Help - stone in engine oil!

[ChrisClarke]

I wonder if anyone can please advise me?

I was topping up the oil in my 3.0 Tdi allroad, and when I placed the funel in the filling neck within the engine, there was a small piece of shingle about 8mm round on the end of the funel, which fell down the filler neck. I saw it happen in slow motion but was not fast enough to prevent it!

I don't know if the filler neck leads directly down to the sump, or the top of the engine? I obviously have not started the engine since. The top of the engine looks like a spaghetti junction, and I imagine it would be very costly to strip the top part of the engine to find the small stone. I guess if it's gone into the sump, it will just stay there inactive?

Any ideas please - I'm so cross with myself that it happened.