Your biggest DIY screwups

christian370z

You guys have some epic DIY screwups! I have two mistakes of my own and both were with my 1996 Saab 900se.

The first time, I was swapping my turbo for the first time to a slightly larger OEM turbo from a later generation. At the time, I was working at a performance shop in Stamford CT so I was able to use the lifts and tools after hours. The guy I worked with was the top Ferrari USA mechanic for 3 years at the time, and he agreed to help me out. We got the old turbo out and got the new one in, but there is one banjo bolt for the oil inlet that was sandwiched in between the exhaust manifold flange and the turbo's housing which made it nearly impossible to tighten properly.

I went to start the car up for the first time and all I see is a huge spurt of oil and the Ferrari tech motioning frantically to cut the engine. Well, I didn't do a good job of tightening that banjo bolt down and within a matter of seconds, drained 3/4 of my oil. No harm done, but the car smelled of burning oil for the next few weeks.


The second screw up was when I did the big leap to a GT28 turbo, 550cc injectors and a new tune. I did the turbo swap just fine and the ECU was a breeze to remove and replace (done it sooo many times). I did not know how to install injectors at the time, so one of my Saab friends who has had dozens of Saabs helped me out. Everything went well, and a short test drive went well too. However, on the 60 mile drive home, I started smelling gas. I kept driving a bit and pulled over at a rest stop. I popped the hood and there was gasoline literally bubbling out of injector number 4 between the intake manifold and the injector. I waited for the car to cool off a bit and (rather stupidly) decided to see if I could make it home. I did, but by that point the leak was much much worse and the garage wreaked of gas. My parents were not happy. It was towed to the local Saab dealer and it turned out the bottom o-ring was not seated correctly.

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