General Chat
Q:
Ahrg,
WHY is it when you drop something it lands in the worst place possible? I was just finishing up an engine assembly very, very late last night and I removed the valve cover just one last time to confirm cam location before stabbing the dizzy on and calling it done. When I raised the cover up a foot over the engine, one of the front cover bolts dropped off the cover, bounced, and went straight down inside the front engine cover. Ahrgh! STUPID!
That 3 second stunt of not pulling off the bolts completely cost me another hour of midnight magnet fishing and then dropping the pan to finally find where the darn thing ended up.
No real point, I was just amazed that a bolt could bounce so perfectly wrong.
Post Edited (Sep 22, 9:15am)
A:
When I was in college and working in a stereo shop we would always say if you need the find the exact center of a car, drop a wrench, bolt, screwdriver, or any tool next to it. Where it lands is exactly in the center of the underbody, at least it seemed that way...
1972 240Z 4-speed, header, 3.54 R200, Crane XR-3000 Ignition, 280Z tach, Tokico Blue Struts, Suspension Tech Springs, Poly Bushings. Visit me at my website for your custom EFI & restored Datsun parts
A:
OHHHHHHH BURN...
you know where you messed up??
you didnt think before you acted! jeeze...its commen sence!
you take the bolts OUT before you life the valve cover OVER THE HEAD.
you ran the risk, now you are going to pay for it....
SEE HOW IT FEELS?
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High Performance NA L28 engine, Performance Suspension, Full Interior, 2500lbs, and room for 3 HOT girls in the car!
shift_2+2
13.9 @102.7 on 205mm street tires and 110 octane :-)
A:
I know, I was working tired and just left them in.
Yep, that's what I said, I paid an hour extra work for a 3 second stunt.
By the way, what's "commen sence"?
Post Edited (Sep 22, 6:41pm)
A:
Come on kids...let's not start a pissing match
I hear that Hybrid, I am the king of those kind of moves.
Always thinking two steps ahead and not paying enough attention to the step I'm currently on.
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1990 300zx NA
- Custom Exhaust
- JWT Pop Charger
Post Edited (Sep 22, 9:49am)
A:
"you take the bolts OUT before you life the valve cover OVER THE HEAD."
you life the cover? HUH?
Lots of Z cars, 1970's-1983's.
1977, Megasquirt, 12.8@ 105, 1.70 60 Foot, 2940 LBS. Blake Machine Co, Phx, AZ http://bandmzcars.com http://blakemachineprojects.com http://www.zselect.com
A:
Hey Hybrid, don't feel bad. It's still not as bad as getting mad at your wife calling her an idiot and then proceeding to jump into your car open the garage door and back right into your 240Z that you forgot you parked there when you got home from work! I did that about 10 years ago and it still remains at the pinnacle of the stupidest things I've ever done!! LOL
On the mechanical side, the dumbest thing I ever did was probably 15 years ago when I beat the harmonic balancer on only to find out that once I started the motor oil was pissing out the seal since I broke it on the keyway by beating it on misaligned! Ugh live and learn!
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12.804 @ 107.26 mph on crappy street tires with Dual SU Powered 2.9L Stroker!
ZCAR.COM member since Aug 1998
A:
My best friend is my extendable magnet...and if I lose something that is Snap-on...I will tear the car completely apart to find it if I have to...its amazing where that stuff can hide at...
1976 280z 2+2 - Risen from the dead - garaged since 1988. Pallnet Fuel Rail and guage - ES rack and front bushings - 260Z 4Speed - Arizona Z Car Clutch - H4 Lights - Lots more to come...
A:
Norm, I did that one. The woodruff key flipped up while putting the balancer on and broke the balancer outwards of the slot which then proceeded to eat the front seal. I'm more attentive now.
A:
"The Crevice" strikes again!
At least this time you found it... its amazing when you lose a tool somewhere in the car... or better yet when you find someone else's tool in the car that they probably lost 15 years ago!
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1982 280zx
A:
All bolts are designed to find exactly the most inconvenient places to hide.
1972 240z w/L28, tokico shocks and springs, and a 5 speed waiting. Also running high performance ultra mega blinker fluid, that's at least an extra 50hp to the wheels.
1987 Toyota Supra Turbo 5-speed. Belongs to me until my friend get's back from Iraq.
A:
HA ha!! I know how you feel. when I did a set of heads for a guy on a Z31, I had EVERYTHING together and I was literally putting the last bolt on one of the wiring harness holders that bolts to the side of the intake plenum when I fumbled and dropped it. care to take a guess where it went? right down the open sparkplug hole of course... a trip to autozone, a telescoping magnet and about 3 mins of fishing later, I got it out.
but, thereis always that feeling of "oh $#!t"
McAdam
1980 280zx with a mildly ported N47 maxima head, 60mm TB, -C- stamp 256 degree camshaft, and a 2.5inch mandrel bent exhaust. yeah, its quick, and yeah, its a 2+2. NOW with MSandS_E power!
A:
That's not as dumb as what I did. When I re-built my 77 280 ( back in the mid 1980's ) I forgot to tighten the camshaft sprocket! Of course it waited till I was going around 65 mph on the xway to work itself off and it bent all of the valves and put some small dents on the tops of the pistons! With good luck I was able to get new valves and a casket and got it running again.
Best of luck...
Had a 77 280Z and two 70 510 Wagons once upon a time...
A:
Hey I lost one of my best 10mm deep sockets to one of my turbo cars... It fell down the timing cover and after about 1hour of fishing it finally just dropped into the pan. It rolled all the way back and fell into the sump. So I left it. It is still there! I sure miss it.
The other day my buddy was working on his RS Camaro(V6) with the heads off. He dropped a razor blade down the into the cam area. They couldn't even find it for 30 mins and they saw it drop! I had to show them the scrapper tools and bust out a cheap magnet wand to fish it out the distributor hole with the help of a chop stick!!! They must have thought I was MacGyver!
"I reject your reality and substitute my own"
Please check out Thanks!
"You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant, excepting Alice"
A:
I was putting new battery cable ends on my Aussie Mercury Capri and dropped one while I was unscrewing the bolts to loosen them. I dropped in somewhere in front of the radiator. Never was seen again, couldn't fish for it with a magnet because I was using the brass non-ferrous terminal ends. I still wonder some days what happened to it. Maybe I'll ask the guy I sold the car to.....
Another money pit, abused '85 turbo
A:
I did that once not too long ago. I didn't post it but I know EXACTLY what you were thinking and the OOOHHHH $HIT that followed.
I was lucky and found all the bolts. Took some time but all was well.
My .02 would be that we are all human. EVERYONE on here. We all have our moments. If they are few and far between we have learned from experiance.
Takes a few people ALOT longer and more money. heheheh.
original owner 1978 280Z
1977 project car
A:
I was installing a nitrous kit on my Z32 and the pecie that the fogger nozzle screws into that goes into the intake piping. Well, I decided to not take the pipe off on the second side that little fitting dropped down the mess intake piping took several hours to fish out then I lost it five minutes later. Bought a new the next day and I finally found it a year later.
Currently parting out 1990 300zx TT.
A:
man i dont know how many tools my z31 has eaten - sockets screwdriveres wrenches along with many screws and bolts - i dont know where this **** goes - the L6 Zs dont like to eat tools but that ****** vg30et POS gobbels them
70 yay!
77 parts
81 compressed parts
86 compressed it handles
00 mercury cougar omg wtf : \ girl has to have something to drive
- owned
74.5 why did i sell you
81 1st car $425 found out s130s dont handle stock
82 good
84 BMW 325e omg never again
A:
Hah try a VG30DETT.
Currently parting out 1990 300zx TT.
A:
once i found a calculator under the hood of a ford escort gt. that was best thing that car ever gave!
76 280 all stock exept full bushings,qwuik knuckles,tokico struts&springs,3-2 header,k&n cai,msa sway bars,konig rewinds with toyo proxis ra1.
78 rust bucket. (4 sale!)
2000 v-dub mk4 jetta vr6
2005 titan 4x4 with nismo cai,banks exhus
A:
I guess it all adds up now zwilliams!!! haha
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12.804 @ 107.26 mph on crappy street tires with Dual SU Powered 2.9L Stroker!
ZCAR.COM member since Aug 1998
A:
The first car I ever bought, a used 1989 Nissan Sentra in 1997, gave me a MAC 3/8" wratcheting driver sitting in a nook of the intake plenum. It was covered with debris and dirt, but it cleaned up nice. Still have it!
-- Next Up: SCCA ITR 300ZX --
A:
from the bottom of the wife's ZX when I tore down the engine this past spring that's been sitting there for gosh knows how long before I got ahold of it. Thing still looked like new. Little scary IMO.
Dave
12/70 240Z, L-28, flat-tops, N-42 head, N-33 intake, MSA 10-2002 cam, ZX ignition, early 5-speed, R-180,4:11 gears, 903 Blue paint.
A:
On the other hand, when I had to pull the crank pulley off to replace it I was prying against the timing chain cover and punched a hole in it and a 3/4" fragment when into the front portion of the oil pan. Luckily I had one of the extended reach claws with the plunger on the handle of it to reach in and grab hold of my little chunk of aluminum and extract it. I was a very happy camper afterwards.
Dave
12/70 240Z, L-28, flat-tops, N-42 head, N-33 intake, MSA 10-2002 cam, ZX ignition, early 5-speed, R-180,4:11 gears, 903 Blue paint.
A:
Sometimes a really long set of fishing pliers will get the job done as well. One of the big tool companies aught to make something similar Im sure.
"I reject your reality and substitute my own"
Please check out Thanks!
"You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant, excepting Alice"