Admitting a Mechanical Mistake (Whats Yours)?

My first rebuild many yrs ago. Didn't clean ring lands good enough. Engine wouldn't
turn over on the garage floor. Fixed that assembled it only to forget the galley
plugs. 394 Olds in a 56 F-100. Had no oil pressure. Machinists told me to look in the
parts box that I got back Sure enough there they were.

 

I have a battery kill switch in my pickup and when I came home from vacation it wouldnt turn. No juice to anything. Thought something terrible happened while I was gone I looked it over forever until I saw the battery switch key on my keyring.

This wasnt me but another guy. On a KT cummins theres a box on the gearcover for barring the engine over. Theres a clip you remove and push in the hex drive to do this. If you dont pull the hex back out and reinstall the clip then you start it guess what happens. That right the hex drive will spin faster than a Dremel tool and then the shaft in the box is wrended in twain. KT Cummins parts are kinda expensive

 

I was building a race mopar 340 a couple of years ago to my barracuda 67.
All moving part in the engine was new and the engine had not been started up.
After mounting a airgap intake i connected all water hoses and filled up the radiator with coolant...
Since i had´nt got the distributor yet i left the car sitting in the garage...
After 2 weeks i finally got the distributor and ignition box but when i was about to mount it i saw a little rust trace on aluminum intake right down through the hole where the distributor should be..
Found out that i had forgot to put thread sealant on one of the water plugs on the intake and all water above the plug has seaped right down throug the engine down to the oil pan...
I drained the oilpan from water into a jug and poured it in a spare oilpan i had in the garage to se if the water had come up to crankshaft level...
Luckily if found out that it had´nt.......But i had some horrible minutes there.

The mopar parts dealer i bought all my engine comoponent from told me a story of a previous customer that was about to mount the timing cover on his 340 and used a to long 5/16 bolt at the bottom hole and screwed it right through the cylinder wall.. That must have hurt.

 

ive got my measurements wrong on narrowing axles afew times...and ordered the shafts wrong a few times....havent done that in a long time,,,,,

 

Took a Dodge Dakota 4X4 for a short road test once with the right front cv shaft removed.

 

I do not like anyone around or talking to me when I am building a engine ...

I was putting my 482 inch BBC together for my O/T 69 Nova drag car ... and this good looking woman dropped by my shop to shoot the breeze ( flirt ).
I was talking to her ... and bolting up the oil pump/pan and such.

I left out the shaft that drives the oil pump
After she left ... I was busting my behind to get the Nova ready. I had a race about midnight ( street racer ). Went to prime the the BBC and no oil pressure.

Had to remove the headers, radiator and such to remove the engine.
Pulled the BBC and then the oil pan. Installed the shaft and the pan. Installed the BBC back in the Nova.

Was so tired and discussed ... went home and went to bed
Left the radiator, headers and such for another day.

 

I was given this boat that I really didn't want, powered by an Iron Duke. I had been looking around for the drain plug and it was missing; finally found the thing so stuck it in for safe keeping. The next time it rains I have water halfway up the block (and halfway up the dipstick!) No problem, I drain everything including the oil. Go to the Dollar General and pick up 5 quarts of 10w30, that ought to be enough. Dump it all in, hmmm, nothing showing on the dipstick. Go back and grab another 5 quarts. On the 10th quart it finally reaches "add a quart". I fire it up, oil starts shooting out the air filter, out of everywhere, really. Darned if I know why it didn't show on the stick, but I had 5 quarts too much-and a heckuva mess to clean up!

I don't have that boat anymore