It sucks in a major way that someone's engine got destroyed due to a careless mistake. I've been wrenching professionally for more than 32 years now and have caused some damage and worked hard to learn from my mistakes and of those around me. I have worked at many different shops along the way and my co-workers have run the gamut from mouth breathers that shouldn't have ever been near anywhere anything mechanical, to dedicated type A professionals. I have NEVER HEARD of putting spark plugs in a carb before reading about it in this thread, no less having it advocated as a good practice. Frankly, it is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard of. Sounds more like Russian Roulette than anything. I've successful by NOT setting myself up to fail.