Swirl flap screw missing ! Stuck in piston ?

[Chaosfreakx]

Hello thanks for reading my post , I have a 2011 colly with a 4jj1 was running fine . On the highway when going from 40 back to 100 the car misfired the stalled , I pulled over started it up again , running fine still but a big tapping noise . The noise died down to almost nothing but is back now pretty loud . It’s definitely top end . I have re adjusted my top to 0.15 clearance and no change in noise . I took off the intake manifold to find one swirl flap screw missing . The engine ran fine but with a tapping noise . What are my options ? Can I possibly fish out the screw and see how it goes or am i in for a rebuild and what does that mean exactly ? Thank you very much for your help

[andy120]

Generally, anything metal/not squishable ingested is terminal for the piston and head.

[Chaosfreakx]

thanks mate , i have the engine out and just about to pull off the head , ill post pics and hopefully we can all asses the damage ,

[stardog]

I had similar thing happen on a international tractor many years ago was cleaning air filter and and lost the washer to the wing nut couldn't find it but when i started it up very loud knocking noise .
Turned it off straight away head off and there was the washer imprinted into the top of piston 4 removed the flattened washer was lucky didn't do any more damage new head gasket and reset the tappets and the old tractor ran for many more years.