I thought re-installing the lower runners was bad before... Re-installing valve springs, retainers, and keepers is now the top for me. I'd rather do the timing belt again (which I will).

Those tiny little keepers are a pain, especially when one falls on the ground and you can't find it for 10 minutes.

What about you?

I drove to the grocery store with a live cougar in the passenger seat to try to overcome my fears. Epic Fail

Pushing it across 5 lanes of oncoming traffic when the fuel pump died during rush hour.

Lapping all 16 valves by hand because I couldn't get the stupid suction cup tool to work, nor could I get a drill on the other end of the stem to them that way. I spun every single on of those bitches with my fingers. Did I mention that I did this yesterday? my fingers and thumbs feel like I just played a marathon game of Street Fighter 2 on the SNES.

causing a front pump to fail on an auto trans (a604) by installing the torque converter incorrectly -> trans failure

Originally posted by RoninEclipse2G
Lapping all 16 valves by hand because I couldn't get the stupid suction cup tool to work, nor could I get a drill on the other end of the stem to them that way. I spun every single on of those bitches with my fingers. Did I mention that I did this yesterday? my fingers and thumbs feel like I just played a marathon game of Street Fighter 2 on the SNES.

Ouch!!! I let the machine shop do that for me.

You have reminded me to start finding more games for my SNES.

First time I dropped in an engine (I bought from some guy stationed at camp pendelton), turned it on, to find the water pump is dead and leaking over the garage. Had to change timing belt change again. got a new water pump and did the timing belt, took her around the block, got rod knock in about a mile. I hope Karma gets the guy who sold me that engine, before I do

Nothing physical is all that stressful. Its finding that damn, unfindable problem that bites.

Mine would have to be troubleshooting the breakdown of the resistor box which, in turn, partially broke down my coils, to give me that "unfindable" break-up when rev'ing in the NA.

Originally posted by bullettdsm
Its finding that damn, unfindable problem that bites.

YOU CAN FREAKN SAY THAT AGAIN

Originally posted by 95_ESi_Person

Originally posted by RoninEclipse2G Lapping all 16 valves by hand because I couldn't get the stupid suction cup tool to work, nor could I get a drill on the other end of the stem to them that way. I spun every single on of those bitches with my fingers. Did I mention that I did this yesterday? my fingers and thumbs feel like I just played a marathon game of Street Fighter 2 on the SNES.

Ouch!!! I let the machine shop do that for me. You have reminded me to start finding more games for my SNES.

Machine shops cost money, which I don't have, and I only trust them to do things that I absolutely have no ability to do (like boring cylinders or machining the head)

As far as the SNES goes, I just use an emulator program and a USB controller adapter to my playstation controllers

Damnit. Now I'm worried about my valve job I'm about to do. At least other people have done it. Mine, so far, would DEFINITELY be the UDP marathon I did. Pulled one, to find out my UDP wouldn't work, to put the other one back on, to find out it was bent, to go to a junkyard and put a new one on to find out it was bent, to put on another final one, to find out my crank threads were stripped. Freakin' wonderful.

Now my valves and hg will probably supersede that. Oh well.

Oh, another most stressful.... worries about a motor blowing. Still haven't eradicated all of those. Most stressful on any car period was when the wiring kept burning out at 500 dollars a pop in my Volkswagen.

^Hooray for Playstation!

Mine will probably be coming up, with a MSnS install...

Currently, probably my ECU dying, shutting my car off and the most inopportune of moments, usually when Im at a red light and it turns green.

{red} potato-potato-potato-potato(Crower cams idleing).....STALL {green} MOTHERFUCKER!!!

Purchasing it.

Driving it 300 miles to the SO and back.

Lateral control arm bushing... God damn..

My alternator belt flew off and got caught between the crank sprocket and the timing belt. I didn't have the plastic timing belt shield installed. The timing was thrown off a LOT. Bent my 1mm oversize valves, nicked the pistons real good, but the lifters, rockers, connecting rods, and stock camshafts survived. Fixing that mistake cost me about $1000 in parts/machine shop work and about 20 hours of my labor.

Originally posted by ner947
My alternator belt flew off and got caught between the crank sprocket and the timing belt. I didn't have the plastic timing belt shield installed. The timing was thrown off a LOT. Bent my 1mm oversize valves, nicked the pistons real good, but the lifters, rockers, connecting rods, and stock camshafts survived. Fixing that mistake cost me about $1000 in parts/machine shop work and about 20 hours of my labor.

Oh good, I'm not the only one.

Oh wait, bullet had this issue too.

Originally posted by RoninEclipse2G

Originally posted by ner947 My alternator belt flew off and got caught between the crank sprocket and the timing belt. I didn't have the plastic timing belt shield installed. The timing was thrown off a LOT. Bent my 1mm oversize valves, nicked the pistons real good, but the lifters, rockers, connecting rods, and stock camshafts survived. Fixing that mistake cost me about $1000 in parts/machine shop work and about 20 hours of my labor.

Oh good, I'm not the only one. Oh wait, bullet had this issue too.

Go ahead, tease the lion.......

Originally posted by bullettdsm

Originally posted by RoninEclipse2G

Originally posted by ner947 My alternator belt flew off and got caught between the crank sprocket and the timing belt. I didn't have the plastic timing belt shield installed. The timing was thrown off a LOT. Bent my 1mm oversize valves, nicked the pistons real good, but the lifters, rockers, connecting rods, and stock camshafts survived. Fixing that mistake cost me about $1000 in parts/machine shop work and about 20 hours of my labor.

Oh good, I'm not the only one. Oh wait, bullet had this issue too.

Go ahead, tease the lion.......

*Poke poke* :7

It used to be that pulling that goddamned passenger side motor mount was the most stressful part of any project on the 2GNT. Once I figured out the trick to removing it, everything else was a snap.

Well, aside from replacing the alternator with the engine in the car. What a PITA. Which reminds me, CODE4, are you still running that alternator I put in your car while you were in basic? :wary

I had a run of seven plus stressful months back when I was waiting on my pistons from ERT. Daisy was sitting in run4cvr's mom's side yard and she was getting pissed. Everyone was pissed. When I finally got the pistons, seven months after ordering them, I drove the car 3 days before the clutch came loose and ate a hole in the transmission. The following weekend, we patched up the trans and the car made it 3 days before the input shaft bearing scattered inside the trans.

On the lighter side, I did manage to make a single tank of gas last about 8 months that year.

You are damn right that alternator is now on the 2.4L motor :p

I remember my ex (who had the RS while I was in boot camp) went through 2 or 3 alternators thinking they were the culprit of low operating voltage back in 2005. Later discovered to be that internal voltage regulator built into the ECU, that spawned the install of the Dodge Omni ext. VR.

Anyway, that last alternator that was installed by you, Brian, was a genuine Mitsu part and has worked well since then.

Doing the headgasket, that I'm doing now. And everything that goes with it.

One year, after bending a few valves and getting the fixed head back only one week before the shootout, I decided to try and fix the car at night as much as I could during the week but did not get very far (first time doing it, not too easy either), then on friday instead of driving to the shootout I spent all day and night working on the car, finished in the early morning and test drove it at about 6AM saturday morning a grand total of 6 miles and said "ok that's good," then drove out to the shootout that saturday, about 11 hours, with no sleep, gripping the steering wheel saying "don't break, don't break...."

Raced the car on sunday, drove back monday, and everything was fine with the car. Won't do that again.

Replacing a steering rack.