Stupid mistakes that make your car run like crap thread.
#21
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Originally Posted by ShevrolayZ28
Hah I did the same thing but I caught it before I filled with coolant. Those suckers are hard to reach once everything is assembled. Man did I hack up my forearms.
EDIT: oops. on mine it was the crossover block offs, not the freeze plug. You musta had to disassemble.![Cry](https://ls1tech.com/forums/images/smilies/LS1Tech/gr_cry.gif)
EDIT: oops. on mine it was the crossover block offs, not the freeze plug. You musta had to disassemble.
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#23
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I left the nitrous bottle warmer on the car for about 15 minutes ( while first in the staging lane). I go and get in the car, put on helmet and buckle up. I start it and it is running like ****. The computer reset itself because the battery ran down so much. So there I was embarassed as hell because my car sounded like it was about to die on me any second.
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After a my first cam swap, me and my friend who was helping out was driving it back home and noticed the service engine soon light was flashing. The car felt sluggish but just thought it was the tune. Well on the way a tranny line blew and had to get it towed back to the shop. Mind you this was about 4 am in the morning and had been up for at least 24 hrs working on the car (damn valve springs!!!!) Anyway after deciding we would just come back to fix the line after some sleep the next day, we noticed why the light was flashing. We forgort to plug the ps coil pack back in. lol Car ran just fine after that embarrasing moment.
We blamed it on the lack of sleep.
We blamed it on the lack of sleep.
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One time at band camp, wrong story! while I was installing my rockers after H/C swap some how I managed to drop a bolt. fell thru the p-rod hole and was thinking that I would have too remove the heads to retrieve it. well I started looking the the only holes the LS1 have that lets you see the cam. well looking thru there I see the bolt head lodged in there. grapped a beer and thought about what I had to do to get the bolt out. well when I put my beer down
I saw my pin magnet and got a great idea!! "thanks to the beer". decided to try that before removing head, again. yup, after about 10 minutes it was out
next time I'll put rags in hole so nothing falls in there.
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#26
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a while ago i was installing an intake, carb , headers, sparkplugs, new valve covers on my 77 chevy pickup. i got it all finished and took it for a drive and i notice a little smoke comin out from under the hood at stop lights. thoght it was the paint being burned off the cheap headers. pulled over at a gas station to make sure my header bolts werent comin loose and i noticed it, i had a spark plug wire pinched in the valve cover. luckily i had bout those wingnut style valve cover bolt things. easy fix for somethin stupid.....
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Did something pretty dumb after I got my 15lb nitrous bottle filled for my '02 Z. I mounted it on the back deck. This was in AUGUST...walked out of work for a minute to see if the pressure had risen because of the sunlight, and the needle on the gauge had pegged out on the bottom side of the needle stop at 0psi. I almost had a heart attack. Unhooked it and carried it CAREFULLY into the shop at work and let it cool off.
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One day I had my intake assembly out so I could clean and re-oil the filter. After I had it all oiled and everything my friend showed up and asked me to take him somewhere. I said yes and quickly got the CAI back in so we could go. Hopped in the car and took off and the car ran like complete ****! Pulled back in my driveway and started looking at plug wires and stuff for about 15 minutes... I had forgot to plug the MAF back in. DOPE!
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When I got my TA it had the K&N filter in it. It was extremly dirty. I used the recharge kit on it. For 3 weeks I posted all over this board trying to figure out why my car ran like crap
. I started by replacing the O2 sensors followed by seafoaming the car and changing the fuel filter. Then cleaned my MAF and it worked fine. I used to much oil on the filter and it soaked my MAF
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#30
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When I was still running a MAF, I over oiled my K&N filter and the car started acting like ****. I checked the O2's, I checked the plug wires, plugs, grounds for the computer, cleaned the MAF, nothing helped. Finally realized it was the damn filter having too much oil on it. I took the MAF out cleaned it again and went back to paper filters.
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back when i was a pup, dad let me take out his 88 turbo coupe t-bird as long as i changed the oil. stopped at the store and got the good ol mobil 1 synthetic and filter. drained oil/changed filter tighten plug back up and filled her up with mobil 1. started car for oil pressure and spllllllrrrrrrrttttt 3.5 qaurts of fresh mobil 1 in middle of garage floor. being 17 years old didnt know what the hell i did wrong. uncle says you check for oil filter gasket stuck on motor? nope,, sure enuff gasket was stuck on and i put new filter over it double gasket and the oil come pouring out. the little things we learn and pass on are great. all my gas money for cruising went to more mobil 1
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back when i was a pup, dad let me take out his 88 turbo coupe t-bird as long as i changed the oil. stopped at the store and got the good ol mobil 1 synthetic and filter. drained oil/changed filter tighten plug back up and filled her up with mobil 1. started car for oil pressure and spllllllrrrrrrrttttt 3.5 qaurts of fresh mobil 1 in middle of garage floor. being 17 years old didnt know what the hell i did wrong. uncle says you check for oil filter gasket stuck on motor? nope,, sure enuff gasket was stuck on and i put new filter over it double gasket and the oil come pouring out. the little things we learn and pass on are great. all my gas money for cruising went to more mobil 1
04-06-2007 02:51 PM
04-06-2007 02:51 PM
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Originally Posted by wild thing
I left the nitrous bottle warmer on the car for about 15 minutes ( while first in the staging lane). I go and get in the car, put on helmet and buckle up. I start it and it is running like ****. The computer reset itself because the battery ran down so much. So there I was embarassed as hell because my car sounded like it was about to die on me any second.
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Helped a buddy put a procharger and cam on his goat. He was replacing the valve springs and a lock went flying, didn't really see where but we thought it may have gone into the head. After about 30 mins of fishing with a magnet I convinced him to pull the head (we weren't really prepared to do so). Thankfully he listened to me, when the head was off we found the lock sitting next to one of the lifters. Would've killed the block on startup. Of course when we were buttoning everything back up someone else read the torque reading on the intake manifold bolts to be "80 Ft/lbs" and I think its 80 inch/lbs. Just as he asked me what the reading was we hear a pop (like a 22 cal going off). Snapped the bolt clean off level with the head. That took another 2 hrs to fix!
Moral of the story, when swapping valve springs with the heads on, plug the bolt holes with paper towels!
On my own car I forget what I was working on but my firends were "buttoning up" a few things under the hood while I lowered the car. Upon startup I had a CEL. Drove it a bit and it drove like crap. When I got home I figured I'd double check their work. Low and behold the IAT and MAF sensors weren't plugged in. I was amazed tha car even ran.
Before you ask, yes I still have these guys work on the car I just get VERY SPECIFIC with instructions!
Moral of the story, when swapping valve springs with the heads on, plug the bolt holes with paper towels!
On my own car I forget what I was working on but my firends were "buttoning up" a few things under the hood while I lowered the car. Upon startup I had a CEL. Drove it a bit and it drove like crap. When I got home I figured I'd double check their work. Low and behold the IAT and MAF sensors weren't plugged in. I was amazed tha car even ran.
Before you ask, yes I still have these guys work on the car I just get VERY SPECIFIC with instructions!
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#36
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I have the most destructive story....... My friend was installing some race heads and he didnt drain his coolant before removing his stock heads. When he went to install his new patriot heads he failed to realize that a very small amount of coolant was in the bolt holes to mount his new heads. As he tightened the pressure built up and cracked his block. He did this 3 times on 3 different holes. The bolt pushing down on the coolant built up pressure and with no where to go it pierced a crack into his block. Strange thing is I think his block is ok.. a little weakened but still useable.
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Mine kind of caused my car to run funny. I have underdrive pullies and didn't realize my alternator wire was touching the header. So the car would die and idle real low and I took it in to get an alternator. Well C5 alternators are like $800 bucks and then they realized what was going on. But it took the battery down with it!