These should make you feel even better then.
I've done the old oil filter gasket left behind trick too. So did a mate, just before a schoolies road trip, but he assed it and it didn't fail until we were on the freeway into the trip. Stopped and got an NRMA tow back to the nearest place of civilisation but too late (at night) for it to be fixed and too late to find any accommodation (and no spare money anyway) so we (4 of us) spent the night on a railway station. It actually turned out to be a bit of an adventure and we still talk about it, so all good.
I've also left the sump plug out before starting to pour the fresh oil in. Fortunately the drain tray was still underneath and I realised before wasting the whole lot.
One I had a peripheral role in (and it's a bit of a saga): a mate decided to add a spacer plate beneath his carb. before we went cruising one night; remove the carb., carefully place a rag in the manifold to prevent anything falling in and go look for longer bolts or studs to suit the spacer. Have a bit of a chat as the carb. goes back on and then start the car. There's a Crack!, and the engine stalls. Oh ****! Yep, left the rag in the manifold. OK, carb. back off to dig the rag out. No go, it's sucked into the cylinder head, so the manifold (V8) and head needs to come off. No problem except that we need the gaskets.
My mate has spares but they are located at his cousin's place. Jump into my ****box and head off. Part way there the head gasket lets go and the car stops. We get out to have a look and I see another car go past and stop up the road a bit. Turns out to be my mate's sister so we get a lift to pick up the gaskets.
Get back to mate's car, manifold off, head off and find the rag sucked into the inlet valve and out the exhaust; no way that was coming out without disassembly. Blue the valve seats to check if a valve is bent and back together again. Then we had to collect the dead car with the blown head gasket, which we got started again after it had sat for a while. And we still went cruising.
Another one which I was reminded of recently was another mate and I were running Top End Cleaner through an engine. For those who haven't done this, it involves drawing the cleaning fluid into the engine using a vacuum source from the engine, with one person raising the engine revs, the other controlling the rate at which the fluid is drawn in by moving the vacuum hose in and out of the fluid. A misunderstanding between my mate and I resulted in sufficient fluid being drawn in to cause the motor to hydraulic lock and bend a rod.
