Part of becoming a better tech/engine builder/person if realizing your mistakes and admitting them. If you can do this to yourself and not on a public forum thats fine too, but i thought this thread would be fun. Keep it light hearted, no name calling. We can all learn from each others mistakes, even if they are funny.

Ill start it off. I dont know if this is the stupidest, but i felt pretty dumb. I was cruising on the freeway on my way home, when i let off the gas, the RPM's kept climbing. First thing i thought was 'sticky TWM throttle special', so i blipped the throttle. Nothing, it just kept climbing slowly (i was in 5th gear around 50 or 60 mph).

I pull over to the side of the road, the whole time all im picturing are those dash mounted cam films from police cruisers where someone smacks into the cops car while hes pulled over on the side of the road. Im leaning over my burning hot motor and i discover the linkage had come undone. I had probably just adjusted it too far trying to get the throttles to open all the way. So i start trying to rethread it, but the damn thing just would not catch. The threads were all fine, i couldnt figure it out. After 20 minutes and a burn on my stomach from the valve cover, i gave up and called a tow truck (i dont have AAA). It was going to cost me a pretty penny.

Then i get a light bulb on top of my head, wait a minute, both sides cant be the same thread, you couldnt adjust it. DOH! The ******* thing is reverse threaded. As i finish threading it in, i close the hood and see a towtruck in the distance. I hopped in the car and was straight on the gas. I used the money i saved at the bar the same night. So did i really save anything?




Modified by Combustion Contraption at 11:07 PM 7/20/2006

 

Yes you saved, cuz after spending the money getting your car home. Then figuring out the problem, im sure you would have gone to the bar again lol. Dumbest thing i ever done? was actually buy a honda. :thumb up: lol

 

bought a set of cams... only took the exhaust side out of the box b/c I didnt want to mix them up... well long story short... buddy of mine wants to take pics of the cams before they go in, i suggest taking the exhaust cam but he wants to shoot both so i give in and let him take the pics... i wasnt payin attention when he put them back in the boxs but he switched them... 8 bent exhaust valves later we figured it out... sooo pissed!

 

How did you get the distributor on the car when the only the intake cam has the key?

Im assuming this was a honda.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by omniman &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">While working as a Ferrari technician, the service manager came up to me one day and asked me to do and oil change on the 328 that just pulled up. So i put the Philips screw driver I was using in my rear pocket and proceeded to the car. As I got in I felt the screw driver poke a hole in the leather. Luckily they had an on site leather guy that unstitched the section with the hole and replaced it with a new piece by the time I finished the oil change. They hung the leather section in my stall for 2 years as a reminder not to put screw drivers in your pocket. I was only 21 at the time.
</TD></TR></TABLE>Theres something wrong with that LoL

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Professor15 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Theres something wrong with that LoL </TD></TR></TABLE>that explains alot

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by omniman &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">While working as a Ferrari technician, the service manager came up to me one day and asked me to do and oil change on the 328 that just pulled up. So i put the Philips screw driver I was using in my rear pocket and proceeded to the car. As I got in I felt the screw driver poke a hole in the leather. Luckily they had an on site leather guy that unstitched the section with the hole and replaced it with a new piece by the time I finished the oil change. They hung the leather section in my stall for 2 years as a reminder not to put screw drivers in your pocket. I was only 21 at the time.</TD></TR></TABLE>

When i was working at the old place (steve you know where that is) one of the maintenance guys did that as well to an older porsche 911. Management came down pretty hard on us because of that, so to get him back one day when he was in the bathroom we stacked a couple rows of tires in front of the door so he couldnt out.

 

When I was 16, my Hyundai broke down and was in the shop... so I took my amp and subs out, and wanted to use them in my room... so i cut off the end of an extension cord, stripped the wires and wired it to my amp.

That didn't work out so well.

FYI - I am a former car audio installer now lol.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Combustion Contraption &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">How did you get the distributor on the car when the only the intake cam has the key?

Im assuming this was a honda.</TD></TR></TABLE>

no it was on my sr20...

 

Leaving the ratchet on the crank pully is a classic honda foul

 

I put a new automatic transmission in a toyota camry under warranty. If I had bothered to do any kind of diagnosis ahead of time I may have realized that the trans was not slipping, but starting out in third instead. Some kind of ecu malfunction and that was the default.

 

quick question wtf is this doing in the all motor section?

 

haha! Been there! At 3am there is alot you can forget!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by crixzc &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Leaving the ratchet on the crank pully is a classic honda foul</TD></TR></TABLE>
i did that once lmfao the rachet shot off the crank and was flying around under the car hahaha.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by crixzc &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Leaving the ratchet on the crank pully is a classic honda foul</TD></TR></TABLE>

Guilty on way to many occasions

 

hmmm let me see
the ratchet on the crank pulley but only once I almost ended up with a dented forehead.
forgot to put the valve in the airhold and dropped a valve this was at 10pm so no head gasket just used the old one. hehe

But the worst is buying a honda that is by far i love my car to death but all i do is spend countless hours working and spending money on it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Professor15 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Dumbest thing i ever done? was actually buy a honda. :thumb up: lol</TD></TR></TABLE>
+1

nothing is better then I/H/E putting you at 400 RWHP with half the revs and over 20 mpg city 30 highway

BTW why is this here?

 

the stupidest thing i ever did was not tighten my oil drain line all the way before goign on a test drive with my new turbo. LMAO there was smoke everywhere and my friend that was following me said he thoughht his clutch was slipping but i guess he was just in my oil slick.

but the stupidest thing i have ever heard of another honda guy doing was sellign a friend of mine a GSR tranny thinking it was a D series.

how it happened: a friend of mine needed the piece that the release bearing goes on so he went to a local import shop. asked the guy at the counter if he had one and he said yes but he had to take the whole tranny for $25, my friend didn't want the tranny but the guy told him that he could scrap it and get his money back for it. after argueing about not wantign the whoel thing and the guy at the counter insisting on him taking it they made a deal and he took the whole thing. the guy at the counter sent a young guy that was working there back to get the tranny but i guess he grabbed the tranny for the gsr that was sitting right next to it . he comes to my house and trys to sell me the tranny as a d series, so i told him it didn't look like any d tranny i ever seen so we pulled out a gsr clutch disk we had laying around and it fit like a glove.

 

helping a friend assemble a motor, lubracated the wrong side of the bearings...

 

Forgetting to put the rubber O-rings under the valve cover spark plug holes on a bseries. Drive around for alittle while = oil filled in the spark plug holes

 

Forgot to bleed off the fuel pressure before disconnecting the fuel filter line. Needless to say I got fuel all over my face and in my eyes. One of the worst experiences in my life.

 

Forgot the spark plug tube seals.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ***-assin &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
+1

nothing is better then I/H/E putting you at 400 RWHP with half the revs and over 20 mpg city 30 highway

BTW why is this here?

</TD></TR></TABLE>
How is your rear end today?
Wow that didn't sound right.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by crixzc &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Leaving the ratchet on the crank pully is a classic honda foul</TD></TR></TABLE>

guilty

 

completely tightened a head and realized the gasket is backward...

completely tightened a head a forgot the oring that goes under teh cam cap...

filled the transmission fliud through the speed sensor and a ten mill nut fell in there and shot a hole through the casing...

mixed up spark plug wires and never thought of that as being the reason the car wouldn't turn over...

tried to start a car with no ecu....


my friend takes the cake for no putting oil into a b15c jdm r motor after a swap and taking it around the block....

thinking code 10 was a code 1

long list