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What was your most interesting car rebuilding experience Good or bad.

67coronetman

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So share what it was that you did good or bad in rebuilding your car and be honest no matter how embarrassing it may have been... :headbang::headbang::headbang::headbang:
 
My very first engine change back in '82 at the age of 18. I traded a 69 coronet 4 door car for a 440 out of a wrecked squad car . It had roughly 65k miles on it. Unfortuneatly, I did it outside in the early Spring. The hood was off to one side, and it had snowed enough to cover the engine. That wasn't the issue though. Since my family has always been into cars, I trust their opinions. One such opinion was that it is possible the lifters will clatter when I first fire it up, and clatter they did. The above aforementioned snow kept me from seeing the oil spray out the back of the motor as it was idling. I had forgotten to plumb in the oil sending unit. Being a young and anxious person, I drove the car about half a mile for the night. The next day, it would turn over, but wouldn't start. After a fair amount of time, I primed it with ether. The motor promptly grenaded,, and put a rod thru the side of the block.
 
after having my 289 in my 68 Mustang professionally built(was 18 at the time) i decided to put on 2 chrome oil filler caps(no breather) and took it for a 20 mile sprint. started smelling burning oil half way into the trip, stopped and opened the hood. all the engine gaskets had spewed out of their seats! what a hellofa mess that was :icon_redface:
 
put a '69 roadrunner 383 4 speed-----> 1st, 2nd, 3rd member drivetrain in a '64Belvedere (former 318X3speed w/open rear)

was not my 1st but 1st one that actually worked, that was 40 years ago...

we worked on it nights 'cause the owner of the shop was sleeping....lot of fabrications went into the project.

long story short; it was stolen a few weeks later and FU#ED up by a few jack *** rich kids that wanted a joy ride...they kicked the dash in, drove through a golf courses, got airborne ripped up the exhaust..etc.... dad paid ... we sold the car as is and kept the $.


an asshole born every minute....:head_smack:
 
Thanks for sharing i have done some real dumb stuff to later that i will share..

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Thanks we all have done crazy stuff i am glad i am not alone.



after having my 289 in my 68 Mustang professionally built(was 18 at the time) i decided to put on 2 chrome oil filler caps(no breather) and took it for a 20 mile sprint. started smelling burning oil half way into the trip, stopped and opened the hood. all the engine gaskets had spewed out of their seats! what a hellofa mess that was :icon_redface:

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Wow..... LOl ok my turn ...




put a '69 roadrunner 383 4 speed-----> 1st, 2nd, 3rd member drivetrain in a '64Belvedere (former 318X3speed w/open rear)

was not my 1st but 1st one that actually worked, that was 40 years ago...

we worked on it nights 'cause the owner of the shop was sleeping....lot of fabrications went into the project.

long story short; it was stolen a few weeks later and FU#ED up by a few jack *** rich kids that wanted a joy ride...they kicked the dash in, drove through a golf courses, got airborne ripped up the exhaust..etc.... dad paid ... we sold the car as is and kept the $.


an asshole born every minute....:head_smack:

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Ok i know i am going to hear it after i say this .... YES i had a Chevy at one time i had a MAJOR BRAIN FART but i have since cleared out that Problem.......

That Chevy i had was a 70 Camaro with a 350 i got it Cheap but it ran good till one day it started running rough i changed plug,wires,fuel filters,cap & rotor and it still ran rough i figured there was a motor issues to i sold it to a friend for 600.00 he fixed it for all of 5.00 dollars back then he put a new cap back on it the stupid thing had a crack in it .... LIKE my big fat head...




So share what it was that you did good or bad in rebuilding your car and be honest no matter how embarrassing it may have been... :headbang::headbang::headbang::headbang:
 
Dumbest thing I ever did....

Changed oil on my Plymouth Arrow. Next day, I'm driving around and I notice my oil pressure gauge dropping whenever I slow down. It good when I get up to speed. I get home, park the car and go in the house. A few hours later, I come outside and notice oil on the garage floor. I'm thinking WTF??? I pop the hood and see the whole engine compartment covered with oil.

Now, I notice that there is no oil filler cap on the valve cover. It was still sitting by the rad where I put it during the oil change.

Then there was the time I did my brakes. All done. Later that day I go off in the car, and soon I notice my steering is real weird. Something is wrong!!! I pull into a parking lot and notice one of the front wheels looks wrong. I'm thinking suspension problems...

Nope! Idiot me put the lug nuts back on, but forgot to tighten the one side.
 
Speaking of stupid things and cars, I was into air cooled VW's for a while back in in the 80's. I always had some alternative driver that got better gas mileage than the 68 RR so the Bugs were it at the time. I ended up with a ton of engine parts over the years and decided to make a running engine at some point and reused as much as I could. Literally, I selected the best used rings, pistons, bearings, etc.... I only bought a set of rod bearings and gaskets for a grand total of $20.00, which blew my budget of zero dollars. Got it all together just fine and I even had a set of 40mm Webers on it. It started right away but quit shortly after. Check fuel - OK - start again. Died again. Did this about three times and on the last restart attempt it wouldn't crank. That's when I realized I forgot to put oil in it. I put a big adjustable wrench on the crank bolt and it was stuck, but a little rocking back and forth and I broke it loose. Put oil in it, drove it and sold it shortly after. One of the best running VW's I had.
 
Back in the mid 90s I put a 440/727 into a 69 Javelin on a dare. It actually wasn't that hard-rear sump truck oil pan, modify the engine mounts in the car, cobbled up a set of headers. The car was nose heavy and tough to steer at low speeds; I had to put manual steering in to have room for the headers. That car was light in the back and would do some serious burnouts!
 
Last year after showing my car at Autorama it was time to hit the track. I had a trans issue which I quickly repaired. It had had trouble starting it a few times before. But this time it sputtered then went POP. Lesson learned, don't crank with the ignition off then flip it on. The plenum fills with fuel, and in this case the plenum is a big one.
Doug
 

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When I was 19 or so I replaced one of the front flexible brake lines (4 wheel drums, 66 SS 396) with fuel line " just to get it into the garage". Turned out to be a very bad idea...had to go all Fred Flintsone to get it stopped and still dented the back wall of the garage. It was a rented house.
 
Last year after showing my car at Autorama it was time to hit the track. I had a trans issue which I quickly repaired. It had had trouble starting it a few times before. But this time it sputtered then went POP. Lesson learned, don't crank with the ignition off then flip it on. The plenum fills with fuel, and in this case the plenum is a big one.
Doug

Holy crap!!!! I have heard of this happening but never seen the results. I have an STR and the Weiand 6 BBL and you bet I'll be careful.
 
Oh crap is right ouch....

The worst part was clean up. I have a fire system. However the line was not quite snug at the bottle. It did put most of the fire out .But I had to hit it with the powder. That was the mess. I couldn't fined the small pieces of the broken intake bosses. So I pulled the heads, none were inside the cylinders. I had to touch up two chips in the drivers side valve cover. Replace the throttle cable and fuel line from the fender well to the regulator. Took the carbs apart, it melted one accelerator pump. All went back together fine. Went to the semi finals next trip out.
Doug
 
Three of us pulled an all nighter changing a 2.8 L out of a chevy Beretta with a remanufactured engine for a guy at work. Had to reuse some of the stuff from the original engine such as pulleys, valve covers....etc. Got it all done about 4AM and we fired it up.....and she clattered terrible like not getting oil pressure. I looked in the old motor and the oil drive was still in it....we pulled the pan and oil pump.....no drive sticking down....oops! We installed the drive and the motor still didn't sound healthy. He took it back to the place where he got the reman engine, and they gave him a new one and performed the exchange at thier dealership with no charge to him. I guess he didn't tell them the whole story when he took it back.
 
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