. If it did it would fall downward into the crankcase sump, not into the oil pan. Once in there it can only cause damage. If it stays in the bottom of the sump there is no way out of there other than into the oil pump pickup hole. It could then be sucked up into the oil pump once running or get tossed around and end up in the crankshaft and counter balancer gears. There is a 1/4 NPT plug on the bottom of the case you can carefully remove that will drain most of the crankcase sump. About the only way to get mineral spirits into the crankcase would be to remove the rocker box and poor it down the oil return hole in the head. Washing the cam chest out would be pretty easy since you already have the cam out. Wishing you for the best but just wanted to let you know what is possible.

 

Inspect the bearing very closely. Use a magnifying glass. If the needle roller came out when you were inserting/setting pulling with the tool there will be damage in the bearing from the needle roller coming out. It could be very slight damage but there none the less.

If there is no damage in the needle roller cage it was more than likely never there. But you could see uneven wear in other areas in the needle roller cage from uneven loading.

The cam bearing surface may offer up some info also. While my stock cam is not a good example to work with or use because my M8 was junk from birth with oil pump issue, possible debri and over bored cylinders. I can still see the even ghosting effect for lack of a better term of the needles running on the surface of the cam. It's like a halo effect. If a shaft surface has been running in a needle bearing the does not have enough needle rollers in it by design or missing rollers the ghosting/halo effect will become uneven and in some case's will have a over lapping effect.

If the roller did come out it's in the crank sump just like Steve said. I would not use compressed air to blow it out. It could blow the needle roller into the rod or main bearings. I would use a garden sprayer at most under lite pressure to try and flush it out. The needle could be forced into some real bad places.

Good Luck

 

I would think that, given the weight of the needle, and the fact that everything inside the engine is likely got at least a film of oil on it.... if it's in there it wouldn't have gone far.

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I'm gonna bite the bullet and take it to an indy and have them get the needle out for me. It sucks, but accidents happen and there's no sense in getting upset about it. What's done is done, thankfully I found out before buttoning everything up and destroying the motor.

Indy said worst case is they have to split the cases, best case they can pull a jug and get to it that way. I'm planning for the worst (splitting cases) and expecting to drop around 2 grand to get it all fixed and put back together but I really don't know how accurate that assumption is

 

Sorry to hear the trouble you've had. Like you said though. At least you didn't get it all back together and cause more damage to your engine. Hopefully they can get to it easily.

 

Heard a crack? I hope the case is ok.

Good Luck