I sometimes when trying to suck little things up will attach a sock over the snout inside the vacume housing to catch items--------usually tho its not just a washer but maybe some ultra valve keeper, jet, etc--------moral? don't throw away any old socks--------
And a shop vac into the intake port with the spark plug of that cylinder removed can creat enough tornatic action to suck small items out of a cylinder back thru open intake valve into port area---sometimes lots easier than taking a head off in a vehicle----------
At the races-change engines