Heavy hand

 I got my first car when I was 17 – an H-reg Ford Cortina Mk2 1.6. I loved that car, but when it had done about 67,000 miles it started throwing oil all over the engine bay, so I decided to carry out a short engine rebuild.

I removed the engine and stripped it down. I had the block rebored and the crankshaft reground, and I rebuilt the engine with new pistons and new crankshaft bearings. I had never done anything like this before and with limited tools didn’t realise the importance of using a torque wrench.

Now came the moment of truth. I switched on the ignition; the engine didn’t turn. I did a few checks but the one thing I didn’t do was to try turning the engine over by hand. Instead, I got my dad to tow me with his Ford Zephyr 6 Mk3. At about 20mph I let the clutch up. The back wheels locked solid. I got towed back to my lock-up and gradually realised I must have tightened the bearings too much.

I drained the oil, dropped the sump and slackened the bolts securing the crankshaft bearings and big ends. I still didn’t use a torque wrench but I didn’t tighten the bolts as much. The engine ran great after that. About five years later I transferred it to another Cortina while standing on the inner wings with a rope round my neck in a foot of snow – but that’s another story.

What I learned from this was – don’t torque too much!