shoot me --just shoot me

i rebuilt a y block[292] for my 56 convert-- strained 5 quarts of oil threw it onto floor--

also same engine for got oil slinger-- had to take front off engine to put it in --

and btw--that slinger shims the damper out so the pullys line up- ask me how i know

Originally Posted by retyler

Those who do not make those stupid mistakes are not smart enough to know they made them.

You rock. Right on, dude!

It takes a real man to own up to one of his mistakes.

My first motor build. ~1988
351C, 4V heads. Put it all together. Had an extra oil and 2 compression rings. Didn't think anything of it. Cool, they give ya a spare.... They don't..... Found that out after firing it up in the car.... wont make that mistake again....

2 gaskets and no gasket doesn't work well on oil filters and fuel canisters on the fuel pump either. Did that all in one sitting, first on mistake then the other when correcting the first. I had a nice oil and gas slick by the time I was done.

Putting a water pump on when almost dark doesn't work well either as the water doesn't stay in well when only one bolt went through it and the gasket is cocked sideways. lol

You gotta love stupid gear head stories. One of the many dumb things I've done...

I bought most of an engine (351w) from a junk yard. I was out in the driveway, drinking Buds, taking the engine apart on the tailgate of my truck. Once I got the head (yes... head) and the timing gears off, I tried to get the cam out of the block. I screwed a bolt into end of it & yanked & yanked...Nothing. After many more yanks and a couple more Buds, I decided to get out the heavy artillery...my brass mini sledge hammer.

I beat the front of the cam til one of us was senseless, drank a couple more Buds, then removed the freeze plug from the back of the block & proceeded to beat the back end of the cam. Finally, for some reason, I turned the block over, probably to get better leverage for my next beating session.

When I turned the block over, a lifter fell out...suddenly, a light bulb went on in my head...take the lifters out & the cam will follow.

I hate when that kind of stuff happens...

Rick

Originally Posted by rancheroo

You gotta love stupid gear head stories. One of the many dumb things I've done...

I bought most of an engine (351w) from a junk yard. I was out in the driveway, drinking Buds, taking the engine apart on the tailgate of my truck. Once I got the head (yes... head) and the timing gears off, I tried to get the cam out of the block. I screwed a bolt into end of it & yanked & yanked...Nothing. After many more yanks and a couple more Buds, I decided to get out the heavy artillery...my brass mini sledge hammer.

I beat the front of the cam til one of us was senseless, drank a couple more Buds, then removed the freeze plug from the back of the block & proceeded to beat the back end of the cam. Finally, for some reason, I turned the block over, probably to get better leverage for my next beating session.

When I turned the block over, a lifter fell out...suddenly, a light bulb went on in my head...take the lifters out & the cam will follow.

I hate when that kind of stuff happens...

Rick

Contrary to the belief of many Bud won't make you any weiser.

Back when I still had the stock front end in my Maverick, I decided to swap in a 351w, and build my own headers. It's not really all that hard, but it takes a LONG time. Lots of planning, thinking, calculating...etc. So anyway, I bought the flanges with the 2" long stubs already welded on, makes it a little easier to get it all started. Got a couple tubes figured out, welded up and run down to the collectors. On the #7 tube, I had to run it around teh frame rail and down to the collector. This meant running it through the inner fender. So I started running the tube. Everything is going great! I even got #8 done that day. By now it's all tacked together and I stepped back to have a look at my masterpiece of tubing and it dawned on me...you IDIOT, I tacked all the tubes in 3-4 tacks on each joint, and the collector and the collector is not a slip fit collector, neither is the flange. Needless to say I hammered that thing apart as fast as I could before anyone figured out what had done wrong.

'Course I've also done the ol' converter not lining up with the pump gears several times. Both on C4's and and on Powerglides. Almost always ruins the gears.

Had an interesting experience not long ago with a friend's '69 Chevelle, 555 BBC runs 6.0's at the local track. He is also the track owner's son-in-law, so he's usually asked to help clean up spills when needed. Well, he's parked right next to me, a car grenades the motor and drags oil down the right lane from 330' to the turn off (all the way), so we had plenty of down time. I helped a little, and he asked me to go crank up his battery charger...as he forgot. So I took off, got over to the chevelle, noticed that the water pump is on, as is the fan...but the fan is BARELY turning. Yep dead battery. By now, the clean up is almost done. He comes back, and we didn't have time to charge the battery back up from almost completely dead, so I had an extra Optima in the trailer. He's under the hood refueling and I'm in the trunk swapping the battery real quick. I told him that I was done, shut the trunk and he hopped in the car to drive to the lanes. Nothing. Won't start. Tach works well kinda...but it won't crank over and the tach goes crazy. So I went ahead & made my round (won easily) and he was working on the car. I came back to the pit and helped out to get him going....and we checked fuses, wiring, battery voltage, everything...even pulled the starter out and swapped in another one (which is not easy with 2 1/8" headers on this car). Still nothing. We fooled with it about an hour and he finally gave up, started to roll it up on the trailer...and thought about that damn battery again. Well, he hollered at me and said a couple unrepeatable words....guess what? He had the cables bass ackwards. He had a red cable going to ground and a long black welding cable going to teh starter solenoid. Easy mistake to make. When one is red and the other black, you automaticll assume that red is + and black is -, especially when in a hurry. The bad part is, it fried the MSD 7AL3 box by hooking it up backwards.

Oh, and yeah I've probably got 1000 more stupid stories...most of which I'd rather keep to myself.

I was a newby mechanic at a new car dealership. I was working in used cars. Drew a job on a car the needed the oil pan changed. It was smashed from hitting something on the road. Pulled the engine, oil pan won't come off engine when in car, replaced the pan, oil pump and pick up. Swung the engine into the car. Attached all the stuff underneath, transmission, exhaust, etc. Started on the upper side and found the oil pump drive on the bench. Yep, pulled engine back out and pulled pan and all apart again. Trying to keep it quiet from the Manager, since I was the New Mechanic. Well, you know that didn't happen. He, breathed fire down my back. I never did that mistake again. I've done others.....but not the oil pump driveshaft.

It's not just the cars that get ya although it's more often the cars. I fought with a screw on an old singer sewing machine that held the thread take up thing for 30 mins. Trying to remove it so I could replace the broken part. It finally dawned on me that the threads might be reverse. Sure enough, unscrewed pretty easy that way even though I tightened the heck out of it first.
Those backwards threads get me every time because I forget. Of course now days if it doesn't work one way I try it the other also. Occasionally it takes tightening to get them loose a bit easier. But helps to know which way that is. lol

My thing with the oil pump shaft is dropping it in the pan a couple times and fishing it back out because the keeper thing is in the wrong place. At least I was able to fish it out though without pulling the pan.

The cam was a good one, I've done crazy stuff like that also and find a bolt I missed or something.

Guess that's how we all learn, hopefully.

Originally Posted by Calspec

Contrary to the belief of many Bud won't make you any weiser.

nope, but it sure has a way of makin you a lot goofier.