Piston Slap: Fumble!

Craig writes:

After checking out TTAC’s reviews and having a general distaste for sending a 
perfectly fine car to the clunker heap, I decided (even though I have a vehicle that qualifies for C4C) that the best car is a free car. I’ve been catching
 up on maintenance on the 1992 Lexus LS400 since I made that choice as
 I was letting the work slide. Saturday night’s project was a PCV valve replacement. Nothing major . . . unless you are clumsy. I dropped the PCV valve on what I’m assuming is my exhaust manifold (I’m kind of new at this). There is a metal . . . tray? created by the part and sure enough—3 point shot from downtown—the valve landed smack in that little trough. No biggie, right? Just get the magnetic grabber tool and fish it out.

No dice. Put a glove on, contorted myself and got a hold of it with my hand. Wouldn’t budge. Waited until the morning and it looks like it melted to the manifold. My current theory is that the manifold was hot enough to melt whatever impurities or residue or whatever that lived on the PCV valve and bond it to the manifold proper. Manifold swaps on this car, I think, are a major operation. My question to the TTAC community is as follows:

Do I really even need to worry about this? I went for a ~100 mile trip post melting that included highway, stop and go and city driving. The thing hasn’t moved. Or is there some good way to get this out that I don’t even know about?

Sajeev replies:

I’ve melted stuff to exhaust manifolds before and a melted PCV isn’t any different than a cooked spark plug wire or spilled oils: the manifold doesn’t care, the only problem is the smell of a smoldering component as it disappears into nothingness. So you are in the clear. But—and this is very, VERY important—

There has never been a more perfect excuse to buy tubular exhaust headers for your Lexus. Check out the remix of the “Relentless Pursuit of Perfection” (above).

Now tell me which car is truly the clunker: a wheezy shitcan Corolla you considered or a hot-rod LS400? You have an opportunity: a melted PCV valve delivered on a silver platter. This is your excuse to make the Lexus LS400 into something truly wonderful. Your Japanese Muscle Car awaits . . .

[Send your queries to mehta@ttac.com]