SS_bnoon_SS Posted August 24, 2006 Report Share Posted August 24, 2006 Oooooo, remembered another one... I built and installed a 3L V6 (Duratec from a Taurus) into a new Cougar, along with a Vortech SC... After about 3 weeks of prep work, assembly, thousands of customer dollars spent, I had it all put together. Start it up, idled fine right away (amazing for a base tune I did on 42# injectors), no leaks... I drive it around the block... and I have this little oil trail following me up the driveway when I get back home. I look under the car, couldn't find anything leaking. I asked my wife to come out and rev it up a bit while I look for leaks. She does, and at raised RPM's, I see oil coming out between the rear of the engine and the trans. I had forgot to put in a friggin rear main seal!!!! A week and a half, and a new set of bearings later, the owner had his car back and running properly with 300 HP to the wheels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misterp Posted August 24, 2006 Report Share Posted August 24, 2006 ... the battery exploded and all I knew was I saw a bright white flash and had acid in my eyes, ears and mouth... OMG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misterp Posted August 24, 2006 Report Share Posted August 24, 2006 I had forgot to put in a friggin rear main seal!!!! I've done that too, I discovered after the engine was installed that I had forgotten to put the rear cam plug in Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bake90 Posted August 24, 2006 Report Share Posted August 24, 2006 Did an Oil Change and a Tire Rotation on my wife's '04 Trailblazer. Once I was done I put it back on her side of the garage and cleaned up. Well needless to say the next day I get a call at work from my hysterical wife that the left front wheel came off the truck!! I guess somehow I forgot to hit that one with the impact!!! Fender, Driver Door, and a Wheel later. Everything was OK. I don't seem to forget to check and double check the lugs anymore. My wife is still convinced I was trying to kill her!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.justin. Posted August 24, 2006 Report Share Posted August 24, 2006 Was installing a new engine in my dad's 94 K5 blazer. After about 16 hours of working on it (first motor swap for me), we finally had the motor all bolted up and ready to fire up. Started right up and he went through the cam break-in procedure while I watched for loose stuff in the engine bay. Noticed what appeared to be coolant running off the back of the intake manifold. We had to create a new heater hose connection there, as the pot metal one completely fell apart, figured it was leaking. After a while, I noticed that the drivers side exhaust manifolds started to glow, so I had the engine cut. I reached in to pull one of the wires off of the manifold and it ignited. The whole engine bay went up in flames. I managed to grab an extinguisher and put it out in a matter of seconds, so there was no permanent damage... Turns out that it was fuel coming out of the only hand-tightened fuel line running into the throttle body and not coolant. I always triple check anything threaded now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TurbochargedBerserker Posted August 25, 2006 Report Share Posted August 25, 2006 Wrenching on my 92 GT... Did longtubes, lifters, heads, cam, pushrods, injectors and intake manifold. First I was putting on the water pump (after several days working on the car in the Florida summer heat) and snapped a wp bolt. Got it back out with an easy out and moved on... I was on the last intake bolt, and snap... bolt broke off below the level of the intake. I freaked out a little because it wasn't a clean break at all (didn't look like the easy out would grab) and the rest of the bolt looked like it was down in the brand new head... After I got the intake off, it was an easy fix with vice grips. Then I remembered they were torque to yeild and ordered a new set lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkerda Posted August 25, 2006 Report Share Posted August 25, 2006 I was at a shop up in Detriot last summer and they were doing some work on a Viper, I asked the tech what had happened. The car would not start so the owner decided to push it down the driveway (steep hill) jump in and pop the clutch. I thought this only worked in Escorts While the car was faster than the driver that morning and ended up hitting the curb at the road, I forgot how much $$$ the damage was for. I also heard of a body tech using some structural adhesive to glue some things together underneath a car. You use Structural Adhesvie for fixing bumpers, bonding panels the list goes on for its many applications. While I guess he had a fast setting adhesive and while he was underneath the car there was some glue on the floor that came in contact with his hair! It set-up and there was no one left at the shop(after hours) so he wasn't going anywhere. That is untill he found a razor blade, after a while of cutting and a great hair style he got free. shops DW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOB47 Posted August 25, 2006 Report Share Posted August 25, 2006 One of my first jobs was at a Goodrich tire dealer. One day one of the mechanics asked me to bring in this sweet 73 Mustang from the parking lot and put it on the hoist for him. Since the customer had dropped the car off for the day and my being 17 years old, I thought it would be fun to light the tires. So I did a beautiful burnout in the lot and came in the bay still doing about 20 mph. Realizing I was going way to fast, I stepped on the brake pedal which went completely to the floor Nobody had told me the car was in for brakes! Luckily there was a rack full of mufflers that stopped me from going through the back wall of the shop. $1800.00 damage on a car that probably cost $5000.00 new. Believe it or not, I didn't get fired. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
04CHASE Posted August 25, 2006 Report Share Posted August 25, 2006 i had a buddy next stall over from me when i was at gm do a tire rotation on a new tahoe with 22's. he did all of them took it to the lot parked it and about a hlaf hour later the tahoe comes back on a flat bed minus a wheel and a screwed up quarter panel and a busted up rotor. he forgot to tighten the lugnuts and he did end up getting fired. another one was we had this turbo diesel 3500 gm express van. it was in fro some problem i didnt rememeber what though. we had fired it up and it ran ok, then it would not shut off and the turbo kept spooling up and it eventially blew the turbo and the motor with a whole shit load of smoke, wasnt a knuckle head thing just kind of cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.justin. Posted August 25, 2006 Report Share Posted August 25, 2006 another one was we had this turbo diesel 3500 gm express van. it was in fro some problem i didnt rememeber what though. we had fired it up and it ran ok, then it would not shut off and the turbo kept spooling up and it eventially blew the turbo and the motor with a whole shit load of smoke, wasnt a knuckle head thing just kind of cool. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Had that happen to me once (the run on, not the blow up) in a ford superduty. I accelerated to 70mph, let off the gas and the truck just kept on going up to 95mph before it decided to settle down. Crazy feeling when the thing is accelerating like it's at WOT and you're not on the gas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcwarren Posted August 25, 2006 Report Share Posted August 25, 2006 (edited) I began my career as an automotive technician at the new car dealer level in 1961 and I will have many memories come back to me that could be added to this post. The first that comes to mind took place in 1963, I overhauled a Borg Warner 3-speed cast iron automatic transmission (used by Ford and American Motors among others) and inadverdantly installed the roller one way clutch (referred to today as a sprag clutch) in the wrong orientation. I backed the car ( 1963 Rambler) out of my stall and pulled the gear shift lever into D and couldn't move forward (no first gear except in manual low where the low band was applied). I had to completely redo the O/H at no charge (I worked on commision). One of many humbling experiences as an automitive technician at the dealership level. Edited August 25, 2006 by mcwarren (see edit history) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montanass Posted August 25, 2006 Report Share Posted August 25, 2006 well to make a long story short... check it out here MY STORY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJSmyth Posted August 25, 2006 Report Share Posted August 25, 2006 well almost a horror story, i had an LT1 camaro when i was 17 and for some reason after a couple runs down the track at firebird, my engine started to overheat and smoke really bad, i went the concession stand and got four 32oz cups of ice water, i threw one of them on the engine and my dad stopped me before i could throw the other three...i guess a really hot engine block and aluminum heads dont like ice water as much as i do when i get hot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Generalms02 Posted August 25, 2006 Report Share Posted August 25, 2006 One time I changed my brake pads in front of my buddy's house.... well, later on were driving around and I hear this knocking noise and I can't figure out what it is. So, we pull over me in my camaro and my buddy in his S-10. We're not in the best part of town either.... then we realize I forgot to tighten all the lug nuts on the passenger side. So, my buddy goes back to his house to get a socket wrench because I didn't have a tire iron that fit and I had already lost 2 lug nuts. About 30 seconds after he gets back 2 cops cars come flying into the parking lot. They stop right next to us, look at us and then take off. I think they thought we had a drug deal going down or something . Kinda wierd.... I felt so stupid for not tightening my lug nuts though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red00lght Posted August 25, 2006 Report Share Posted August 25, 2006 I had a 68 Mustang in high school and my first mod was some traction bars. I put them on backwards and drove the car for months before some guy at a gas station walked over and asked me what I was thinking! The only thing that made me feel better was that I couldn't really tell a difference when I put them on the right way anyway! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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