Dumb things that you did.......because you didn't know any better.

Back in the late '70's I drove a $100 rust free '61 Ford falcon from AZ to WA. The day before I left it got a hole in a piston, so backed off the valves until it would run on 5. Still smoked pretty bad, so I bought a case of 50w (24 qts in a case back then) and headed out the next day. At 50mi to the qt it left a huge trail of blue smoke, had to buy more oil to make it all the way home. When I got back I pulled it into my dad's garage and tore the in-line 6 down for a new piston/rings. Installed the new piston and went to fire it up, but it locked up solid. I had bought a piston for the 144 that I thought it was, turns out it was a 170 and the new piston was hitting the head. Not wanting to spend any more money on that engine, I pulled the head, taped off and sealed what I could, then made myself a pop-up piston using an angle grinder with the piston still in the block! Car seemed to run just fine for a couple more months until I had the sbc ready to install.

Grant