I've always enjoyed taking things apart then putting them back together. Started in grade school with bicycles. Dad taught me how to fix a flat, grease my chain, simple stuff.

What happens if you forget to tighten the front wheel bolts when you're 10 years old? Peddle hard down the street and oh shit going over the bars! We didn't wear no stinking helmets, we were taught when you crash hold your head up to keep it from bouncing off the pavement.

At 14 I had a Suzuki 125. It starts to get fun now. While at Indian Dunes off the 126 I took the carb apart to do something. Gas pools up on the top of the engine, I'm thinking if I simply run it the gas will evaporate faster while I'm moving. Can you guess what happens next? Yep, backfire once & flames coming up the side of my legs almost to my face, step off and watch it burn for about 30 minutes. Nothing left 

At 17 I have my Baja Bug  Decide to put in a set of VW Bus gears in for off roading. There's a ring & pinion gear that drives the wheels. This thing is big, I didn't know it would go in backwards until I got it all back together, put it in reverse to back out the garage and it lurches forward. What the hell? Put it in 1st and it goes backwards, so I take it in the street and run through the gears going backwards before starting over.

What did you learn?

Used a compression tester on a $3,500 engine I had shipped from Japan for a Honda Prelude I was building up to sale back in my college days (I also had a stroked Camaro so no I was not a ricer). That tester had an adaptor to fit the head thread size and I didn't notice when I unscrewed the hose that the adaptor was left in the cylinder still tight. Engine had tested beautifully with 180 across the board if I can remember correctly. I put all the plugs back in and the adaptor caused the one spark plug to break off into my cylinder as I synched it down not realizing I was tightening (stripping) it into an adaptor. I started the engine and immediately realized there was a misfire/valve issue due to Subaru like exhaust note and rough running. I started to retest compression when I realized the adaptor was not on the hose, my heart sank once I pulled the spark plug up to see that pieces had broke off. I pulled the head and sure enough, cylinder walls were heavily scored, top of piston was pitted, head was pitted and valves were damaged at that cylinder.. Expensive lesson learned and I am not extra cautious when performing compression tests.... Another lesson learned in dunes was going miles out on dirtbike with an old chain and no spare link. I was pretty close to death by the time my friend and I got it back to camp, few years later the same thing happened to me only with a bad clutch.. Almost died of heat exhaustion/fatigue then too.

No tow rope no problem have a guy ride behind you with his foot pushed on your exhaust and if there's a couple people switch off cause that leg gets real sore holding it up. We pushed a buddy from superstition to ocotillo cause the nut on the front sprocket backed out. 


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Trust your Instincts and feel and not always a torque wrench. I was tightening the second head stud and it felt to hard and I thought I should stop but the wrench never clicked and then snap. Broke the stud flush with the block. Tried to dig it out but it was unless. I had to swap everything to a new block and the old block sits out back as a reminder. I found that that wrench would only click if you switched it to left then back to right every time. The tool truck took care of the wrench but not my time and the block.

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My first really good fail... I grew up around muscle cars my pops restored mopars and drag raced when I was growing up and still does,  but my first car at 16 was a slammed 70 bug with dual Weber 1835 in it..  So I started as a vw freak..  When I was 19 I bought a 70 340 4speed dart from my pops and that was my first muscle car build. Did all the body work ,engine ,and everything I could do on my own.  So I couldn't afford a 340 and I got a good deal on a complete rebuildable 318, I picked all my parts had the machine work done and assembled it myself..  At the last minute I decided I needed this big ugly purpleshaft cam in my life, so it went in. Hydraulic of course..  Roll the engine around no coil bind so let's button it up..  Get the car done fire it sounds bitchin..  Runs good for about 20 miles, then starts to miss. Pull valve covers and several pushrods have punctured rocker arms,  replace them and runs good for a few days then drops a cylinder again and is rattling like crazy, pull covers again and an intake valve stem broke at the locks and was bouncing up and down off the piston.  Pull the head throw a valve at it..  Ran good again for about a week..  Then one afternoon I decide I need some 5500 rpm clutch side stepping in my life!!  Let it go bang second gear and boom!!!  All hell breaks loose engine locks up and the car slides to a stop in the middle of the street!!  Broke the valve again sucked it all the way down and Swiss cheesed the piston the head and anything else it found on it's way, block was junk head was junk had maybe a 100 miles on it!!  Lesson I learned??  When your pops tells you that big ugly cam your in love with won't work with your valve train setup,, and I did it anyways!!  Lol.  When it was all said and done he told me "I told you it was gonna have coil bind" !! Lmfao yup pops you were correct!!! Lesson learned have your shit setup for the parts you intend on using..don't assume it will be OK..

your friendly local v-drive owner

Hahahaha, well said Sir"


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Ran a weed wacker in shorts and flip flops


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I got married lol

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