How about an "I can't believe I just did that' thread I'll go first!

[Hoosier Hurricane]

When I was in college, I was home for a weekend, and decided to change the camshaft in my '56 Ford.  My future brother-in-law worked at a Ford dealer, and borrowed the tools for changing the lifters with the engine in the car.  I changed the cam and started on a test drive when I heard a loud noise.  Went back home and found a huge oil leak coming from the hole in the bottom of the flywheel cover.  Pulled the cover off and found a mangled cam plug that was being machined by the ring gear teeth.  In "tapping" the timing gear on the cam, I had obviously partially dislodged the rear plug, and when driving the car it came out.  I had a Schieffer aluminium flywheel, and the waffle pattern on the back of the wheel wadded up the plug before it made it to the bottom of the flywheel cover.  I had to leave for college the next day, and believe it or not, I managed to replace the plug without pulling the engine or transmission.  With a variety of pry bars I managed to get the plug in and it didn't leak!

John

[Jeff Norwell]

Years ago I had a super complete 312 twin 4 engine.For some reason I was removing the water pump and snapped a bolt ?.no biggie right??.I used an easy out and snapped that into broken block as well??. what a mess in a short 3 minutes.

[Jeff Norwell]

^^^^^ For some reason?every time I post I get unwanted question marks??^^^^?..strange

[Ecode70D]

Years ago I had a super complete 312 twin 4 engine.For some reason I was removing the water pump and snapped a bolt ?.no biggie right??.I used an easy out and snapped that into broken block as well??. what a mess in a short 3 minutes.

Jeff
    What's a twin 4 engine?   I hope it's not what I think it is.  If if is, what did you do with it?
Did you save the air cleaner that I need?

[Jeff Norwell]

Jeff
    What's a twin 4 engine?   I hope it's not what I think it is.  If if is, what did you do with it?
Did you save the air cleaner that I need?

Jay, We call them twin 4's here(2x4).. I sold the entire lot to a fella that made a Battle Bird clone.. 15 years ago. so add to another mistake.I sold the complete works.

[Ecode70D]

You just ruined my day!!!

[Jeff Norwell]

You just ruined my day!!!

I have a habit of doing that.

[Zapato]

Awesome guys! Keep them sad stories comin....I'm starting to feel a little better.

HRD ! Hey was looking for something else and found some bumper bolts PM me an address and they're yours if you want them.

Zap-

[hotroddonnie]

HRD ! Hey was looking for something else and found some bumper bolts PM me an address and they're yours if you want them.

Zap-

PM sent Thanks HRD.

[57AGIN]

hotroddonnie:

I can add to the "really I can't believe I did that" list.  While removing the air cleaner on my 351W, when it was still a single quad un-blown setup, I managed to drop a nut & washer down the carb.  Unfortunately, I didn't know that I had done that.  When I fired up the engine and heard the really nasty noises coming out of the engine, I knew I'd screwed something up and shut it down quickly.  The heads were pulled and sure enough two pistons and the combustion chambers in my nice Edelbrock RPM heads were pretty well dinged up.  The two pistons were replaced and the heads were sent out to be cleaned up.  It did turn out to be a good thing though, because before the screw-up, the engine put out 300 hp to the rear wheels.  When I got the heads back from being "cleaned up," (with some port matching and minor head work) I put it on the dyno again.  The new numbers were 345 hp and much improved torque.  Then when I added the blower and wound up with 475 hp.  I'm sure the improved head flow made it much better than it would have been had I not screwed up in the first place.  lol

Bob
57 AGIN   

[rmk57]

With a piston moving up and down 15 or so times per second it don't take long......for a bit of carnage.

Glad it worked out, sounds like a pretty stout engine!

Randy

[Jeff Norwell]

BOB, you win.***EDIT) 

[RICH MUISE]

How can Tom win, he didn't post anything.

[Jeff Norwell]

Bob,Tom?I get these Global interplanetary Moderators all mixed up.

[RICH MUISE]

I normally keep .025 wire in my mig welder because I'm normally welding sheet metal. Months ago when I was welding up my tranny crossmember, I bought a spool of .030 in a new brand because I had seen a write up on it and wanted to try for the heavier welding I'd be doing, and I also had a new welder to try out. The welding went great.
Forward to yesterday. I was welding a fuel pump mounting "box" on my new gas tank last night. I haven't mic'd the metal thickness on the tank, but it's pretty thin. No problem with tacks, but trying to run a bead I blew thru on my first settings. I thought..man, I still have that .03 wire in there, so undid everything pulled the wire out and went to get my roll of .025. No .025 in the box with my welding stuff, but there was the unopened roll of .030 I thought was in my welder. Looked at the roll in my hand I had just removed...yup....025. Sheeeet.