[bullheimer]

i built my 5th or 6th sbc for my camaro last spring. i read the part in the manual about replacing this bolt in front of the fuel pump rod with a longer one to stop it from sliding. i also read the part about putting the short one back in to stop an oil leak. which i did.

so how come when my truck, who's engine i built two years ago, who's oil pan gasket i changed because it was leaking oil two februarys ago, and has been leaking oil ever since as well. HOW COME I NEVER CHECKED THAT BOLT UNTIL NOW? *********!!! NO BOLT!!! got ready to change the pan gasket again and noticed the bolt wasnt there. put one in and guess what. no more oil leak. THANK GOD I DON'T DO THIS FOR A LIVIN! i can see how a moron like me wouldnt have checked the bolt, not reading a manual when i built the truck engine, but how come i didnt check it right after i read it in April?DDDDDDDDDDIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLDDDDDDDDDO OOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[poncho62]

You are a "Piece of Work" Bull.....................Probably won't forget that one, or will ya?

[Huckster]

Take it easy on yourself Bull. Mistakes happen all the time... it's what seperates us from the gods. Guarantee you wont do it again. Making mistakes is how we learn and by sharing like you did hopefully others can learn from your misfortune.

[UnixKid]

I have done dumber things don't feel bad.

[MNRaptor]

Definately don't feel bad. I have had "mechanics" that used to work for me put head gaskets on backwards and assemble pistons on rods where the pin was a full MM undersized. Thing is he didn't catch it and assembled all four. (completely obvious issue) Needless to say, they had very short careers. That example is purely incompetence, yours sounds more like a simple mistake. There is a big difference and you can get away with it on your own car a little easier.

BTW, I did catch it before the guy could get near the motor to assemble it that way.

[Siggy_Freud]

I once forgot to put the rotor in and was boggled why the car wouldn't start for an hour. Felt pretty foolish.

But then again I dont do this for a living .

[BoomerADF]

Hmmmmm oil leaks and dild o's where will hotrodding go next?

[32vicky]

Don't feel bad. I have a blown SBC that I started one day and couldn't get it to run above 500 rpm, no matter how much throttle I gave it. I figured it must be fuel starved so I ran to the gas station, filled my 5 gallon can, returned home and poured it in. Restarted and it still wouldn't run above 500 rpm. After I pulled my head out of my ***, I removed the plastic bag I had firmly attached (with a rubber band) around the blower scoop. Ran fine without the plastic bag. I'm still amazed it would run at all under those conditions. I guess the blower was gonna get air to the engine no matter what! Unfortunately, there were witnesses to this entire fiasco to further my embarrassment. We all miss the most obvious things. Just ask our wives/girlfriends.

[19_Chevelle_69]

We had a tech at the shop who was replacing pistons under warranty for a customer. One of the pistons was packed wrong and was actually a .010" over size service piston.

After honing the bore for an hour...the piston still wouldn't fit...LOL.

Needless to say, the customer got a new short-block, and the Service Manager FREAKED OUT on the tech.

I've seen much worse mistakes than yours from 10-year licenced techs.

So, don't be too upset....it could have been worse ...

[53LEDSLED]

i could make you feel like a genius by comparison of my stories. lets just say that i sometimes think of buying my self a helmet.

[dharroald]

i just got my '68 vw beetle back from the shop for valve adjustment, i drove it about 6 blocks from the shop and it died, they forgot to clamp the distributor cap down. scared the piss out of me, i was by myself in a town about 25 miles from my house with no cell phone, dumba$$es. simple fix but stupid problem

[western star]

Guilty here also and have been working on cars most of my many years of age. We all do it from time to time.

[jimfulco]

Originally posted by Siggy_Freud
I once forgot to put the rotor in and was boggled why the car wouldn't start for an hour.

Only once??? That's a regular occurrence around here!

[81blownz28]

i go to my mechanic's shop to hang out while he is
working on his busch north car.
i asked him to look at my engine for something stupid
i popped the pins on my newly painted glass hood.
we fixed whatever it was i closed the hood and
went back in the shop 2 hours later i left .
i hopped onto the highway dropped it into 1st
and stood on it hit 2nd at 6000 rpm
and wham hood fly's up over and away!!!
I FORGOT to pin the hood.......
need to replace the hood, d/s fender and windshield
and d/s t-top

[Neophyte]

Well, I didn't read my spec sheet properly in terms of the torque settings which are in ft/lb. My torque wrench is in N/m so you have to multiply by 1.35 to get the right N/m value. So, I assembled the bottom end and put the sump on with some silicone to make sure there's no leaks. When I started torqueing the heads I realized my mistake on the bottom end meaning that a value of 70ft/lb was only torqued to about 52 ft/lb! Now I still need to remove the sump and redo it.