Engine and Transmission Tech

OK I'm up to actually assembling the engine. I started by removing the protectant. I thought I'd use the old fashioned hot soapy water method. It was working pretty well. I thought I know I'll use the Dishwasher! BAD IDEA! I ended up having a bunch of surface rust to remove! DUMMY! Here's some pix of my stupidity:



Not bad...



Really stupid!! LOL!

Anybody else got dumb mistakes?

Nah Nick, we never screw up (yeah, right!) Glad to see you're getting there. I actually love the dishwasher idea, just not that way obviously. I have an old one I've been planning on setting up in the shop. I use a lot of brake cleaner and compressed air when it's time to go together. Got started on that with motorcycle engines. I've been overall happier with the results.

For me I think it's not so much knowing exactly the right way to go about things, as it is getting out of sequence. Like installing the crank then realizing I haven't chased the threads in the decks. Or setting the heads in place and then realizing I can't paint the block that way because they don't get the same paint. Stuff like that trips me up all the time.

Jim

I hope your other half is understanding!! Mine would have my 'family jewels' in a vice for doing that :()

Shaun

LOL! She's great. The best part was when she got home from work and opened the dishwasher. I was in the bathroom. She's all:… wtf… NIC!!!

I will say the dishwasher worked really well at removing all the waxy protectant and there was no residue in the dishwasher.

She let me rebuild a carb in our kitchen last winter after the cold froze the solvent I was using. LOL! She also let me assemble the engine in our 3 season… well more like 2 1/2 season porch. It stays around 50ºish in there.

AND she's hot!

I'll toss another dumb story in. My dad blew an engine in his caravan a few years ago. I told him I'd help him I could help him swap a new motor in. We had nowhere to do it other than a parking lot. LOL! Ok so I had a bunch of dumb stuff happen but my favorite was this:

I finished hooking up all the major parts to the engine and I was ready to lower it off the floor jack. I had just stood up after laying on my back for a couple hours and was a little light-headed so I put my hand on the rad support just behind the grill to steady myself. AND I began letting the jack down. What I didn't know was the cylinder got stuck. So I'm opening the valve and nothing is happening and suddenly "WWWEEEEEeeeeeee" the jack lets down fast. That jars the prop rod out of the hood and WWHHAAAMM!! The hood shuts on my hand. I pretty much don't feel a thing which is a bit disconcerting.

I'm just standing there looking at the end of my wrist sprouting out from under the hood. I grab the hood to unlatch it, no luck, it's all the way down. I look up to my Dad who's working on hooking up wires in the van. He's really into what he's doing. I'm like: Hey Dad. How about pulling the hood latch. He looks up and sees what happened and freaks out a little. He jumps out of the van and runs over slamming the van door, locking the keys in the van! LOL! I'm like: Dad I need you to unlatch the hood. He runs back over to the door. It's locked. He's like: OH SHOOT! Luckily my Dad is one of those people that hides a key on the vehicle. He gets it, unlocks the van and unlatches the hood. It pops up "PluuNkk!!" and I pull the safety latch. I close my eyes because I'm thinking my hand is totally gone because I can't feel it.

I gingerly pull my hand out and crack my eyes open to find it still there! All I've got is a big purplely red line across the back of my fingers and one more across the back of my hand. Then that dull, thick, relentless, throbbing pain begins to slowly rise. You know the one I'm talking about. BUT my hand is fine! Just a little crimped. No broken bones. Not even broken skin! How lucky is that.

Ok so upon rereading this post I realize how Whiskey Tango I sound right about now: Degreasing parts in the dishwasher, building carbs in the kitchen, building an engine in the porch, swapping an engine in a parking lot! LOL! GEEZ!

Welcome to Minnesota.. The fact it was -24 F last night makes working indoors a matter of survival..

-26 in Maine this morning!!!

Wow! I must have it real good out here in CA and I'm "whinning" that it's 32 degrees in the morning. Then I'm in the garage working using a heater, and it will get up to 70 degrees by noon.

Shame on me for thinking its cold, what a wouuus :-)

Damn cold over in the east guys stay warm.

In that kind of cold my hands won't work well, plus all the knuckle busters that would happen, I wouldn't feel a thing, but I'd be a bloody mess. I believe I would have hands like Jim B said in some posting, cracks, dry, bleeding in that order.

Nic, that is a classic photo with the pistons/rods sitting in the dishwasher rack all so neatly done. HeHe!

The stuff that has been happening to me several times lately, would be trying to tig weld aluminum without putting the ground cable on my work, then wonder why a little voltage is running through my welding gloves. "Duh" Or when that something that falls on the floor and it always seems to run away somewhere, then thinking I know it droped here because I saw it fall. Ok I need a bigger fan and more air in here , this Argon gas must be getting to me. Have been tigging up my dash support and making a transmission cover out of aluminum sheet. After welding aluminum, found it's a great heater for about 4 minutes, then cools real fast.

Good story Nic. I think that when you work on cars long enough, no matter how careful you are, your going to end up with those types of stories.

I complain about the size of our workshop once in a while but then realize that the size is not so great but things like a very clean shop with in floor heat, a restroom, computer and running water, not to mention tools is quite the luxury in most parts of the world. After reading your story, I feel like a million bucks. :-)

-BMC.