I'm capping both the vacuum canister and the back of the intake manifold. I will have to pass on the crankshaft sensor since I'm running out of time.
Intake Manifold Is Off! - Now to fix the hard pipes
Finally got the manifold off and mostly followed the ShopLife video on how to do it. Now I can start replacing the coolant and heater hard plastic pipes.
Lessons learned with taking off the intake manifold:
1) Have instructions so you can remember how to put it all back together
2) The last manifold nut in the back was hard to take off because I didn't remove the fuel rail
3) Even after vacuuming the areas near the intake ports I found debris near the holes so I covered them up as soon as I removed the manifold but not fully removed
4) The intake manifold gasket is hard to get out and it is breaking while I try to pull it out.
What is the best way to clean the intake manifold and block? I'm going to put aluminum foil over the CCV pipe and fuel hose to make sure nothing gets in them.
Lessons learned with taking off the intake manifold:
1) Have instructions so you can remember how to put it all back together
2) The last manifold nut in the back was hard to take off because I didn't remove the fuel rail
3) Even after vacuuming the areas near the intake ports I found debris near the holes so I covered them up as soon as I removed the manifold but not fully removed
4) The intake manifold gasket is hard to get out and it is breaking while I try to pull it out.
What is the best way to clean the intake manifold and block? I'm going to put aluminum foil over the CCV pipe and fuel hose to make sure nothing gets in them.
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Pressured tested the system and it looks like it went down a little after 26 minutes.
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Looks like it lost 1.5 psi after two hours. I believe that is pretty normal. 
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I almost used a dremel but then decided to use 500 and 1000 grit sandpaper on a 16 mm deep socket.
Hope you retrieve the screw and two washers. I used a shop vac on the bores to retrieve the broken plastic pieces from the pipe. Not sure if it will work for washers and a screw but worth a shot. I put it right up to the bore for 3 seconds and sucked coolant out of it.
It pains me to read this...Sorry to hear...Those dremel head screws are a little weak..
Any chance they spun off while the buffing wheel was outside the holes?
I would keep trying magnets and your remote camera and a shop vac with a smaller, flexible hose to try and suck it out. If all that fails, you should become familiar with the M54 (nearly identical to the M52tu) coolant diagram below. It appears that port seems to go to the heater core...maybe you can insert a hose somewhere and try to flush it out.
I will take another crack at it in the morning. I thought I was being so careful, only to wind up in this mess. The funniest part is that this all started trying to replace the purge valve.
I almost used a dremel but then decided to use 500 and 1000 grit sandpaper on a 16 mm deep socket.
Hope you retrieve the screw and two washers. I used a shop vac on the bores to retrieve the broken plastic pieces from the pipe. Not sure if it will work for washers and a screw but worth a shot. I put it right up to the bore for 3 seconds and sucked coolant out of it.
Thanks for taking the time to respond.
Have you consider pulling the thermostat housing and peek in there? I wonder if a flexible wand with a magnet at the end can get through from the thermostat housing opening to where "B" is. See my crude drawing with a black line below.
I found this picture of what the coolant channels look like behind the thermostat. There's a channel to the left, one to the right (red arrow) and one downward. They are in agreement with the picture Effduration posted above in post #90. From the looks of it, the channel to the right goes to one of the hard coolant pipes where you lost the screw and washers (labelled "B" above). What I would do is use a magnet on a flexible goose neck and probe from the thermostat housing right channel since there's more room to maneuver.
Picture captured from this:
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Picture captured from this:
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