I don't know what happened, maybe a mouse chewed a hole in the oil pressure line, but I'm done for the year. I was sitting in it letting it idle in the driveway when I heard a clunk, the motor died and I had flames rolling out of the scoop. I haven't figured out why the distributor cap blew off, but that's what killed the engine. Thank God I keep a fire bottle behind the driver's seat.
Man, Sorry for your fire, great to have the right saftey gear though! that could have been much worse.
Yeah, I'm glad I had backed it out of the garage. As cramped for space as I am I'm not sure I could have put it out so quick.
looks like at least some good luck was going your way. i have them allover the house also as a direct result of my ex's cooking habits or i should lack of!
Couple of "no-no's" based on your pictures, I see the #3 plug looks to have burnt into the header tube, looks like #1 isn't in for the long run either...suggest you run the plug wire clips that direct the plug wires straight down (will most likely need longer wires). The ones that bolt to the VC holes, and keep tyhings situated. Another thing I see, you have the plug wires routed on both sides of the fuel lines (just behind the pressure gauge). Not sure if this contributed to your woes, but could cause issues in the future. Really would like to see a good shot at the dizzy cap..wonder if fuel leaked in and was ignited?
There was a 40 Willys at the Goodguys Bowling Green event the weekend before last. It is an original all steel race car from the 60s It says Suicide Ride on the doors and it was on that event T shirt. I drove that car into my shop one day to start some work on it for the owner. When I started the car the float had stuck on the rear carburetor. It was not running smooth and so I let it idle for a minuet when I got it into the shop. Then bang, the car was on fire and also my shop. I was able to put out the fire with a Walmart fire extinguisher. The most damage was to the hood of car where it caused the paint to bubble. That is why it does not have a hood on it today. I repaired all the fire damage and then started on all the other stuff that I did to the car. It was a Goodguys top 10 pick at Bowling Green. So you can fix them after a fire. That afternoon, after the fire, I made a trip to Walmart and I bought a shopping cart full of fire extinguishers. Today I tell everyone that you can not swing a hammer in my shop without hitting a fire extinguisher. I also keep them in my hot rods and I take one with me when I test drive a car that I am building. When you see us fire the engine on the line at Bonneville, you will usually see me with a fire extinguisher in my hand. It is very cheap insurance. John
#1 has a brown heat sleeve over the boot, #3 header tube is dimpled. At least I think that's what you're seeing. The rear float stuck a few days ago and had fuel running out of the bowl vent, but I had it running after that. But you have me wondering now...
Yeah, a quick look at the underside of the cap and the top of the dizzy, would let you know what happened. Could have just gotten lucky and the cap popped off at the right time (maybe even heat from the "burst" was enough to let the clips go?) or, may have had a bit of fuel in there, just surmising-not even sure if that's a word or not-but, if it were me, I'd want to know now what was the cause so I could prevent it from ever happening again. Good luck, just do a good once over before you fire it off again, just replacing the bad parts that were left, won't fix the root cause.
Yeah, I'm going to go over it real well before it gets re-fired. The rotor started to melt from being exposed, I think. I haven't looked at the inside of the cap yet, I need to completely remove the wires to get it out of the hole it's in. I'm hoping I can fix the distributor, it was an NOS unit that hadn't been in a car till now.
Yes, yes and yes again.........oh yea, and I just called my pops to make sure that he had a fire extinguisher in his "lakes roadster" that he has recently got on the road.....and he said "nope, I need to get one". Chris
i have one in every car , even my daily driver...and one in the garage , two in my shop , and one in the kitchen. i better get some more
I too have had an engine bay fire - 5 foot flames shooting up out of the motor in my friend's brand new barn style garage -also lucky not to burn it down. Went through two small exitinguishers, one large and still couldnt get it out- finally managed with the garden hose. Not too much damage. If you haven't done so already, get as much of the powder off you car as soon as possible! That sh*t is highly corrisive - anything not painted will start to rust really quickly... Adam
FIRE! Yeah, I had a similar experience on my '36 tudor a couple years back. Drove it down to pick up my son from Boy Scouts one evening after dark. Started to smell like GAS! Didn't think it an emergency as it frequently has the gas smell but knew we better check it out when we got home. WRONG! Pulling outa the parking lot headed back home and BOOM! Sounded like the first shot of duck season! Rattled the whole car and fire shot way out the hood side louvers! With no extinguisher it took some time to get the fire out. Grabbed an extinguisher from across the street at a store. Burned the wiring, hoses, melted the solder outa the radiator, trashed the paint on both fenders, the hood, firewall and cowling....... Learned this lesson the hard way - ALWAYS CARRY THAT EXTINGUISHER! Hell, maby carry several and keep a couple in the shop. And oh yeah, still got the car and finally got it back in shape...........
If the cap blew off most likely when the float stuck you got some gas down past the rings. Fuel vapor worked it's way up past the dist shaft ,got in the cap and the sparks ignited it. Blewey of comes the cap. Having caps blow off from fuel vapors was not unheard of before PCV systems.
I just went out and checked. The oil doesn't have a strong smell of fuel, but there is a slight odor. The inside of the cap is blackened with soot that could be from the fire or possibly a small explosion. And I don't have a pcv system on this motor so it's a distinct possibility. At least it makes the most sense so far. But I still wonder because the motor was running for 2 minutes or so before it happened.
I read this thread this morning and went out and bought two fire extinguishers this evening after work. Fire blows. It can really screw up a good day.
The 1kg extinguishers are next to useless. Have something bigger in the car or at least 2 or more of the small ones. I have x2 1kg ans a 5kg bottle in my car. That powder will eat aluminium like a mother****er. I hoped you washed it off in the first 10 min otherwise you may have serious corrosion issues on that motor. Doc.
I had a Mickey Thompson Cross Ram with two 650 VS Holley's on top of a .030 over 350 in my '72 Vega and had to put a fire out on the highway with a SIX PACK OF BEER!! Since then, I have a fire bottle....even in my '05 Neon.
I emptied a 5#er putting it out. I used a blow gun and got the dry chem off right after I shot the pics. When I get home tonight I'm going to hook the battery back up and kick the fuel pump on and see if the rear carb float was stuck again. Last time it had the fuel running over the rear float bowl which is right on top of the distributor. I'm thinking that may have been the case, getting an arc from the outside of the cap or wires, and the concussion from an external gas ignition knocking the cap off.
I just came in from the garage. I hooked the battery up and turned on the fuel pump and gas started running down the rear fuel bowl and on to the distributor. Needless to say these mother****ers are going in the trash. Looks like I get to spend money on some new Holleys along with a distributor. Yippee.
It took me two kitchen sized extinguishers to put out my garage fire two years ago from a small space heater! I bought 4 to replace the two I used.
wow. we just had a safety meeting at work today about fires,and our gal instructor told us about a friend of hers that was using alcohol to clean up something and it just burst into flames ,the flames went back to the bottle and it blew up!!he has 3rd deg.burns on his face(both sides) and is in the burn center now!be careful !!!
I had a buddy who had the pre-cat blow up on his car. It got plugged, so he just ran the **** outta it, and his car caught fire. He also had beer, but he sat back and drank it while the car burnt up!
The Jalopy Journal
