Projects Mud Daubers & Rat Nests

Hey Guys. I just purchased this flathead & started to disassemble it. I pull of the intake manifold & to my surprise it was filled with a bunch of mud dauber nests & a rat nest. Looks like they got on through the fuel pump hole. Fuel pump was broken of. So this leads me to ask the question. What kind of fun thinks have you come across when disassembling a motor. Let's see your pics.
Thanks




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Fiberglass insulation and rodent droppings:

 

Dang!!! So basically a rats nest made with insulation. I bet that was a warm rat during the winter. It put in some work bringing all that insulation in there.


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Pull the heads. I'm curious.

 

I was working on a do over of a car I had owned for a number of years. Never pulled the engine or tranny or exhaust from the car as it ran well. Redid the body completely all the way around, doors, fenders, hood, trunk lid, nose panel, and so on... When it was completed and it came time to fire it up a whole shitload of dog food pellets came flying out the exhaust pipe! The frigging mice had stuffed it full from the 50 lb bag of dog chow I had been keeping by the door into the garage from the house! Little bastards also filled up the toes of my nasty weather boots sitting there in the garage as well!

 

Mike is that a piece of cork? Exhaust manifold?


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I will. I haven't had time to get that far yet. 48 bolts is a little time consuming. Ha ha.


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I've found glass on the bottom of the oil pan. Does that count? Unfortunately that were no diamonds...

 

Bought a 1950 F-1 that was sitting out in a field awhile back.... A buddy and I got it running and drove it home with my buddy following.... It was running a little sluggish, which was not surprising considering where we got it from... A couple miles into the trip it coughed and blew a big cloud of smoke and dust, and instantly ran better..... When we stopped, my friend came up laughing his butt off.. He said when it coughed it blew a big mouse nest out the tailpipe....

LynnW

 

Ive found ouite a lot of those dirt dauber mud nest. mouse nest acorns and pecans inside engines. found a few wrenches and extra bolts. One time I pulled the intake on a 327. in the lifter valley where several broken pushrods. The engine had a full set. apparently someone had thought it was a hyd lifter engine and adjusted the valves too tight or the valves kissed the pistons and broke the pushrods. and they just left them in there. I know a guy bought a vehicle at a police impound auction. It was torn up by the police searching for dope. He took out the engine a FE ford. and decided to install a aluminum intake. Packed under the intake was sealed packages of weed and over two thousand in cash.

 

Glass???? How'd that get in there. Crazy !!!!


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Ha ha ha. I bet that would have been fun to watch.


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Man. People couldn't make this crap up. Leaving broken lifters in the engine or better yet finding weed & cash. Crazy. So did he keep it or turn it in is the question. There's some great stories on here. Ha ha. Thanks fir all the participation.


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Dad had to pull the oil pan on a Pontiac in the 80's. Laying in the pan was one of the main cap bolts. Just the head and 1/2'' of the shank. The rest was still in the block and the cap was in place. He left it that way and drove the car for years later. The 'iffy' engine was then the reason I wasn't allowed to drive it after that!

 

I had a '67 327/275 like that. Dropped the pan to change it, it had a crease. Otherwise I would have never found it. Ran strong otherwise.

 

I had mud dauber nests throughout the under dash of my '59 Ford. Wrapped around wires, in the defroster and heater. I have a few of the big ones saved.

 

I had a 33 Pontiac stored in my shop over winter. Started it up in the spring and every time when I revved it it sounded like a machine gun going off. There was a piece of sheet metal leaning against the wall behind it and when I revved it corn that was packed in the exhaust pipe by mice came flying out hitting the sheet metal. The bag of seed corn I had stored by the car was only half full.

 

The weed wasn't any good smelled and tasted oily when we tried to smoke it.. The money was spent on more car stuff beer ect.

 

several years ago I decided to open up an old Desoto. I had inspected the oil level with the stick and it was OK. I had it on s stand and used s drain pan under it - nothing! A screwdriver in the drain hole got nothing. I dropped the oil pan and found a 20 or 24 inch snake skeleton.

















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Several of the engines I've brought home over many years had the common remains of mice and nests, but there was one that still gives me creeps to this day. One of my first flatheads was a complete 8RT that came from a local dirt-floored barn during the winter. I started disassembly as soon as it got home in my heated shop, removing the intake and a few head bolts, when I left the shop for a beer. Coming back I thought I noticed small movement on the engine, and when I got close, realized the movement was red roaches that were slowly coming out of a few head bolt holes! Frikin' live roaches in an engine??? After initial repulsion, I started smashing/squashing and spraying bug killer as fast I could. The engine went back outside in the cold and stayed there until completely disassembled. Whatever had lived in that engine, along with water, had completely ruined it, save the 4-speed, hogs head and 1/2 bell.
I was very careful in the future to 1, avoid engines stored on dirt floors, and 2-make sure engines brought home were checked for anything living inside before being brought into the shop.

 

Holy Crap. You guys have had some pretty serious stuff in your engines. Snake skeleton. Damn. I would never have thought that in a million years. The corn hitting a piece of sheet metal made me laugh too. The cockroach story gives me the creeps. Ughhhh!!! Great story's guys. Keep em coming.


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After a long slumber my Studebaker Commander got fired up with a bunch of car club buddies. The next morning I found about a pound of bird seed in my driveway. Mice at my folks house where it was stored had packed the exhaust full and it blew all over the driveway. I left it for the squirrels.

 

Ha ha. Rats & mice love packing stuff in the weirdest places. I wonder if anyone has actually launched a rat or mouse out of their tailpipe.


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Do mice count? Do I win anything for the most contents?

 

I was changing the heads on a 413 mopar irrigation engine. Normal procedure the natural gas would burn the exhaust valves after about a season or so. I removed a head and had a nest and baby mice in one cyl. Those mice can squeeze through the slightest hole. Must have got in through an open valve! Lippy

 

Me and my buddies Bob and Doug found a mouse in my bottle of Coors once, wait, that may have been a movie.

 

Someone has to say it. Sounds like the beginning of a new rat rod. Sorry!

 

So far I think the snake skeleton in the oil pan & drugs/money are winning, but I'd definitely have consider Xtrom because of the sheer density packed into that thing. Ha ha. Crazy!!!


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