I'm a moron.

[Bort62]

So, here's a little quiz.

What happens when you have your rocker shaft off to replace valve seals, and flip the motor over to weld a leak in the oil pan closed ?

Yup. One of the little particulars about these motors that I forgot about...

 

[wallaka]

Stuff goes everywhere? Like when I flipped my shortblock over this weekend to get the lifters out, right after taking the head off but leaving the waterpump in place?

Like 2 gallons of antifreeze all over the place? Looks like it came out of a firehose. You had, what, pushrods and lifters everywhere?

 

[woodbutcher]

Does the game 52 pickup come to mind.BTDT too.
If theres some dumb ass thing that can be done while working on an engine,you can bet your last thin dime---I`VE DONE IT.
Leo

 

[MercuryMarc]

I think the same laws of physics applied when I turned over my carb with the top of the float bowl off (not sure if fuel and check balls travel faster or slower than pushrods and antifreeze...)

Were you wearing wateproof shoes?

 

[fmartin_gila]

Well, haven't we all done something brilliant like that at some time. Most of the time when something like that happens, i'll utter some choice words, clean up, and consider it a learning experience. I've had a lot of "learning experience" episodes in my years of messing (thats what my wife calls what I do) with vehicles.
Fred

 

[Lazy JW]

Bad stuff, that gravity There's no way to turn it off I keep trying to prove it wrong too

 

[jamyers]

I'll bet those pushrods made some really nice music bouncing around on the floor.

 

[cobraguy]

I've done worse, like leaving the big wrench on the damper bolt after static timing then starting it up.

 

[Gene Fiore]

I've done worse, like leaving the big wrench on the damper bolt after static timing then starting it up.

Say, Ive done that! Fastest way I know to spin off that big bolt!

 

[MercuryMarc]

Bad stuff, that gravity There's no way to turn it off I keep trying to prove it wrong too

Once I saw a science experiment where several generations of crawfish were raised in a tank with iron filings instead of sand and then moved to tank without iron and only sand. Apparently the little creatures ingest the sand (in this case iron) to act as the cental portion of their vestibular (inner ear) system. Gravity pulls the grains down and the inner ear senses the force and transmits the signals to the brain- this is how they know what's up and what's down. So in this experiment there was an electromagnet on the TOP of the tank and when it was turned on the iron filings moved up (not down) and this told the crawfish brain that up was down and down was up. So with the magnet on the little crawfish were swimming around inverted!

Not sure how that's related to Ford Six cylinder Cars- oh yeah- I drove there in old Granada with a 200 ci motor.....

 

[82F100]

I was changing the ground cable on my dads chevy luv and had forgot to disconnect it from the battery.... dang near welded a wrench to that trucks firewall :roll:

 

[JackFish]

Forgot to put a bolt back in the crank snout before pulling the damper on a 302. :x ("Damn! Why isn't this thing coming off? I guess I'll just keep cranking!")

 

[Bort62]

I'll bet those pushrods made some really nice music bouncing around on the floor.

Pushrods were the least of my worries.

It was the damn lifters falling out, which resulted in me having to pull the head...

 

[Harte3]

My favorite moronic endeavor of late has been to forget to reinstall the crankcase drain plug when changing oil on the APU on our daily driver...I hate having to clean up the mess plus losing all that high dollar Super Tech oil

 

[jamyers]

I'll bet those pushrods made some really nice music bouncing around on the floor.

Pushrods were the least of my worries.

It was the darn lifters falling out, which resulted in me having to pull the head...

Oh, yeah. Well, I'm sure the head *needed* to come off for another reason - like it was about to stress-crack in two, and removing it saved it just in time.

At least, I like to tell myself stuff like that when I'm wearing those shoes...

 

[mugsy]

Late one Feb night I was trying to start my Daytona. It was real cold and I was just exhausted, but I need to start the car to charge the battery to go to work the next day. Well at night, under the hood of a car its real dark and SOMETIMES with jumper cables red goes to black, and black goes to red .... melted the cable insulation real fast, the smoke stunk but didn't spark that much !

 

[x21]

How do you destroy a newly rebuilt 6 before its even run? Well, first you take a cheap screwdriver to check for TDC, then manage to somehow break the tip off and wedge it in between the piston and cylinder wall. Later on, you will then find out that said screwdriver piece took out #1 cylinder wall.

 

[woodbutcher]

Of course ANOTHER goodie is using an old unserviceable head to cover the top of the block.Just set it on the block,NO BOLTS.
Then,a few days later go to turn the block upside down to check on the oil pan gasket and pan install.
Leo

 

[H555]

or my "i'm an idiot" post on a mopar board. work really late at night with bad lighting outside, drop a small washer into one of the cylinders thru an intake port and then wonder why it sounds like a popcorn machine when you first start it (after $4K in machine work and parts, thankfully the hi compression pistons were hypereutectic...... all those little dings were easy to sand out - with the piston removed... and then you can wonder for a reaallllly long time if you comprised the strength of the piston..

 

[Bort62]

and then you can wonder for a reaallllly long time if you comprised the strength of the piston..

Well, If you are wondering for too long - then I guess you didn't.