Hot Rods Mistakes you’ve made…caution oil ahead

Hello,

One of my memorable “gopher” jobs for my brother’s hot rod 51 Oldsmobile Sedan was to do an oil change. I had been given this job and knew what to do to drain the old oil, get the filter off, put in a new one and hand twist the new filter to seal correctly so no oil leaks were happening.

All of the Valvoline cans were poured in, without drops everywhere. Everything was wiped off, and a paper towel was on the cement driveway pad for the final test after starting the motor.



It did not take long as I had done this same thing before with a praise from my brother for doing a job well done. He was proud that he was the teacher to the young kid for doing various hot rod maintenance jobs. So, I had a nice lunch and rested on my laurels.

Jnaki

Like other folks doing the same job countless times, some rush to get the filter spun back on was near the final touch, so, it was put on and the job was in its last stage.

My brother took his 1951 Oldsmobile to a friend’s house and in an hour or so, he came back to the backyard concrete pad. When he came inside for a while, he was sitting at the glass sliding patio door reading. Then he noticed some drops below his Oldsmobile sedan.

Our mom was adamant to keep her “concrete floors in the garage and in the backyard area near her kitchen door clean. She even went as far as mopping the garage and sometimes, using soap and water on the backyard pad. We had a laundry sink in the garage.

Her daily laundry was from the garage to the drying poles behind the garage in the backyard. Then, the trek back to the house for ironing... she was always telling us she did not want oil to stain her newly laundered clothes, before she got inside of the house.

So, my brother knew he would get the stink-eye from our mom for the oil leak on the concrete. He asked if I knew anything about it and when I told him I did the exact same thing as before he was satisfied. But he could not account for the oil leak. He then asked if I had put in a new rubber gasket. I told him that the old one looked new and spun the new filter right onto the fittings.

He mentioned that it was standard procedure to put in a new rubber gasket and to make sure it fit into the proper place without any kinks or errors. So, he rolled under the jacked up stands and proceeded to drain the oil and take the filter off to check. Yup, the gasket had twisted somehow in one small portion and allowed the gap to leak oil.

It was my first and last mistake for the maintenance from 56 to late 57 on his Oldsmobile sedan.

He had it painted a lime green and sold it to one of his friends, who lived just around the block from our Westside of Long Beach house.

On the next car, the 1958 Impala, I did not make any mistakes as I went over everything before I started any project. A lesson learned that has followed me until the last hot rod, “left the building..."

 

Around '72, gramps and I went by one of the guys' big truck shop, that a few of the others also used, and Jerry was in there changing the oil in his bright orange long-nose Jimmy, 8V71N with straight pipes, OMG loud it was. It had a huge tilt front end, so he couldn't see the huge puddle going out in front as he poured more in. Yep, no drain plug, and 44 quarts on the floor

 

1967. Dad was not a car guy. At 17 years old I was building a hot rod in his garage and learning things the hard way. A 1929 Model A CCPU. I was putting a 265 SBC in it. First startup. I don't think I even knew what a oil pressure sending unit was. I learned real quick that you gotta have it in there. Puddle on the ceiling and on the floor. The oil stain on the ceiling was still there years later. I almost lost my garage privileges over that.

I was young and didn't know better, but Dad thought it was a mistake.
So in answer to your question...Yes it is still a mistake.

 

Not sure why I did this, but.... For whatever reason, I had my '33 up on jack stands to check / fill the rear. Had the bright genius idea to fire it up and put it in gear. Yeah, forgot to put the fill plug back in.

 

I've never done any wrong(that I can currently remember) but my 13 years old son did something this past Saturday he won't forget. He asked me if he could ride his sportster around the block. I told him yes but to look it over and be careful. Well he looked it over to find the oil bag was outta oil and so he filled it. Little did he know the engine had sumped from sitting. Now he had about 2.5 more quarts of oil in it than it needed. He proceeded to fire it up and take it for a ride. That bike blew oil outta ever seal and breather tube it has. When he got back he noticed oil on his pant legs and all over the bike. He had a hour of cleaning after. Here's a pic for good measure

 

did that on wifes dd years ago. was in a hurry , didn't check to see if seal came off with filter, start car, small pop sound and oil everywhere ! learned my lesson and check EVERY time now

 

I was in a hurry and pulled the drain plug with the pan still sitting outside the front tire. I knew I brought it with, just didn't bring it all the way.

Reached the drain pan to get some of it in time. Didn't ruin my shirt. Used a lot of kitty litter.


Doesn't matter how big of a drain pan I use, dropping auto trans pan is still a mess. I used one of those underbed storage containers, CANT MISS. Angled the pan on the bolts and let it drain, pulled the rest of the bolts and balanced the pan down to the drain pan, nope, slid right off my hand and fell outside the huge drain pan. SOB.

 

Here is another booboo that involves oil. Swapped the 283 from my 57 210 into my newly accquired 55 Nomad, one afternoon.
The Nomad came with a Carter elec. fuel pump. Nearly done, my buddy who egged me into the Nomad deal shows ( behind my house ) up yelling at me for not calling him for help.
I handed him a ( I believe ) Eelco chrome fuel pump block off plate. told him to pull off the stock pump and use the plate. Next morning I drive 11 miles to work ( yes Gulf ) Look under the hood and see oil leakage. The stock pump bolts have a shoulder as thick as the pump housing. The block off plate was floating on the bolts. Two quarts to fill it.

 

I watched a lube tech make that mistake with the double gasket on the canister of my 57 Chevy when I was 15 years old. I had just had a new exhaust put on and I told the shop to change the oil while it was there. Luckily the dude recognized the problem immediately and it was no harm, no foul. But that cemented in my head to make sure I pick the gasket off of the canister every time, especially now running the early Olds motors without a spin on.

 

That’s a great looking Ironhead, you have taught him very well!!

 

Many years in a newly formed railroad repair shop, a young mechanic helper asked for something to do. Foreman Mike asked if he had ever changed oil in a car, reply yes I have on my car many times. Mike said O K, change the oil in the diesel powered(detroit 2-71) Hobart welder. Mike pointed out the cannister oil filter,not a spin on and how to service the filter.
Meanwhile, Mike climbs up into the overhead crane and in between lifts, he's watching the young man. So far so good, he's checking the dip stick. Wait, how many trips has he made with the gallon jug from the oil barrel to the welder?, it's only a 2-71. Now Mike is watching what he's doing, he raised the rain cap on the muffler and added oil into the muffler.
Now the young man got a lesson exhaust, mufflers, rain caps, detroit air box, oil capacity and where to add oil

 

Not me, a guy who used to work for my gramps on and off, driving lime spreaders, spraying and tractor work. Nice guy but a sad sack type, lots of booboos. Gramps was letting him clean up the shop to keep busy one winter day, and he decided to clean up the coal stove. With a gas bucket and brush. While it was burning. Very lucky, got burns on one hand and arm, and didn't burn down the shop. Years later when he was working as a welder for another outfit, he went to the rest room, and after a while the guys noticed he didn't come back. Went to check, and he had a heart attack and died on the crapper

 

Dad built a motor for a fellow and broke it in on my run stand. Engine ran good everything was where it should be, so I picked it up to install in the car. I had it all painted, installed and ready to run. I added oil, coolant, and gas, then fired it up. Being somewhat of race car we took out for some test only to find under hard pulls it smoked like crazy. Back in the garage I pulled the dipstick, oil to the top! Dad never drained the break-in oil and I never checked before adding more. We had 12 quarts in a 6 quart engine!

 

When I was young and still living at home, I bought an OT 73 Chrysler Newport from my uncle. I had it for a while and decided it was time to change the oil. I had a couple Big block Mopar's before that and they always used the long filter. I bought a long filter and 5 qts. of oil. I thought I would be smart and change the oil on the old dirt road about a mile from dad's farm. This was before the EPA. I pulled off the road, but still being on the hard path, I quickly drained the oil right on the road and took the filter off. I got the new filter out of the box, lubed the seal,-And damn, in 1973 they changed some of the stuff around on the front of the big blocks. The sway bar was in the road preventing use of the long filter. I put the oil plug back in and scattered some dirt over the oil on the road. I had to walk the mile home, go into town to the local gas station and get a short filter. I went back out to my car, quickly installed the filter and the oil and got the hell out of there. I damaged the filter taking it off, so I wasn't able to screw if back on. I have never bought the wrong filter since!

 

Re: overfilling with oil. Two stories. When I was in 7th or 8th grade, my neighbor told me about his sister. Seems dad said “fill the oil up” to her. He’d bought a case, and told her where it was at.
Well, seems “fill it up” to her was to empty about the whole case of oil in the engine. Yep, up till she could see it in the fill hole.
2nd one, buddy called me. He’d just changed the oil in a SUV that he’d given his nephew. The car wouldn’t move and all he did “was change the oil”. Well, seems he drained the tranny fluid, then poured the 5 quart jug of oil in the crank case. He wasn’t a “well rounded” mechanic

 

My friend bought the engine/trans out of a low mile totaled Skylark; wreck was drivable and everything looked good. We put it in his A coupe, worked great. Went to fire it up one morning and blew the oil out; literally stretched the filter out. Attributed it to a "cheap" gas station brand filter. Cleaned up the car and garage, new AC filter, etc. All's well until sometime next spring when a repeat happened; this time we researched further and found that the filter housing was dinged in the original wreck and the bypass piston could only open slightly. Evidently revving it a little too high with cold oil let the pressure go crazy; otherwise it was no trouble for many months and miles. New filter housing from the Buick dealer and never again.

 

I changed oil on my Merc and put one of those black flat oil drain containers under the Flathead.
I opened the oil plug and in the moment it was open and the old oil gushed out, I accidentally let the oil plug fall.
Of course it fell into the drain hole of the container and had exactly the right size to plug the hole. The old stinking oil was everywhere, half in the garage, half outside on the road.
What a mess.

 

Drained engine oil into one of those open top drain pans. Wife hollered out that we were running late to go to a party. "I'll be in when I'm done" says me. Drain plug in, filter on and five new quarts poured in.
We go to the party and get home late. I go truckin into the garage to get something. The toe of my boot caught the edge of the pan and SPLOOSH. I was covered head to toe with used motor oil.

 

had valve job done on my ford 302. ran OK but idled like crap. "popping" out the exhaust. low steady vac. checked for vac leaks, none. replaced dist, ign (pertronix), plugs, wires, carb, checked valve train, good compression, checked timing. nothing helped. disconnected all vac lines from engine ,nothing. standing there looking at the engine and only thing left was PCV. pulled it and plugged it with my thumb and vac shot up, exhaust quieted down. PCV was stuck open! $7 PCV valve solved it after all the time amd $$ I spent!

 

I never make mistakes. Only two slight boo boos and one minor owie.

 

If you don't make mistakes , you're not doing enough .

 

I made TWO! Still with the third.

Ben

 

I have finally figured out that I will NEVER be old enough to know better!

 

Was helping my friend in the mid 50's to weld tube shock mounts on his chopped and channeled 32 3 window. We were laying on the ground under the car. He struck an arc with that old arc welder and started to weld the mount I was holding and slipped and his arc rod went right thru the gas tank into the gas, it was running down the rod and the flux was keeping it from grounding out on the gas tank. So he says kind of quietly, "Go turn the welder off" which I did. Had to take the tank to the radiator shop for a patch then back in the 32 and away we went, ridding around in style. JW