We sent out to a shop with a good reputation a diesel truck engine for rebuild. When it was done on the return trip the extra driver was following the truck and noticed a bolt or something went flying out from underneath. Then oil on the road. Then driver notices oil pressure zero.
Pan oil plug had only been put in by fingers. Cost to shop= $5,000 for another rebuild.
Fatal Mistakes....
Moderator: Team
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Old Viking
- Member
- Posts: 51
- Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2009 11:34 pm
- Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Oilpressure.
A friend of mine bought a mean CSB 292 cu in from a Competion Drag Race Nova. After changing the oilpan so it would fit, he put in his street race Volvo and fired it up. No oilpressure! Checked it for oil. Full. Checked the dynopapers, good oilpressure all the way to 9000 rpms or so.
Had to lift the engine to pull the pan. Bearings looked like crap. Reason: No oilpump...
The race Nova had a dry pump oil system, not the street Volvo...
Had to lift the engine to pull the pan. Bearings looked like crap. Reason: No oilpump...
The race Nova had a dry pump oil system, not the street Volvo...
Old Iron Still Rocks
worked at a small engine shop in high school during summers. there was an old man there that didn't have any teeth and looked like grampa on hee haw, always wore the bill of his hat up, and bought his beer by the gallon. one day he had finished working on a lawnmower and bent over to pull the rope, oil spouted out of the engine like out of a garden hose and hit him all over his face, he quickly jerked up and at the same time i looked over and saw oil all over his face and he gave me that weird look without any teeth. i laughed my ass off. he had forgot to put the oil fill plug back in.
figures!MadBill wrote:. Our daily driver was a supercharged MGA-powered Morris Minor.
Reminds me of a story. When my future wife moved in she couldn't drive a stick so I taught her- no problems. A couple of years later we went on vacation for 2 weeks- no cars. The Monday afer she had to work but I was going to sleep in- until she came back in and told me I had to drive her to work.
As I got up I asked her why and she said it was because it wouldn't go into gear.
I asked if she was pushing the clutch in. She said.....ohhhhh!
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Keith Morganstein
- Guru
- Posts: 5566
- Joined: Sun Feb 19, 2006 10:19 am
- Location: MA
Have had a few tricks played on me as a young rookie helper.
After coffee break one of the older guys asks me to help him set a head on (in chassis) They guy tosses a banana peel in a cylinder and tells me not to worry, it will blow right out the exhaust. Of course I say there's no way you can do that.
When I'm off doing something else, he lifts the head, takes out the banana peel and stuffs it in the tailpipe.
A few hours later he tells me to stand behind the car while he starts it....
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At the same shop I finally get a clutch job on my own. I have the truck down, wiping up and getting ready to try it and the guys are giving me the business about did I put everything in and so on.
Meanwhile the same guy had lifted the RR wheel just off the ground with a little model T type jack. Of course the truck did not move when I went to back-up. They had a real good laugh at my expense.
After coffee break one of the older guys asks me to help him set a head on (in chassis) They guy tosses a banana peel in a cylinder and tells me not to worry, it will blow right out the exhaust. Of course I say there's no way you can do that.
When I'm off doing something else, he lifts the head, takes out the banana peel and stuffs it in the tailpipe.
A few hours later he tells me to stand behind the car while he starts it....
_________________________________________________________________
At the same shop I finally get a clutch job on my own. I have the truck down, wiping up and getting ready to try it and the guys are giving me the business about did I put everything in and so on.
Meanwhile the same guy had lifted the RR wheel just off the ground with a little model T type jack. Of course the truck did not move when I went to back-up. They had a real good laugh at my expense.
My first summer job in a gas station gave the old hands plenty of such opportunities, like sending me off to the auto parts store with a handful of hacksaw blades to get re-sharpened, but I squared things up pretty well by wiring my chief tormentor's tool box to the high tension lead of the spark plug tester at the other end of the bench, so when he reached into it for a wrench.... 
Felix, qui potuit rerum cognscere causas.
Happy is he who can discover the cause of things.
Happy is he who can discover the cause of things.
One of the funniest tricks to play is to run a wire from someones brake light switch out to the horn.
THIS completely truthfull and accurate account of my horrible experience with a well known wheel company and their pitiful product, is only my opinion.
http://forums.racingjunk.com/viewtopic.php?t=6441
http://forums.racingjunk.com/viewtopic.php?t=6441
Back in the 70's the university I went to had a great asphalt grand prix track and sponsored an annual go-cart race. Carts were generally geared for 70-75 mph on the backstretch. My group had two carts- I had built the first one the year before and had moved on to a newly built cart, leaving the first one for a different crew chief. This 1st cart's driver got on the track for time trials and after lap one was headed down the backstretch going 70+. When he went to apply brake to go into the 20 mph hairpin the brake linkage came loose also locking steering (forgotten cotter pin) and the driver headed straight for the straw bales and woven wire fence. After extracting his head and helmet from the fence and inspects his cart he stormed over to the cart one crew chief spittin nails and threating murder. My crew just 
At the same track and same year- the Society of Women Engineers designed a beautiful cart- all aluminum. Spent about 7 grand for materials and having the engineering lab weld it up. (the rest of us bought used frames, blueprinted our engines, and built our own roll cages for about $1500 year one). Anyway- they put the twiggy girl in it for a driver (said to be only 70-80 lbs) and never could launch it. THEY FORGOT TO ALLOW FOR FRAME FLEX IN THEIR DESIGN-
That day the pits were alive with laughter.
At the same track and same year- the Society of Women Engineers designed a beautiful cart- all aluminum. Spent about 7 grand for materials and having the engineering lab weld it up. (the rest of us bought used frames, blueprinted our engines, and built our own roll cages for about $1500 year one). Anyway- they put the twiggy girl in it for a driver (said to be only 70-80 lbs) and never could launch it. THEY FORGOT TO ALLOW FOR FRAME FLEX IN THEIR DESIGN-
That day the pits were alive with laughter.
Greetings everyone, first post. Am no mechanic just a 62 year old trying to learn the new stuff in my retirement. Last build was early 70's, 428 Cobra Jet.
Building a 460 for my '64 galaxie XL. Got it running on starter stand, ran it two twenty minute intervals at 3000rpm verying the rpm the last 20 minutes. Idled it down, sounded great. Invited my 29 year old son and his friend over for a demo. Went to start it up, it fired then shut off, what the heck? Cranked it a little while giving it some gas, too much really, loud backfire??? Turned off elec fuel pump, cranked some more, no spark. 'Had' to be the modual in the Mallory dizzy?!! Done for the day, red faced at the failure in front of my son. Got a module next day and installed it, still no spark??? Pulled the distributor cap, rotor not turning? Pulled the distributor, three teeth off the gear. Pulled the dipstick it was bent and a little short.
To make a long story short, after pulling the timing cover, chain, cam (chipped the gear a bit, had to be dressed, but OK) and pan. Found three 1" pieces along with other small bits and pieces in the pan. One of the 1" pieces was bent, figured it had been thrown up into the dist/cam gears. Don't know why this didn't happen when it was running 3000rpm BUT darn glad it didn't.
Building a 460 for my '64 galaxie XL. Got it running on starter stand, ran it two twenty minute intervals at 3000rpm verying the rpm the last 20 minutes. Idled it down, sounded great. Invited my 29 year old son and his friend over for a demo. Went to start it up, it fired then shut off, what the heck? Cranked it a little while giving it some gas, too much really, loud backfire??? Turned off elec fuel pump, cranked some more, no spark. 'Had' to be the modual in the Mallory dizzy?!! Done for the day, red faced at the failure in front of my son. Got a module next day and installed it, still no spark??? Pulled the distributor cap, rotor not turning? Pulled the distributor, three teeth off the gear. Pulled the dipstick it was bent and a little short.
To make a long story short, after pulling the timing cover, chain, cam (chipped the gear a bit, had to be dressed, but OK) and pan. Found three 1" pieces along with other small bits and pieces in the pan. One of the 1" pieces was bent, figured it had been thrown up into the dist/cam gears. Don't know why this didn't happen when it was running 3000rpm BUT darn glad it didn't.
Good rides are like good wine, they get better with age,
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kosky racing
A local racer brings in a 55 chevy that they put a 427 and four speed in. They rebuilt everything including the trann ass y and installed 456 posi unit. the problem they had was that it had 1 forward gear and four reverses.They asked if I could take the tranny apart and find the problem I explained there was nothing they could have done on the rebuild of the tranny that would cause their problem. When putting the tranny back in I noticed that the driveshaft was close to the floor board.By now you guessed it The diff. was in upside down can olny happen on early chevy rears .The told me they had the tranny apart several times trying to find the problem I ended up buying the car off of them.
Got a story from a local shop nearby that does minor repairs on all kind of cars.
They had this old Renault 16,it's a front wheel drive with a very tight engine/tranny package.
If i recall correctly,the engine is sitting over the tranny.
It came in for a engine oil change,simply enough.
Customer came back after an hour or so complaining about a horrible noise from the tranny + lots of oil all over the place under the hood.
Turned out that the shop drained the tranny oil and filled up 4 quarters of engine oil into the engine which allready had oil in it.
Causing the tranny to seize up and the engine to blow some seals
They had this old Renault 16,it's a front wheel drive with a very tight engine/tranny package.
If i recall correctly,the engine is sitting over the tranny.
It came in for a engine oil change,simply enough.
Customer came back after an hour or so complaining about a horrible noise from the tranny + lots of oil all over the place under the hood.
Turned out that the shop drained the tranny oil and filled up 4 quarters of engine oil into the engine which allready had oil in it.
Causing the tranny to seize up and the engine to blow some seals
Years back my brother bought a nice late 60's corvette from a guy ( more or less cheap) who had rebuilt the engine. After much messing with and greater frustration not being able to get it to run right with lots of backfiring, smoke no power etc etc, gave up and sold the car. Brought to me to look at. Described symptoms, started it. I look and go:
Hmmm., 18436572... these two plug wires are reversed. Ran like a champ.
Hmmm., 18436572... these two plug wires are reversed. Ran like a champ.
Back in the 80’s I was working at a Chevy dealership.
I drew a ticket on a Grandprix with a complaint of high oil consumption. The car had been sold from the dealerships used car lot a few days before. I got in the car and fired it up. It was skipping real bad like it had several fouled plugs so I brought the RPM up hoping to clear the plugs. The whole car as well as the area around the car for 20 feet or so became one large cloud of blue smoke. It was so bad that I shut it down thinking it was on fire. I couldn’t breath or see because of the smoke so I had it pushed into the shop. I had it up on the lift checking it out when the kid who owned it came in. He was cussing anybody who had any thing to do with the car. Especially the used car department who sold him “This P.O.S .“ He was very loud and really a jerk. By then I had figured out what the problem was so I asked him if he had changed the oil recently. This brought on more cussing and some where in his answer he said that he had.
So I asked him “ well did you drain the old oil out before you put in the new?” I then pointed out that he had way to much oil in the engine. He looked at one of his buddies that was with him and said “You did didn’t you” His buddy answered and said No… I thought you did!
I drew a ticket on a Grandprix with a complaint of high oil consumption. The car had been sold from the dealerships used car lot a few days before. I got in the car and fired it up. It was skipping real bad like it had several fouled plugs so I brought the RPM up hoping to clear the plugs. The whole car as well as the area around the car for 20 feet or so became one large cloud of blue smoke. It was so bad that I shut it down thinking it was on fire. I couldn’t breath or see because of the smoke so I had it pushed into the shop. I had it up on the lift checking it out when the kid who owned it came in. He was cussing anybody who had any thing to do with the car. Especially the used car department who sold him “This P.O.S .“ He was very loud and really a jerk. By then I had figured out what the problem was so I asked him if he had changed the oil recently. This brought on more cussing and some where in his answer he said that he had.
So I asked him “ well did you drain the old oil out before you put in the new?” I then pointed out that he had way to much oil in the engine. He looked at one of his buddies that was with him and said “You did didn’t you” His buddy answered and said No… I thought you did!
There's another thread going about spirolox and buttons etc with folks complaining about getting the lox in and out. I have found the small screwdriver deal works pretty well.
Last night putting rods and pistons together and the double lox were going in slick. Got distracted by phone call and when came back to finish up the last one it just didn't want to go. I had been saying to myself whats all the complaining about etc. Well, problem was it was # 3 was trying to put in that double lock hole. Would have been ugly real soon......
Last night putting rods and pistons together and the double lox were going in slick. Got distracted by phone call and when came back to finish up the last one it just didn't want to go. I had been saying to myself whats all the complaining about etc. Well, problem was it was # 3 was trying to put in that double lock hole. Would have been ugly real soon......
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chevyfreak
- Pro
- Posts: 493
- Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2014 4:23 am
- Location: south africa johannesburg
Re: Fatal Mistakes....
Reading thru this and the best entertainment in reading. know its an old thread but really a good laugh.
I have some of my own tales, i'm a big fan of the chevy inline 6 and 4 engines, so always have some parts extra .
Bought a car, 230 motor, no dizzy. No problem i have plenty. Looked for best cap and took a dizzy from the shelf.
Install and start. Ran like shit, flames from carb everything.
Thinking cam or someting is out. My father came out and looked. Asked me about the dizzy. I checked, and took one for a 4 cyl.
Really started marking stuff thereafter.
On another build a while back, thinking it would be easy. Always had that idea of doing a 250 with 4 inch bore. Got extra blocks and checked wall thickness. Found one and bored to 4 inch. Got 308 holden pistons from a buddy, shaved .020 from the top and sits at 0 deck.
Fire up, and quite excited on this creation. Idling above 850rpm only, when putting it in drive it dies, checking everywhere, changing carbs etc,finally hook up vacuum gauge, not enough vacuum to idle in gear. I had the cam regrind and never verified if it could go as far as i wanted it. Oe cam is 177deg with a 105lsa.
Regrind is going to 204deg on that same 105lsa.
A really bad call i made there, but so you learn.
I'm in my 40 and still TRY stuff i think off. Probably wont be the last stuff up i have
Chevy freak.
know its an old thread but really a good laugh.I have some of my own tales, i'm a big fan of the chevy inline 6 and 4 engines, so always have some parts extra .
Bought a car, 230 motor, no dizzy. No problem i have plenty. Looked for best cap and took a dizzy from the shelf.
Install and start. Ran like shit, flames from carb everything.
Thinking cam or someting is out. My father came out and looked. Asked me about the dizzy. I checked, and took one for a 4 cyl.
Really started marking stuff thereafter.
On another build a while back, thinking it would be easy. Always had that idea of doing a 250 with 4 inch bore. Got extra blocks and checked wall thickness. Found one and bored to 4 inch. Got 308 holden pistons from a buddy, shaved .020 from the top and sits at 0 deck.
Fire up, and quite excited on this creation. Idling above 850rpm only, when putting it in drive it dies, checking everywhere, changing carbs etc,finally hook up vacuum gauge, not enough vacuum to idle in gear. I had the cam regrind and never verified if it could go as far as i wanted it. Oe cam is 177deg with a 105lsa.
Regrind is going to 204deg on that same 105lsa.
A really bad call i made there, but so you learn.
I'm in my 40 and still TRY stuff i think off. Probably wont be the last stuff up i have
Chevy freak.
Bowtie for life