Here’s an oldie but a goodie.
Before I could get an A in senior auto shop in school I was required to build an actual engine for someone who wasn’t me. There were 6 of us that had to do it. The bottom feeders in the class didn’t have to do it.
So I hooked up with a friends brother to do his 318. We had a whole list of **** we had to do to pass and that included all ring gaps, all bearing clearances, deck heights…all that.
I got the crank in, degreed the cam and didn’t measure the rod throws before hand so I said “this junk was all machined so it’ll be fine” and sent it.
I get 5-6 pistons in and I can hear a clunking as I’m turning it over. I’m thinking WTF is hit what. Didn’t see ****.
So the teacher strolls over and looks at my paperwork. He says how much rod bearing clearance do you have? I see .0025 for the mains.
Like a dickhead, I lied and said .0025 just like the mains I just didn’t write it down yet.
He looks at me funny and walks over to the garbage can, pulls out the box the rod bearings came in and said “measure it again, get it right and then head to the office”.
So I took all the junk back apart, torqued the rods back up and started checking them. Instead of the .0025 I should have had, I had .0125!
Now I’m triple pissed because the guy I paid the size the rods dicked me. I’m running around like a chicken without a head and the teacher comes over and says I didn’t take that box out of the garbage for no reason.
I’m looking at it and is says .010 under right on the box. I’m thinking WTF I’m in trouble for lying and I have no clue what’s wrong.
After about 20 minutes of nonsense from the rest of the class I decided to pull the bearings and measure them to see if they were screwed up.
Of course, I looked at the back of the bearing and it said .020 under on them. All the bearings were .020 under and every box said .010 under on them.
Hard lesson learned that day. You can’t measure enough. If it can be measured it should be measured.
My punishment for lying was I had to wash all his cars. I did 6 of them before I figured out only two were his. The other 4 belonged to other teachers.
I still got my A though.