I'm dumb (cranked motor w/o checking valve clearance)

Franko6 said:

I think we can work well together, IronBender. I think it's funny people point out mistakes. They could really have some fun with me!
I NEVER accept the moniker, 'GURU', as I can't cross my legs like that and never could levitate. Instead I call myself 'experienced', as I have probably made every single mistake you can make on a TDI, often, long before you ever thought to make it.

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Rushing in to point out peoples mistakes is a character defect that does get me in trouble sometimes. With mistakes, at some point, It becomes crystal clear that when you find yourself up to your tookus in alligators, you should have drained the swamp first.

That Guru thing is kind of lame. Give me someone that has their mind wrapped around the process they are doing with good skills in seeing the details. No Mysticism or magic with that............

You Tooefed your engine. It happens. This site actually created that word, named after member bhtooefr.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tooef

Be happy you weren't the first. Otherwise something screwed up might have been called "Ironbended".

Good Luck with the repair.

Ya, making mistakes round here is like being a little sheep with his head stuck in woven wire outside a Harley rally........get yerr tetanus shot just in case.

Prairieview said:

Ya, making mistakes round here is like being a little sheep with his head stuck in woven wire outside a Harley rally........get yerr tetanus shot just in case.

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Oh, I get it. Also, If you are a little sheep and someone approaches you wearing sheep herder boots, be very nervous..............Harley Rally? since most Harley riders are white haired geriatric's, probably not an issue so much anymore.

IronBenderII said:

Ummmm, thanks?? You're right - I don't know anything about cars/don't belong working on them...
Here's another car that I built (one of many):

Here's the article if you want details:http://www.fourwheeler.com/project-vehicles/129-0609-1971-ford-bronco/
And here's a shot of me fixing a race truck in the Baja 1000 (I was crew chief for multiple race trucks for many years).
So thanks for your kind post. I'll try and take the road less traveled (by you) and assume you aren't such an ass all the time (you're just having a bad day too).
Peace...

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Sometimes **** happens regardless of expertise. When I really try to work fast that's when I do dumb ****... tunnel vision type of effect. I'm the type of person when working with delicate stuff need to slow down check and double check.

You know this has been a great thread. 92% of us would never admit we had something like this. A lot here to learn from. This is what forums are for! Yea Fred....

Thanks all. I react to things poorly all the time and I'm always having to go back and amend my response ("sorry about that gut reaction, what I should have said was xyz"). I do a lot of work with high school students so I get a lot of practice at correcting myself (they're good at correcting me too - any other FIRST robotics coaches here??).

Anyway. For those those that may be reading this in the future, don't be afraid to try things/screw up. I'd like to see everybody working on their own cars/learning. Take small steps: If you don't do anything beyond putting fuel in, check YouTube and learn how to do an oil change. Then move on to spark plugs, brakes, etc. (when you get to timing don't forget to turn the engine over by hand to make sure you didn't screw something up hahahahaha). You'll forget to put the drain plug in, leave a wrench in a bad spot and screw some things up that cost you $$ - but you'll learn valuable lessons at the same time and come away better for it.

As for my poor head I haven't had any luck yet. It turns out my imported German motor is a 1z with 8mm valves. I like to shop local/support those around me so I've given it a go locally but I haven't found a place that can find 8mm valves or has experience in converting to 7mm. Looks like I'll be calling Frank! He called me the night of and seemed like a pretty nice guy/very knowledgeable.

Thanks all for the words of wisdom, the hard-earned ribbing and the support. Fingers crossed I get this thing on the road soon!

Jack

Jack, I'm one of those ol' white haired geriatric's (don't ride a Harley though) that tends to forget all those lessons learned down through the years. Although, I try to stay orderly and do things in a semi-planned process, I spend a lot of time looking for that tool or part that I just had in my hand.... then, forget what I was doing!

Yes, I have poured oil in, and luckily, saw it on the concrete floor before I started the engine .......... yeah, more than once!

Yes, years ago, I accidently picked up the wrong set of main bearings (off the work bench, standard size) to install in my "perfectly" built Air-cooled VW Beetle engine for my rail buggy. I thought they were for my crankshaft that had been ground undersized, 0.010 (obviously, I never checked my work). Yeah, at idle the oil light did flicker.......

Yeah, I've sworn a time or two after skinning my knuckles doing something that will always result in skinned knuckles ... trying to beat the odds, not good!

I guess I get upset most when it's obvious the person responding to a Thread never read the OPs opening statement (even if it was all in Caps) ...

Lastly, after student teaching, I never applied for a teaching job ..