I didn't do it but I let my buddy use my garage to do an oil change on his crown vic. When I came home he aparently managed to put 2 quarts of oil on the floor. Thank god I had kitty litter on hand however it really soaked in nicely. I call that a war wound. Dad said that paint remover can strip the rest of it though so no real damage.
I had replaced the lifters in my ol pickup and was in the process of putting it all back together. Gettin near the end and thinking about starting it up, got to the Carburetor and realized that one of the washers around the base plate was missing, Oh well right. $.02 part. Just get another and get this thing started. I did, It started fine and I was feeling good about getting the timing close enough that it idled right off the bat, but what the hell is that noise, and why is that cylinder cutting in and out so bad? Sounds like someone’s hammering on that piston!
That was the Biggest “O-S” moment in my garage. Totaled the valve, valve seat, and left a bunch of marks this piston.
Lifters work great though.
Earlier in the week, I was sitting at my work bench doing some saudering, had it looking nice, put the saudering iron down, and reached for something else on the bench...
We'll keep it short, theres a really mean looking scar on the back of my arm now, the same shape as my saudering iron...
Well... Idling my '89 Honda NX650 with the mufflers pointing out the garage door, about 4 feet past the door opening.
Let it run like that for about 10 minutes, letting it get good and warm - I was trying to narrow down a tick.
Had the radio on, and heard this weird noise that I dismissed as music (couldn't hear it very well). A few minutes later, I started feeling "a little funny". Realized it was the carbon monoxide detector singing it's head off! 400ppm - enough to kill in a few hours. Or less.
So, went inside, got sick as a dog, face beet red (actually my entire body was beet red) slept for 12 hours and learned from it.
So, 6 months later, got the '74 highboy idling about 15 feet from the garage. No problem, right?
CO detector went off again 20 minutes later - this time it was 650ppm! Enough to kill in 45 minutes. Went through the entire thing again, flu-like symptoms, you name it.
About that time, I decided to get a new truck - the highboy was just trying to kill me at that point after losing the brakes the year before
Live and learn - hopefully
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- art k. - Moderator for the Superduty, V10, and FE forums
'01 F250SD SC SB XLT V10 4x4 auto 3.73 Warn hubs Volant CAI, eBay headers and y-pipe - 5-star custom tunes on SCT X3
'97 Cougar XR7 30th Anniv Edition 4.6L
'74 F250 Highboy FE390 deceased! I've been wrong before, I'll be wrong again. Just wait and see.
krewat: you've had two big gassy warnings now - so kindly don't try it again. I suppose if you do, we'll probably never hear about it! It's funny how well-known dangers can catch anyone, experienced or not (I came close to being electrocuted a week ago while limbing a tree with a long aluminum polesaw...duh!!)
Glad we are both still here...
Here's one that happened to me when I was just getting into working on cars when I lived in my parents house. I was installing new intake manifold gaskets on my 75 Scottsdale truck, because I was stupid enough to use the front and rear intake manifold gaskets that came with the kit. I later found out that most people do not use the front and rear gaskets because they tend to slip out of position and leak. We did not have a garage and I was doing this repair later in the day, so I pulled the truck up onto a concrete patio next to some porch lights, since I knew it would be dark before I finished. Well I got the intake off and I laid my fathers old army blanket inside the lifter gallery, so I wouldn't get any crap down there while I was scraping the old gasket material off the mating surfaces. Back in those days I used to gauge each project by how many beers it took to get the job done. BTW, I think this job was a 4-5 beer job. After I finished scraping all the old gasket material off I used a vacuum cleaner to pick up all the old gasket material off the blanket before I pulled it out. Right about then it started raining/sleeting outside and I was trying to hurry to get this job finished. I got the intake on, carb reinstalled. and everything else all put together and started the engine up and I thought to myself this engine sounds quieter than I remembered it. After the repair I noticed that the engine seemed to be using a lot of oil, but I could not find a leak and there was no sign of smoke from the exhaust. After a few weeks the oil consumption slowed done and eventually stopped. I had no clue why until about six years later. This truck had served my well and the body was totally rusted, so I decided to scrap the truck. Before I sent it off to the bone yard I decided to strip off the more valuable engine parts. When I took off the intake manifold I was shocked to see my Dads old army blanket right where I left it 6 years earlier! The lifters had worn 8 little holes in the wool blanket and It was totally soaked with oil. Now I know where all that oil was going! I was amazed that I never had any engine troubles with that truck with an army blanket in it all those years.
friend of a friend thought he was mechanically inclined. figured he would save
$ and change his own oil. he forgot to DRAIN old oil first ,change filter add new oil and fired up. the old diesel VW rabbits with that much oil will run on blowby and what comes through pcv. he stood there and watched it overspeed and overheat until it blew. asked him why he didn't put it into high gear and let out clutch, he never thought of it he said. 1 of my own, snapon die grinder with safety on trigger changing cut off wheels with air hooked up. i was so used to grabbing it so safety would movethat i did it without thinking it made a nice zip as it went across me hand. fortunately just grinder wheel burn, no stitches or parts to reattach
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2005 F350 Lariat crew 4x4
traded F350 XLT supercab 4x4 what a stinker
Did I mention my stupidity with carbon monoxide in this thread?
nitrogen, I did almost the same thing with a grinder, working on my highboy - no guard (it was in the way), locked the switch to ON, with one hand on it, and slipped. Right down to the cartilage on my index finger knuckle. ...
__________________
- art k. - Moderator for the Superduty, V10, and FE forums
'01 F250SD SC SB XLT V10 4x4 auto 3.73 Warn hubs Volant CAI, eBay headers and y-pipe - 5-star custom tunes on SCT X3
'97 Cougar XR7 30th Anniv Edition 4.6L
'74 F250 Highboy FE390 deceased! I've been wrong before, I'll be wrong again. Just wait and see.
I tried to cut some glass in my shop and then found out you can't cut coffee table glass. It shattered into about a bazillion pieces and now 2yrs later i'm still finding glass, I don't think it will ever go away.
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Rob
65 F100-Betsy With an Attitude
69 VW Fastback Drag Car-McNasty
71 VW Squareback-Zippy
94 Dakota Bledsoe-Red
Its not the dumbest, but most recent. I changed the fuel filter on my 7.3 earlier this week and I forgot to coat the o rings in fuel before I drained the bowl into an old container. I looked at our heater and figured, hey, kerosene's close enough.....and proceeded to drop the o ring completely into the fuel tank. Those 10 inch needle nose pliers finaly came in handy.
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Trevor
01 F-350 CC 8ft bed SRW 7.3L a/t. 152k
PAA Member #7
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