rebuild top end after valve hit, stay up till 1:00am to get running for next day event, disconnect coils to prime oil,
Get oil pressure and smell gas, must be due to disconnected ignition during cranking, reconnect ignition, turn key and set engine on fire due to loose fuel line pumping 50psi.
Turn off key get fire extinguisher and put out fire before car burns to ground.
Clean out pants,
Spend next two weeks cleaning shop from extinguisher chemical,
tighten fuel line check engine then start, hear terrible knock,
clean pants once again
then pull valve covers and find rocker came loose. Re-adjust valves, start engine and go whoo hoo.
Then go shopping for new pants. Pretty sure there was a damnit it there someplace.

Haha, that's a good one.
Those loose rocket shafts will freak any veteran out!

Things...........
 

I was using my pressure washer recently (gas powered), but when I went to turn it off, I leaned over the PW to reach the on/off switch and put my left palm down on top of the muffler housing! Yeooooo! I was working in my shop at the time and had no burn meds handy. I remembered reading that WD40 would relieve the pain of a burn so I grabbed a can and sprayed my palm with it. Amazingly, it relieved most of the burn pain! Even so, I still have the head of a Phillips head screw "branded" in my left palm!

Replaced a cambelt on my wife's car some years ago. Put everything back, but battled with the belt cover so referred to a Haynes manual. Got a fright when I realised that I had the camgears aligned incorrectly, so undid everything and re-fitted the belt and covers. Car wouldn't start. Went through the whole removal, alignment, replacement process for the cambelt 8 times without success before I realised the Haynes manual was wrong. Could do a cambelt with eyes closed after that.,..

Built a performance stroker engine for an early 70's Mini. Engine kept overheating, despite everything checking out. Realised after a couple of complete re-assemblys of the engine that the engineering shop had managed to block off one of the water passages resulting in coolant not circulating at all.

Mini, episode 2 of many:

The (mechanical) fuel pump sits right under the exhaust manifold, and will only fail when the manifold is hot as all hell.

Mini, episode 3 (and I'll stop here):

The cooling fan is directional, and if fitted the wrong way around will result in hours of trying to figure out why the engine is overheating. If previously a blocked water passage (see post #45) was to blame for the same problem, you may even find yourself tearing down an engine...

Did that exact thing 8 years ago......my palm is STILL tender.....:mad:

When doing the first oil change on the '87 911, I filled the car with oil, dropped it off jackstands and started it to allow it to warm up. While waiting I clean the drain pan and find the brass washer for the drain plug. Turn off engine, lift the drivers side, allow the engine and oil to cool and then remove drain plug and reinstall with the washer in place. It never works as well as you mentally practice the move. YMMV

Finish installing the intake manifold, then discover the top gaskets are still in the bag...
Back wheels on the front, fronts on the back, run group about to go out...
Too many more to remenber...
Dammit.

Miata head gasket looks the same if mounted correctly or flipped except for one rather crucial oil passage.
Miata head wouldnt fit tightly onto the block. Perhaps the dowel pin in the head and in the same location of the block are not permitting a good fit???

Closing the door on my thumb, now that's a damn it!
Installed a new banana arm that I bought online , used, installed it, only to realize it's for a different year when I tried to connect the shock. Damn it!
Installed a new clutch, did not realize that the ring gear was not flat, installed engine, etc. Pressed clutch in about 20 times an pop goes the TO bearing off the PP. Damn it!
Installed new cams, of course I installed one 180 out but did not realize until after I fired the car. Ran pretty good on three cyl. Damn it!

Installed new stereo, speakers and wiring. Driver side door speaker suddenly quit. Checked speaker with another piece of speaker wire and it worked. Must be a break in the wire. Hooked up multimeter to do continuity test. No signal to door speaker. Go to pull new wire using old to pull the new through and the splice comes apart in the middle of the door and the jam. Get old wire out. Realize after the fact that I hooked up multimeter to the passenger side speaker at the stereo and the driver side door speaker. Dammit!

Take Sugar Scoop off to redo gasket...

Just as it's coming off, sneeze from allergies, jarring my hand and scratched the paint with the scoop...

I had the engine removed from the car last year. I was in a rush to reinstall as I had to get the car out of the garage and:

(1) dropped a small socket into the heat exchanger; and

(2) dropped a tiny nut down the crankcase opening.

The nut was found but the socket is still in the heat exchanger with no ill effects. Luckily, I have a set of SSIs that I plan on installing next winter....

Pulled front brakes apart to re-seal the driver side caliper (on my 328i, not the P-car).

Put it all back together fine but managed installed the outer brake pad backwards (pad facing out). Take it for a test drive, stomping in brakes hard to make sure they work....scrape!!! Now I have two nice gouges in my rotor where the pad rivets did their best.

D'oh!!

Took the BMW in for annual inspection yesterday....

In order to pass, it needs new rear springs and new rotors at all four corners.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/wat5.gif

Replacing the rear springs is, by the book, a 6 hour job. $$$$$

I'll do the brakes myself but the parts are still pricey.

How did they determine that new rotors are needed? Visual or did they actually put calipers on them?

Driving to work, years ago, in my '68 912 SWT. Go to depress the clutch pedal and it goes to the floor. No clutch! "Must be a broken cable". Order one and the next weekend go to a buddy's shop to use the lift. Cable is fine. Must be something internal. Drop the engine. Everything's just fine. Find that the pin holding the clutch pedal had sheared, causing the pedal to rotate on the cluster shaft. My buddy smiles and tell me "you have to air-out those air-cooled engines every once in a while".
Took the opportunity to clean the oil cooler and tidy things up.
5 minute job- 3 hours.
Tony

If this question had been asked in the 944 forum, there would be no responses. We would have all slit our wrists already.