I finished up installing the L98 into the car and fired her up for the first time. Sounded mean and ran great. Then after about 45 seconds it developed a rod knock, again. I was like, ****, what did I do?

Turns out I forgot to torque number 3 connecting rod and the nuts were loose when I got to inspecting it. Since I am into this motor for next to nothing, I inspected the bearings for damage or squish and they looked just fine. I torqued it back up to 45 ft lbs and rechecked every other rod nut and they were all fine. Crossing my fingers as I am just going to slam the engine back in and pray to the car gods that I get away with it. If not, sourcing another short block is no issue.

Any one else have dumb **** they have done while assembling an engine?

 

When I was 18 or so I gouged a rod Journal on my 67 Camaro with a 327 took a good chunk out on a Rod bolt, hit it with a Dremel and some 600 grit sandpaper with WD-40. Put all together probably put 20,000 miles on it afterwards plus some Low 13s pass 1/4 miles never came apart

 

In college my roommate and I rebuilt an engine for a friend. A 327 in an El Camino.

When we took it apart it had a broken (2 pieces) main bearing cap. Our friend couldn't afford to fix it, so we put it back in and torqued it to spec.

That car ran fine afterwards and I heard he put 20k or 30k miles on it before he sold the car.

 

These engines are incredibly tolerant at least for a while and if they aren't overstressed.
But checking the entire bottom end would be a good idea.

 

Yeah, that is my thought process. That was the only loose one. Every other cap was torqued properly. Plan is to drop the motor in this weekend and see if I can get away with one!

 

I hit all bolts and nuts with a wax or paint pen after a wrench touches it. Three passes? 3 dots. Knock on wood I haven't messed up yet. Now completely forgetting to install a bolt and causing issues... well yeah. Been there...

 

Years ago I had a head bolt washer fall into an intake port during a gasket swap. Destroyed the piston.

Managed to put in a new one with the engine still in the car.

I must have had two washers in one location since i counted all the hardware i had before reinstalling everything.

 

Installed a 2 piece rear main seal facing the wrong way. It was like a faucet when I started the motor.
different motor, forgot to connect the mechanical oil pressure line to the block…..I definitely saw that I had oil pressure when it lit off, like a geyser.

 

I over tightened the rocker arm nuts on my 1985 Fiero GT with V6 from a salvage yard. Salvage yard on both counts as original motor locked up. Bought another motor from a Pontiac station wagon and installed it. Did not have a solid understanding of how to set valve lash and went way too far, 30 years ago. Starter was slow. Sounded like an electric ice cream maker. Since I also converted this car from auto to a 5 speed from another salvage yard with 4 cylinder, wrong one btw, I decided to roll it down a hill. Pretty sure that was when I broke a connecting rod which put a hole in the block and oil pan.

 

Just as a follow up (and I don't want this thread to end), but retorquing number 3 rod caps did the trick for me. No more knocking and it is running fine. I am sure I took some life off the bearing to some extent, but I am not worried about it. Now, fixing all the damned grounds is my next task!

 

When I was 19 or 20, I had a few mustangs of various years from 65-86. I rebuilt the carbed 5.0 from the 84 GT with the usual things (Overbore, Cam, pistons, head work etc.... all of the 306cid "stuff" that everyone does / did at the time..

Having a few beers assembling the bottom end, I'm not sure what I did, but most likely looking at the wrong scale, Newton meters or inch lbs who the heck knows! .... In my "buzzed state, with Ozzy, AC/DC etc blasting in the background, talking to friends etc I torque all of the rod bearings incorrectly !!!

Upon first start up, I'm thinking / talking to myself.... "boy, what is that very low / rythm sound that I can also kind of feel in the gas pedal at the same time" ?? .... What is that" ??

The noise began to turn into a thumping / knocking noise in the (literally 12 seconds) it took me to realize something is off and me shutting it down. I pulled the oil pan off, hoisted the engine partially out and found 5 rod bearing caps beginning to loosen. The surfaces looked ok on the bearings and the crank so I re-torqued (correctly) and buttoned it up again. One of the best running cars I've owned at the time!. Dyno'd 3 weeks later at 394 HP with the stock headers / exhaust and basic tune. So Fun.... I chalked it up to : "Moron, pay more attention next time" . . . but a good learning experience.

 

When I was about ~19 years old... I couldn't figure out how to use the click-style torque wrench. Either the torque wrench was broken, or I just configured it wrong, but it never clicked... and I ripped the threads out of an engine block on a 1987 Fiero SE / V6, and then broke a cyl head bolt on a 1984 Fiero 2m4 SE. After that... I bought a needle-style torque wrench, and used that for like a decade.

I've since overcome my PTSD from using the click torque wrench, and we bought a set of new torque wrenches from Harbor Freight (ICON) and they work fantastic. Haven't had an issue since.

 

Did another dumb thing this weekend. But not engine related. I Heli-Coiled my 'Nash 4+3 pan bolts, got it cleaned up and popped the pan on...without the ******* filter. At least I didn't fill it yet. lol

 

Dude, I hear you. It could be much worse. I once assembled an engine and transmission and installed it in the car, and then realized I'd forgotten to grease the throw-out bearing. Despite all the contorted ways I figured I could put crease on a telescoping shaft and remove the starter and try to get it on there... I ended up having to remove the transmission again and just do it over again. It was the first time I'd ever re-assembled a transmission and a motor... haha.

 

LOL, the dumb **** we do...I literally woke up in the middle of the night and was like, did I put that filter in? ****, I don't think I put it in. Went out in the morning too look, there was the filter. :doh:

 

Check this out: Had a Buick 350 motor rebuilt 35 years ago, balanced and blueprinted, so to speak. The mechanic was changing the Dist gear on the Dist and broke the shear (drive) pin while removing it. So he puts a new shear pin in but doesn't find the other broken part of the old pin. Well that broken part landed in an oil gallery and 300 miles later, the pin lodged itself between #1 main Brg. and the crank journal. Went to start the engine after eating lunch and that motor was locked up tighter than a bull's *** in a snow storm. Took the engine apart and found the pin imbedded in the main Brg. down to the shell. Balanced Crank was junk, got replaced with a reman crank which was supposed to be balanced (NOT) Running down the road, the rear view mirror looked like there was an earthquake behind me. He later went out of business and become an insurance salesman, LOL. That was 45 years ago...now nobody touches my cars. Can't trust their skills nor their integrity.

 

Ooof!

 

I pulled the valve body in a 4l60e like 6 times in 2 days. Went together fine shifted 1-2-3 then didn't shift at all.... okay. Tech II on it to make sure it was commanding gear changes, it was then i was able to catch one of the solenoids throwing a fault. Dropped and replaced. Same thing. Wiring harness pinched installing the valve body. Dropped and replaced. Went to grab the keys off the work bench and saw a lone check ball... wasn't sure if it was the one that was replaced with the shift kit or it rolled out of the valve body when I had it out last.... Dropped again and it was an extra. Back together then transgo tells me I should use a different spring in this application because its one of those, and I quote, odd things GM did for the cadillacs.... Dropped again and replaced that one and that was like 60k miles ago.

I could do it blindfolded after all that.

 

Definition of a "kerfuffle."

 

This reminds me of when I built my 4L80e. I ordered a shift kit from CK performance. I had all the parts I needed spread out. I took the transmission apart very carefully. I followed the directions for the modifications in the CK kit. Then I put everything back together very carefully. Well it didn't all fit in the case. The pump wouldn't seat. So out it all came again. This happened another 6 times. By the 7th try I had the transmission housing standing up in a trash can while I was jamming parts back in. Then all of a sudden I had clearance and the pump seated. There is a clutch pack that was getting hung up on the case. Being a little more forceful with it allowed it to get into position. I was pretty burnt out at that point. But hundreds of burnout later that transmission is still going strong.