some people should not be allowed to touch engines

[rq375]

I lost a stock 350 I assembled for a 71 GMC 4x4 because when the shop rebuilt the heads they used PC seals on tapered guides, the seals expanded enough that the spring damper held them down and chewed through the steel bands in short order, well known local shop told me I should have inspected their work and brought the heads back before running the engine... they were right.

[fastback69]

My first car was a 69 sportsroof mustang with a 302. The previous owners had changed the spark plug wires into some pattern that Ford never used. We had to pull the distributor, set the engine to TDC #1, then drop the distributor and plug everything up like it was supposed to be. Simple fix. A few months later, the timing chain jumped some teeth and I barely got the car home from auto shop class. That explained why the firing order was messed up. Instead of fixing the distributor, they just moved the wires around until the car ran. We took the engine apart to fix the chain and found one of the exhaust ports had part of the seat completely ground away. You could see light through the hole. So two new cylinder heads, a new cam, and a new Performer 289 intake later, I was back on the road.

One of the guys in my AF squadron bought a 64 Malibu convertible (we tried to talk him out of an old car since he didn't know anything about them) that the owner said was "all original and didn't have any bondo in the body". Both statements were false. The engine was a run-of-the-mill 350 instead of a 327. Every fastener was over torqued and it was full of coked up oil. Each pushrod had a 1/2" thick tube of carbon around it that went from the valley to the head and the rocker boxes were full of it. The head gaskets were on wrong which must have caused it to overheat so someone took out the thermostat to solve the issue. He ended up selling it to his brother and buying a newer car that he (we) didn't have to work on.

Side note: I've been lurking (learning) for a while. Thanks for sharing the knowledge, wisdom, and experience.

[peejay]

351C-4V that someone put one side headgasket on backwards. The guy drove it like that for years, long enough that the head bolts were internally rusted to the heads. The temp gauge only showed that it was running hot but not pegged, because all the water flow was coming from the side that wasn't installed wrong. Shut it off after driving and the engine would percolate for minutes.

Not that it mattered much, whatever bonehead changed the water pump (breaking off three-four bolts in the process) used so much Regulation Blue Silicone(tm) that the water passage to that side of the engine was almost completely blocked.

Assuming the water pump was changed to solve the running hot issue, the bonehead then removed the thermostat. On a 351C.

That one was a fun one to diagnose, because everything was wrong, and every time I dug a little deeper I said "A-HA! This is what is causing the problem!" And then the problem was still there.

[psychomotors]

I lost a stock 350 I assembled for a 71 GMC 4x4 because when the shop rebuilt the heads they used PC seals on tapered guides, the seals expanded enough that the spring damper held them down and chewed through the steel bands in short order, well known local shop told me I should have inspected their work and brought the heads back before running the engine... they were right.

My story is similar. Back around 90 or so, I came across an old pair of 461s from a guy for cheap. I took them to a respected machine shop to have them gone through. Told the guy that he could replace/ fix anything because I was gonna put it on a credit card anyways. Told him the cam I was gonna use ( Crane HMV with .454/.480 lift ) . I got them back an installed them and headed to a major car show a couple weeks later. I'm racing a guy down the road and we are having some fun when I hear a ticking sound , but being young and dumb, I stay in it. Turns out that I had broken an exhaust spring that ended up dropping a valve ,broke the piston , broke and bent several pushrods, broke the cam in 4 pieces, tore out half the cylinder wall and in general ruined everything but the intake. Now, I know it was my fault for not stopping (again -young and dumb) I talk to the machine shop guy and ask why he didn't replace the rust pitted springs? He says the springs were fine and I was running to large a cam and that's why I broke the spring. Live and learn.