Re: help, dropped nut into intake
 

Good news for sure.

Re: help, dropped nut into intake
 

One of my younger brothers used to work at a warehouse/delivery service. One of the delivery guys replaced the air filter (not his job) and dropped the wingnut for the air cleaner housing. Didn't bother looking for it, started the truck and drove off. Medium Duty Ford, with sodium-filled valves. What a mess that was, when the head broke off one of the valves.

Re: help, dropped nut into intake
 

My former boss has one of the turbo V6 Ford Explorers. Back in 2020 (I think), he had it in for an issue and it ended up being the nut that held the turbo blades on was missing. For some reason the mechanic didn't think it was prudent to go looking for it and just simply replaced. Those things seem to have the ability to shake out of their hiding places at the most inopportune moments. About 1.5 hours south of St. Louis it made a pass through the turbo itself. You can imagine how that worked out.

Re: help, dropped nut into intake
 

Way back in the early '80s I helped rebuild the Quadrajet on the 366 big block in the company's '71 C60 drill rig. We placed it on the engine and had the throttle cable on backwards somehow so that when we started it up it went straight to redline and started knocking loudly.
We thought for certain it was a rod so we jacked up the engine enough to get the pan off and the bottom end was as tight as ever. So we pulled the carb off and noticed one of the base screws on the underside was missing. Must have forgot to tighten it is all we could think was the cause.
We pulled the passenger side head off and that screw was smashed flat in the top of #4 piston right between the intake and exhaust valve reliefs. We pried it off the piston (leaving an imprint of the screw), penetrant inspected the piston in place, no cracks!
Slapped the engine back together with a new head gasket and had no further issues for the next year I was there.