Golly I'm Dumb!!

[sjarrett71]

I got my intake swapped out and everything buttoned back up. Everything went great except for the heat.

When I went to start it afterwards it wouldn't start, had the distributor 180 degrees out. Got that fixed and it really helped having the remote mounted solenoid.

The reason I'm so dumb is when I took everything apart some antifreeze went into the engine. I thought to myself at the time I would just change my oil and filter before I fire it up. Well I forgot. I started it up and ran it to set the timing. Didn't have to run it too long but the engine did warm up a little. The thermostat didn't open though. After I remembered about the antifreeze, I drained the oil and removed the filter. The oil was very milky as would be expected. The filter had a lot of antifreeze inside of it.

My question is what should I do to make sure I have all the antifreeze out? I had some oil and poured it into the oil fill hole to help flush the oil/water mix out. I would prefer not to do back to back oil changes which is what I was thinking might work. Any other suggestions?

And since misery loves company, what are some bone headed things you guys have done?

[treveiger]

Id run oil through it a few times, maybe you could even just use a oil primer to rinse out the motor an then check it.

Man there's so many stupid things I've done and still doing it'd take forever just to mention a fraction of then . Don't worry its how it goes
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[fastwillie 696969]

compress air but running extra oil i think would be good for a 1 qt . dont need it bone dry

[BMERDOC]

Leave the drain plug out and put a pan underneath it and let it drip, drip, drip. This isn't going to harm the motor and you probably got 99% out anyway.

[71swb4x4]

If it was mine I would throw your regular amount of oil in with a new filter, run it a few minutes, and change it again. I am not sure it's necessary, but I am sure it's a lot cheaper than a new engine.

[BMERDOC]

Slipped and hit submit before I finished...Heres a shop story we giggle about from time to time. One of our guys had to put intake gaskets on a 7 series. The intake floats over the motor so there is a large space between the intake and the valley. Well he got the intake on, let it idle and started cleaning up. But he couldn't find his new $100 flashlight. We finally pulled the engine cover off and peaked in only to find his light in there still burnin!! Needless to say he didn't get his flashlight back. Somewhere out there is a car with a light still in the motor. Imagine the next guys face when he pulls that intake off and finds it! Another question is when will that be? 5yrs? 50? That story never gets old and its a reminder that no matter how good you are you can still mess up!

[yuccales]

"And since misery loves company, what are some bone headed things you guys have done?"

I was enjoying a nice tune-up day once. Got out my dwell meter, vac. guage, timing light and assorted tools to do the deed. Fired up the truck to set the timing. Was setting the timing when the cord on my Snap-On inductive, digital, high tech redneck timing light got sucked up into the alt belt. In less then a second that light exploded into about 20 pieces when it got flung into the frame rail. That was a several hundred dollar lesson I learned. As for my tool guy, I never even bothered asking about a warranty.

[Dieselwrencher]

I'd just fill it up with oil and run it a little while like mentioned and then change it and the filter. Here's a story of an old friend of ours.

A friend of mine was doing a head gasket replacement on his 24v cummins. He had me come over and set the valves before he could start it. I noticed that a case of our brake clean was gone, and I saw the cans all in the corner of the shop. I asked him WTF that deal was and he told me he wanted to be sure he got it clean in the engine. I also had to time the engine, so once I got it timed we started it. OMG, this thing smoked so bad from the breather and the breather tube, it was unreal! It was burning our eyes and the longer you ran it the worse it got. I made him shut it off and check the oil. It was milky. He thought the head gasket didn't seal and that was why it was smoking so bad. I remembered where I read some where when you use brake clean to clean steel and then weld it, it produces a highly toxic gas and can kill you. I told him to change the filter and replace his oil and restart it. He did and it smoked for a little while and eventually quit smoking through the breather. Moral of the story, don't go over kill on cleaning an engine that is still assembled with brake clean.

Now one of my own. I tore apart a 12v cummins so I could take the engine to the machine shop. I had it up side down and removed the crankshaft. When you do this the main bolt holes fill up with oil. The crank looked good and just need polished. I started putting the main caps back on and tightening the bolts. But some didn't want to go back in. So like an idiot, I got the impact and ran them in. All was good until I got to the #1 main cap. I started running the bolt in and I heard a loud pop and something went flying. It was a chunk of the block. The bolt hole went down near the area of the oil pump recess. Since there wasn't much material there, the block gave way. Luckily the oil pumps on these don't seal in this area and the block was usable. But that was a wake up call to slow down and blow the bolt holes out. It could have been a $500 or more screw up.

[Longhorn Man]

check the new oil for contamination after running it a few min. If you have water, drain it and replace the filter.
Do this till it stays looking like oil.

[ChevLoRay]

Originally Posted by yuccales

"And since misery loves company, what are some bone headed things you guys have done?"

As a freshman in college, I had the same car I had when I finished high school a few months earlier. Anyone with experience with FoMoCo Y-blocks knows that they have a tendency to cease oiling the rocker arms. Yeah, they clatter. I'd take the covers off every few days and pour some oil over them. I don't think they completly quit oiling, but it was close.

Anyway, my uncle was a good mechanic and he said we could put some outside oilers on it. With the rocker shaft removed completely and the valve cover off (spark plugs out on that side, too), he told me to fire it up....and he would look to see if any oil was getting through. I had laid a 1/2x9/16 wrench on top of the air cleaner. The rough idle caused it to fall off and the fan blade picked it up and it wiped out three rows of my radiator. No problem, my uncle said..."I used to do radiator work, too". So, I pulled it out, and he pinched-off those three and soldered them closed. I put it back in, we finished the oiler, fired it up and finished adjusting the valves when it was hot. It ran good, and no more clatter....except for the rattling flex plate.

[brad_man_72]

this spring I forgot to install my oil pump drive shaft when I rebuilt bobbos engine for my boat. I figured out this was wrong when I tried to drop the shaft in through the top like I could with the old pump. So I had to stand on my head and pull the oil pump in the boat. Not a mistake I will be making again soon.

I pulled the heads off of my 4.3 sonoma beause of oil in the water. Ended up being my oil cooler....

[into69z]

My Daughter wanted to help me change oil in my dually and Audi Quattro, which together would take 12 quarts. I drained the truck and put a new filter on and while I was draining the Audi, my daughter was filling the truck with fresh oil. All was going well until I asked her for the rest of the case of oil I bought so I could fill the Audi-She said "I put that oil in the truck" (12 qts)!

[68 IRON]

Dang, there are some good stories here....but I aint sayin' nothin'! Run the new oil and check...I'm bettin' that it will be ok.

[Shyguy]

There is not enough time for me to list all the dumb things I have done over the years while working on vehicles. I am a self taught mechanic that has had to learn by trial and errors, lol.

Of course I have learned a very lot of stuff from the people on this forum about working on these old trucks.

[eagleuh1]

Hmmm, Where to start!. I'll get back with you. Too many dumb things. My favorite would be getting pissed when working on my 61 Merc Comet in highschool at base hobby shop. Wrench slipped and skinned all my knuckels. Threw wrench at engine, richocheted off and busted the windshield. Ouch.

[colin_havens]

I think we have all had our share of dumb mistakes, and all we can do is learn from them. In fact my wife likes to ask me "what did you break now" everytime I go out and work on my truck. It stings a little, but then again it is deserved sometimes. We only learn by example or mistakes, right?

I have to share my little story. I had just bought my truck a couple of months before, and was trying to work some bugs out in it. I had bad stumble unless you really feathered the gas pedal, as someone suggested to me a carb spacer. No biggie I thought, I can do that. Sonds cheap enough right? Well I pulled the carb, and took out the carb studs to put the longer ones included in the kit. As I got to the last one, I accidentally dropped a nut down the throat of the intake, only to watch it disappear into some unknown runner. After I quit freaking out, I realised I might be able to pull the intake and get it out. Well I pulled it, and with a little magnetic pickup tool found it in the number 7 intake port. I put the intake back on, put my carb spacer on and carb, and hooked everything back up. Took it for a drive, and it was a little better, but not much.

The next day I was going to Jonesboro, AR to visit some friends for the weekend, and wanted to take the truck. And it did pretty well for 2/3 of the trip. After that it really struggled to go, but it did make it. After sitting for the weekend, it would barely crank anymore. I was totally freaking out that I had really damaged the motor. We checked everything, the timing, the carb, new spark plugs, wireing, everything. I ended up having to stay an extra day because i could not get home. As a last resort we called a friends dad, who was familar with older carbed motors. He listened to it crank, went into the garage, and came back out with some carb cleaner and sprayed it on the front of the intake where it sits in the valley between the heads, and the motor reved up. Apparently in my excitement, I had not let the RTV set up some before I put the intake back on and only half ass tightened down the intake bolts, and I had one serious vaccum leak. He helped me pull the intake, and reinstall it correctly with fresh plugs as the others were fouled up something serious, and I was on my way home. I felt like a complete dumbass, but at least I had not killed my truck.

[sjarrett71]

Here's what I found when I took the old intake off



Hopefully my truck will run a little better!

[GASoline71]

Do not try to prime your engine on an engine stand with out having a plug in the rear of the engine where the oil sending unit goes. If you don't have a plug or a guage connected... you'll see how much oil you can shoot on to the ceiling of your shop.

Gary