Fire extinguisher shot down a carb ?

I lent a friend of mine my my van and he played with the timing-with the ensuing carb fire he blasted a fire extinquisher down it. the carb is ugly- a gluee mess. I have taken it off and s****ed /va***ed as much extinguisher powder as possible from the manifold, and had a spare edelbrock 600 to drop on, just wondering if the fire extinguisher powder that is left will be harmful to the motor if it gets washed through or not?
thanks, pat

 

If the van is back running, then don't worry about the internals. The powder can do some minor corrosion on anything else it is left on.

 

That **** will stain stainless. I learned that the hard way.

 

exspensive but i highly recomend getting a halon/halotron extinguisher just for these reasons. About half the cost is a c02. Clean agents are the way to go with cars/motors.

 

Hey Pat!
Where you been ? Welcome back!
Depending if the extinguisher is ABC or BC the powders are slightly different. ABC is monoammonium phosphate and BC is sodium bicarbonate there are other ingredients that may be harmful because they are abrasive like silicone dioxide added as anti caking agent. I think it would be worse if it got into the oil. I've seen insurance jobs where there have been engine fires that were extinguished with dry chem and after the wires and hoses were replaced everything ran fine after. I would be tempted to try and use some top oil or some sort of lube/cleaner poured down the carb to flush anything left behind out. I know carbon dioxide and halon don't leave any residue if you have an engine fire. I've only ever used plain old water from a garden hose or bucket on carb backfires. In fact unless there's a pool of spilled gasoline water will pretty much put out any car fire.....that's all we use on the big red trucks.

 

thanks for the info- jethro, been busy with other stuff- i hope to soon be rolling my 64 chev van again- it was an abc fire extinguisher, and i think some marvel mystery oil might be in order. thanks much

 

Don't let him work on your stuff any more.

 

Once you got her fired up drip a gl*** or two of water thru the carb, slowly. It'll take 10 minutes a gl***. The additional cylinder pressure from the steam should help push any of that stuff in the cylinder out. I'd be more worried about abrasion than corrosion, but if you've got an old motor it might actually help ring seal. good luck

 

I remember the old timers talking about people doing "Bon Ami overhauls", if they had an old car with tired rings they were trying to sell they'd pour a little Bon Ami cleanser down the carb. It would scuff up the cylinder walls and rings and help them seal up a little better...... for awhile.

 

I've heard the same thing using Comet. Put a handful in a gl*** of water, run it through followed by a clean gl*** of water. Actually did it a long time ago, no apparent harm to the engine, no apparent gain either. Bunch of stuff did come out, but really think that's the water more than anything.

 

A few people still use that trick on break in,if the rings don't want to seat.
Kind of an Emergency Only last choice.

 

Yup, much favoured by car yards. Very temporary, dont ask

 

ABC extinguishers are much more corrosive than BC extinguishers because the ammonium phosphate can form phosphoric acid when mixed with water, and because the molten agent flows into minute cracks. BC extinguishers usually contain sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), so you'd essentially be soda-blasting your engine.