Fatal Mistakes....

[rfoll]

I bought a 78 Skylark for a drag racing. I was buying parts for it and the NAPA guy talked me into buying his 77 Skylark with no title for parts. My wife's son had a cherry 76 skylark with a knock in the odd fire V6. Between the donor car and the nice one I managed to find 6 pistons that weren't cracked, so I did a rebuild. With a fully detailed engine and engine compartment, it looked like a new car when you opened the hood. I pulled it out of the shop and as soon as I get out of the building the fan belt breaks and knocks the rubber fuel line off spraying the engine with fuel. I got the fire out quickly enough, but it didn't look like a new car under the hood anymore. I had a really big scare this summer on the aforementioned 78 Skylark. The car started out running 14 flat at 99 mph, but after 20 years it runs 10.90s at 122 by virtue of a 415 Dart short-block topped with Brodix heads and an 800 double pumper. The car had been sitting for about a week and when I went to start it the rpm shot all the way to the rev limiter before I could get it shut off. Thinking linkage bind, I open the hood and can't mover the carb linkage to move, jammed solid. I look down the carb air horn and find 2 throttle plates have come of and jammed the carb at wide open. If they have come off the shaft, that means the screws went in the motor. After pulling the heads, all I found of the throttle screw heads was a faint ghost mark in the carbon on the cylinder head for #4 cylinder and no marks on the piston at all. Apparently at 7500 rpm the button heads from the screws just blew right through. Of the remaining 2 throttle plates, all but one of the button heads nearly fell off when I touched them with a screw driver to replace them. Close inspection revealed the screws had been removed and re-installed before. My guess is they used heat to remove them and it weakened the brass.

[Monzsta]

One of the younger techs in our shop spent two days replacing the cam and lifters on a later model Hemi in a Ram truck. This truck had a huge loose trailer hitch hanging out of the receiver. I happened to be walking by and noticed he was about to start it for the first time. I darted behind that truck and just as the engine fired I shook the living hell out of that hitch with all I had. It was so loud he immediately shut it off, his face turned white and the whole shop came over to see what happened. So one of the guys saw me do it and came over. He fired it up again and there was someone else giving that hitch hell. This went on a few times and by the time we were done he was almost ready to pull the engine out.

[Nut124]

I just post questions at this site when I have any doubt. viewforum.php?f=1

I get good advice and avoid trouble. Worked good so far. When in doubt, time out and ask for a 2nd opinion.

A few close calls:

Installed a rear main seal that unknown to me was 2mm too small, 85mm someting seal. Did not quite seem right but it did slip on. They had changed the rear main journal size to 2mm bigger and I had the wrong seal. Had the clutch and trans mounted, ready to go in, but next day had some doubts, did some research and decided to take it apart. Good thing.

Had modified a oil pump gear for external drive for priming before first start. Splined shaft. Pulled out the new gear w magnet and tried to drop in the modified gear. It fell into the oil pan. I did not think that was possible. The engine was already in the car. Got very lucky and was able to fish it out using a strong magnet thru the oil pump shaft w/o removing the engine.

[dfarr67]

Going thru this right now on a turbo project. cost me $$ to go over the engine and drivetrain for loose fasteners- right down to the head studs that are supposed to be 90ft-lbs NOT 30 or the new front seal that had a folded lip. I would rather the truck be handed back in pieces tha 'look' ready to go. BS

[KnightEngines]

Just now I had one.
5 cyl land rover ex manifold in for a mill & remove a broken bolt.
Easy, done plenty of them & I'm usually very good at getting out busted bolts.
Drilled it out no probs, curled out most of the remaining thread - looking good, not even a helicoil required.
Ran a tap through the thread to clean it up (little 6mmx1 thread), there was a little bit of bolt thread still in there, tap grabbed & snapped clean off almost all the way through the thread.
F*ck.
Out with the 1/8" ball carbide burr & die grinder - almost through the tap & the goddam mofo burr snaps off as it exits the bottom of the tap.
F*ck f*ck f*ck
Time to go ape on it, bashed the burr through with a punch (not a blind hole fortunately), smashed the last of the tap out - killed a punch in the process.
Finally run another tap through carefully - didn't even need a helicoil after all that.
10 min job turned into 1.5hrs of shit carnival.

[rfoll]

F*ck f*ck f*ck

I can't remember how many times that has applied to stuff I was working on. I had a 305 project snowball some on me recently. The engine in question came in my 84 El Camino. It only had 100K on it and a quick inspection showed it didn't need to be bored. With the money saved, I bought a set of flat top standard bore pistons and had them mounted on the rods. I want to straighten the bores using a rigid hone, so I go through the process of measuring each bore and determining how much I can hone and not have a bunch of piston slap. I go down the row measuring each and thinking I can remove as much as .002" form each until I get to the last hole.The bore gauge just falls through the hole. I fuss around checking calibration and such and finally realize the tool doesn't lie. I pull the old pistons out of the scrap bucket and and checking sizes and find one piston is .005 over size. Apparently the engine had gone back to the dealer for a warranty repair. The only option at this point is to have the one hole sleeved, costing close to the price of the bore job I didn't have done.

[Krooser]

12 years ago I drove down to southern Indiana to buy a '97 Ram short box. Had my buddies 18 year old son along for help

Made a deal with the seller, gave it a quick inspection, my helper checked the oil, and we headed north for the 400 mile trip home.

Got to I-94 and stopped for gas. I noticed the oil pressure gauge was a little low. Checked the oil and found it was 5 quarts low! My assistant had pulled the trans dipstick when he checked the oil...

Refilled the pan and drove home without issues.

Fast forward seven years. The Dodge is still running good after the no oil deal. I'm recovering from a knee replacement and doing an oil change in my driveway and "dipsticks" brother is there working on his car.

He volunteers to change the oil for me and finish the chassis lube since I'm hobbled with a cane.

The next day I drive 100 miles to pickup a car trailer project I bought. I get trailer picked up but have to run the backroads since this trailers tonque weight is almost too much for my dropped in the weeds suspension on my shortbox.

I get 40 miles from home and the oil light goes on. I have two quarts of oil with me and find a major leak when refilling the engine...the drain plug is almost falling out of the oil pan!

I pull into the next fuel stop and buy three more quarts to fill it up.

Amazingly the engine still runs fine at 275,000 miles 12 years after I bought it. Ok so it lives on SAE40 these days. It uses about one quart every 500 miles.

I dont let Dipstick or Drainplug anywhere near my stuff anymore.

[88bluestar]

Not my mistake but something I had to deal with. Previous owner of a race engine had used longer flywheel bolts(I'd imagine they were using a direct drive spud on a powerglide transmission). They had bent the rear cap and in turn had made a slight wave spot on the crank thrust.
On a person note when I was building my first engine my uncle had me hang the pistons on the rods, and I put it all together. About 6 laps into a heat race it started sputtering. I had hung the pistons in the wrong sequence, and its a dang miracle it only destroyed one piston. If I had not shut it down so quickly it could have been worse.

[dynoflo]

Had a race engine on dyno with low oil pressure. I knew all clearances were good and oil pump was also. Pulled pan and tied coffee can to oil pickup pulled all plugs and cranked it. Was losing a bunch of oil at distributor to block oil passages. Pulled distributor cut grooves installed O rings and all was well. Raced car all year. Decided to sell complete car with engine . Guy raced it all next year with no problems. Calls me and asked what rebuild would cost. Told him i couldnt tell him until i tore it apart. He gets a lowball price and has it rebuilt. First night out he blows it up. He calls and said he bought a crate engine and would i be interested in buying the blown up engine. The first thing i notice is there are no o rings on distributor housing.

[gunt]

see far to many , and my own thanks bit of god i cought them before they went out ,

biggest problem is , when your young you tend to listen to others elders and customers instructions ,

machine shop , i have a wall with each piece on it and the phone no of the offending shop , let the public see , when they state that im more expensive and slower , than xx so point to the wall and say theres his no work away thats what he charged me for , most of the time we never end up doing anything for them

not spending the time to inspect outside work when it comes back in , too busy i a killer

fitted larger injectors to a build , when i was at it customer said trow this fuel rail in , a nice billet piece powder coated all the bells and whistles for a simple part , went to the dyno , n ans from him for a few weeks , when he did finally ans , we nearly burnt his place to the ground 7 fire extinguisher bottles later , so for an unknown reason the rail nuts [ original ] vibrated loose and the std rail but the std had a clip to hold the injectors in the rail so when you lift the rail the injectors come up too , [ this is a N/A ] for some mental reason there was a turbo timer in it , so whn the rail lifter pumping fuel over a red hot engine at over 7k rpm and he knocks the ignition off , but the engine stalls and the fuel pump keeps running for 1 min spraying fuel in to the fire , the scars are still on the roof .

theres a very famous machine shop , locally known as [ loose bore xxxxxxx ] since the 70s he got his name from the rally guys , as usuall last minute , but the block comes back and 3 guys ready to build it all night , put the piston in the ring squeesers , tap tap , and u know the sound as it goes from the tool to the block , and the tool becomes free , but u dont expect to see the piston accelotate and u hear a tud , the bore was that loose not even the rings helped , but when the boss is so bad its very hard for anyone to learn , so a guy probally there 8+ years , builds himself a b18 turbo honda , liners the lot , so the dyno guys who i know very well , wind it up but very safe , and after he got use to it he goes back for more , but it blows the head gasket , so the machine shop guy does his own work so he ripps it , blows again , pulls the block , another shop did the liners , so he rings them and decides they and the manufactues are wrong and skims the block , blows agin , blames the arp bolts , blows again , blames the golden eagle bolts , blows again back to std hardware , re skims everything , so the guys on the dyno ban him and say they will windit up very slowely so no point in waiting around , knowing full well it will blow again and it did , but this time they ripped it , any guess what the problem is





no dowles , how many times was this ripped and this was never noticed , so what ope has anyone , even pointing it out would not help , but that nigh mare continured , tps was never copped it was turning over 100% and basically going bk to 20-30 at full throttle boost load ,

[HDBD]

First engine for me was a warmed up L16 datsun. All went together fine. Just like the diesel mechanics I was in ah of at 16 years old did, right? One thing I didn't understand cam timing not a happy ending.

[Crew Chief]

Well here it goes.... a few fatal mistakes and a good laugh!

1. In about 1975 my brother and I were into anything engines we were 15 and 16...(Our Dad was a Heavy Duty Equipment Technician and was always building dune Buggies or engines or something in our backyard garage). Anyway my brother and I had a couple of those small remote control airplanes. They use Cox fuel, which I understand is a low grade Nitro methane. Anyway we ran out of gas for the lawnmower so we used the Cox fuel......when we started up that lawnmower, that engine started screaming, the RPM's were wild....until a rod went through the side of the block!! LOL Dad wasn't too happy!!

2. In 1976 I started racing asphalt circle track in a class called Hobby Stock. They were inline 6 cylinder engines, I was using a 250 cubic in Chevy. Anyway, I had just signed an apprenticeship as a HDET and was working with a certified mechanic one day, he used ether to start a diesel engine and said it could probably be a great power adder for a gas engine. My wheels started turning and I thought hey....I'm going to try that on my race car! So I rigged up a solenoid to 12 volts with a push button on the steering wheel and a line from the ether bottle to the intake manifold. When you held the push button it would activate the sprayer solenoid and ether would spray. I was excited to go to the regular weekly practice night to try it out. I got to the track, warmed up that 250 and then went out and ran a few laps...once everything was up to temperature I was ready to try out my "power adder" I came out of turn 4, smashed the throttle and pushed the button! That's when all hell broke loose, it took off like crazy, that's until the crank, rods and entire bottom end dropped out the on the race track!!!! My Dad was going to kill me....LOL. Lesson learned at 17 years old..... I had to try it!!

3. A customer wanted a "Performance" SBC for his 1977 Chevy truck. I happened to have a 327 from a Z28 Camaro that got wrecked and I ended up with the engine. I rebuilt it completely and stored it for use later. I told the customer what I had and he liked it. He asked if I would install the engine, I agreed, however I told him he should buy a higher stall torque converter because of the camshaft. I explained why and that also he would not have much vacuum for the power brakes, but we could rectify that with a vacuum pump and reservoir. He said not to worry about that and just install the engine. About a month later I get a call from the kids Dad, screaming at me that I ripped off his kid and that engine was junk, it was knocking and had no oil psi and he was going to sue me!
I said have it towed to my shop and I would check it out. I dropped the oil and cut the filter open, sure enough lots of metal filings. While removing the engine I was surprised to see a different torque converter installed, in fact when I removed the bolts between the TC and the flex plate it sprung apart.....there was my clue/problem. After the engine was out, I measured the pilot on the TC and measured to recess in the end of the crankshaft.....it was the wrong TC. I took the pan off and the thrust was almost wore right off and was through the thrust bearing and wearing into the block....the crank had a tremendous amount of pre-load with that incorrect TC!! Of course my next move was to call the Dad and tell him to bring his son and drop by the shop, I found the problem. I asked the kid about the TC and he told me that him and his Buddy found a used one and installed it. I proceeded to explain why the engine failed and that it was HIS fault not mine! The Dad was actually pretty good about it, I asked if they wanted a second opinion and he said no, he was satisfied with my diagnosis. The truck sat in my yard for quite awhile until the kid saved up some money and then wanted me to fix the engine, I said I would do what I could but it might be hard to find a block. We ended up getting a 350 and I built it up mild, made sure he had all the correct parts installed and never heard from them again.

I have lots of stories of the shenanigans of my brother and the other neighbourhood boys and all the crazy things we did over the years and of course of my almost 50 years of racing and almost 50 years of being a certified HDET, AST, MSET and a TCT....but it would be like writing a novel, with many chapters.....LOL I have actually thought of writing a diary of sorts of my youth and the crazy things we did, I'm sure some of you reading this can relate to a crazy youth too!! ........I hope you enjoy a couple of good laughs. I really enjoyed reading this thread, great idea.

[novafornow]

When I was 16 I bought a 1968 nova ss with a blown motor. Paid $300 for it. Factory 4.11, 4 speed car. (Those were the days!) Rebuilt the engine myself with help over the phone from my older brothers friends. I also did not quite get the whole cam timing thing. lucky that the cam didn't go flat as much as I cranked on it. Bent some valves and some pushrods, but it ran well once fixed. Quite a learning experience. Now I am 63 and am still learning almost daily. Fortunately, the disasters are few and far between.

[54chevkiwi]

Similar to a couple on here.
Guy had an aussie xb coupe..
Front end was off it,
It was down to its bones..
Just got the 302 running..
No interior..
Was showing it off to his friends..
Shifter inhibitor switch was non existent..
Started it in drive with the starter button from standing next to it...
i never seen a fat guy run so hard!
He JUST got to it and got it stopped with fractions of an inch to it hitting his workbench on a cinder block wall !

[fabr]

Similar to a couple on here.
Guy had an aussie xb coupe..
Front end was off it,
It was down to its bones..
Just got the 302 running..
No interior..
Was showing it off to his friends..
Shifter inhibitor switch was non existent..
Started it in drive with the starter button from standing next to it...
i never seen a fat guy run so hard!
He JUST got to it and got it stopped with fractions of an inch to it hitting his workbench on a cinder block wall !

I run open wheel baja prerunner type stuff. One of my friends did the stand by it and bumped the starter thing too. It started right up,he THOUGHT the ign was off. Big ol paddles run right up his leg and proceeded to slam his butt to the ground and proceeded to continue right on up his back and over his head. Suspension snagged his pants and drug his ass quite a ways before anyone caught up and killed the engine. Big ol paddles will put the hurt on a fella. It could have well been a true fatal mistake .