Looking for more pep off the line

Dale Davies said
Years ago a friend had a back yard mechanic do a carb kit and tuneup on his 62 Pontiac. Smoked like crazy when he picked it up. The guy would do nothing. I was still in high school but a gear head. Pulled the plugs and found one with oil on it. Removed the head and found the imprint of a carb mount nut in the piston. Cast piston crown had a crack in it letting oil into the cylinder. Pulled the oil pan and that piston/rod assembly. Got a new replacement piston installed and new rings for that cylinder. Got the engine machine shop to check the valve seal in that cylinder and it was good. Put it back together with a slight deglaze and he drove it gor years.

My Dad had a similar experience, only it was he who dropped a machine screw down the carb of his 440. Not a big one, maybe half an inch long. Instead of pulling the carb and fishing it out, he ran the motor thinking the screw would blow out the exhaust. It didn't. I don't remember how we determined it was still in the motor or what side it was in, but I pulled one head and there it was, lightly embedded in a piston. Thank goodness he didn't run it long. Pulled out the screw, leaving an impression of a screw head and threads in the (stock cast) piston. Put it back together and drove it for several years like that.

He wasn't so lucky when he dropped an exhaust valve in his Hemi then drove it for five miles to get home. That did some real damage. (Hint: not a good idea to run 87 octane gas in a 12.5 to one Hemi.)