WTH is this and what is it doing in my intake port?

Found this in one of my cylinder head intake ports while disassembling to find souce of knock.
I imagine that it had to come from the intake air box area some how. The air filter and screen weren't compromised.

2007 Tacoma 4.0L 1GRFE

 

looks like a lil metal compression clip

 

Yeah, looks like the clip that's supposed to hold the air filter in place.

 

ya its definitely weird to see it inside

 

x2

 

That's a shot of the intake port of the HEAD. It's actually wrapped around the intake VALVE!

 

Edit: I just ran out to the garage and took a look. It looks EXACTLY like an air filter box clip but they're still attached to the airbox. I've never had the airbox separated from the throttle body and the charcoal filter is in perfect shape. This is nuts.

 

That looks like part of the spark plug wire clip. Have you changed the plugs recently? Maybe part of the clip broke and fell into the cylinder.

 

damn! that sucks!

 

your right, it couldn't be in the intake

 

Just to doublecheck: How many spring clips are there supposed to be holding the airbox together?

 

Good! Do you guys know of any other location on the upper engine that those may be used?

 

it could have been dropped in there when someone was doing maintenance or even at the factory when it was build who knows how long its been there