DANGER!!! Warning to anyone with gas tank mounted higher than carburetor!!!

The fuel outlet is in the bottom of the tank.---It wouldn't have made any difference---even if it came out of the top, the siphon effect would have kept the gasoline running, because the tank is higher than the carburetor.

 

C9X---There is no room. AT ALL--- However, I'm sure that the electric solenoid valve that I installed has solved my problem.---Brian

 

If this ever happens to you, be VERY CAREFUL how you get the fuel out of the bores.
Taking the plugs out & cranking the motor will get the fuel out but it will also make a big cloud with a pretty good fuel / air mixture (especially indoors).
A spark from a loose plug lead or a heater in your workshop and KABOOM!
Might be an idea to cover the plug holes with rag or similar.

 

UK Comet has explained how a military fuel/air bomb works quite well.

I've read that the vapors from a tables**** of evaporated gasoline that are hanging in the ba*****t are enough to blow a small house off the foundation if they ignite.

 

fordnutz, any idea what application or part number that is ? I'm running a stock style T oval tank from Macs.

 

A stock 29 RPU had a fuel shut off under the tank, mine has one and I use it. In the old days the stock carbs would leak and this was hard on asphalt drive ways. Every once in a while you would see an "A" with a can hanging from a wire to catch the gas.

 

Back in the 60s I had a '53 Stude coupe with SBC. Friend loaned me a Corvette mechanical Rochester fuel injection unit he had bought, wanted me to run it awhile and see how it performed, and of course I was happy to oblige!
One fine day I climbd in, turned the key and hit the starter ****on. Engine started to turn over, then stopped. Hit the ****on again and it bumped past the hangup and started with the damndest knocking I had ever heard.
When I tore that 283 down, it had 2 rods bent so badly that the piston skirts were hitting the crank counterweights! Hydraulic lock from gas getting in 2 cylinders.
Seems that the year following the manufacture of the unit I had, Chev had installed an anti siphon valve in the unit as under certain cir***stances, if the engine stopped at a certain point in it's rotation, it could siphon gas out of the float bowl that these early units had and it would run down thru an open intake valve in sufficient quan***y to cause a hydraulic lock.
My roadster is gonna have the tank in the trunk, so I think I will investigate the system you used, or at least a manual shutoff for when parked nose down.
Dave

 

I am pleased to announce that I just started the roadster pickup!!! No explosions, no fires, no heart attacks!!! It rattled for about 2 seconds untill it came up to full oil pressure, then all was well. Good oilpressure, smooth idle, no flooding, same as its always ran. I let it idle for about 15 or 20 minutes untill the engine come up to temperature and the electric fan kicked on, to boil any gasoline residue out of the exhaust system and crank case. (I had changed the oil and drained the filter). all seems to be well. HALLELUJAH!!!!

 

We're pleased as well.

Good on ya.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Right up front I want to say that I'd be running through a couple of short term oil changes same as you plan to do.
(Had to do 3-4 in short order to get the water/coolant out of an engine a while back.)

But . . . here's an interesting little story that was in the Kit Carson P-51 fighter book.

He, like all military fighter pilots got to the point where they more or less turned him loose on the world with a fighter pilots wings and a government issue P-40.

The world was a lot looser then than todays jet jockeys who are electronically monitored and video-taped on most flights.

Anyway, he flew the P-40 into an airfield in one of the northern states, Idaho I think it may have been.
Part of the shut-down process was to flood the crankcase with gasoline to thin the oil down for an easier start next morning.
A fairly common procedure done in winter-time.

After startup and a good warm-up the gas was deemed to have been evaporated off and the now gas-less oil would have the proper lubricating qualities.

I don't know, but the Allison engine could have been set-up to handle excessive gas in the crankcase far as explosions go and maintenance in airplanes being a fairly often done deal, there probably wasn't too much of a worry there.

As the saying goes, "Kids, don't try this at home."

I always thought it was an interesting story.


One other comment he made in the book was that if the US entered another war, he'd try to get the kids at the dragstrip into the air force.

His thinking was, if they could do the things they did with cars, airplanes would be no big deal....

 

C9--Many of the early fighter planes used castor oil as a lubricant. For some reason it was superior to any petroleum based lubricant. The only problem with it, was that when it had been ran in a hot engine, then allowed to cool, it would turn into a jelly like substance that would completely clog the lubrication system of the engine and ruin it. As a consequence, the engines had to be completely drained of oil as soon as they came in, then refilled with new castor oil before the next flight.---I don't know if that bit of trivia is from world war one or two, but I do remember reading about it.---Brian

 

A lot of motorcycles use a vacuum operated pet**** rather than a manual one. There is a diaphragm in the pet**** that normally closes off the gas, and a vacuum tube that runs from a chamber at the back of the diaphragm to the intake manifold. When there's vacuum in the manifold, the diaphragm is pulled back, opening the fuel flow. When there's no vacuum, the fuel is off.

Might not be all that hard to do something like that on an RPU. Doesn't really matter exactly where the fuel flow is cut off as long as it's before the fuel reaches the float bowl(s), right?

 

When we ran castor oil in a compe***ion motorcycle we drained the castor and filtered it while still warm and reused it. I don't remember that it thickened very much. I do remember that it had to have an additive to stay suspended for use in a premix 2 stroke engine.

 

I just did a web search trying to get a bit more information on the castor oil thing, but I couldn't find anything to confirm what I remember reading. Of course, in 62 years I've read so damn many books---I may have remembered it wrong, or it may have been disinformation in the book. I think it was in one of those old world war 2 cl***ics by Neville Schutte, about a British flier.

 

I would guess that the Castor oil bit, clogging when cool etc. was from WW1.

The world was learning - and rapidly about oils and the like so you did what you had to do.


My 56 BSA Alloy Clipper with 500cc B44 engine ran castor oil when I got it.

I did several changes with castor oil and then went to a 50 wt motor oil, probably Valvoline.

No thickening problems, but . . . this was in Sunny California where you could ride in a T-shirt on more than a few winter days.
The lows were probably in the mid-high 50's F at those times.
And up to 100 * F during the day, not too far from the beach.
Maybe a half mile or so.

The Santana winds were the problem and when they were in during December we'd hit the beach for some body surfing.
The water was cold, no wet suits at the time so we didn't have a clue as to how poor/tough we were.

We just did it.



I've done a couple stories about the ol Beezer.

I'll put one up in a few minutes.