Shock News: Petrol IS Flammable! - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

GreenMachine · 08-19-2004, 04:15

Hey guys -

Serious public service announcement here. Tonight I nearly lost my car and prolly a house and some other stuff.

So I ran out of petrol on the way home, like I do every non-pay week. Within 40 metres of a petrol station (uphill, so I couldn't roll it..) Quick call to a dodgy mate, can of mower fuel, tip a bit down the carbie, bolt the air cleaner back up, give her a kick in the guts.

I didn't notice anything, except for old mate going apeshit and trying to open the bonnet. I pop it and hop out, wondering what's going on, walk around to the front...

Fire, fire and more fkn fire. We'd obviously spilt a bit when we were topping up the carbie in the dark, and bloody EVERYTHING was burning. The carbie, the inlet manifold, the hoses, the spark plug leads. So we start beating it out with our bare hands. Not doing ANYTHING. I take off my leather jacket and start trying to smother it. After what felt like 30 minutes (but was probably closer to 45 seconds), I was saying "**** it, too dangerous, let's run and hide." Fortunately, just then, the fire burnt itself out.

No major damage - coupla vacuum tubes destroyed, plug leads and accelerator cable look a bit dodgy and the car's running really rough (suspect that's because i've moved/bent something on the choke side of the carbie trying to put it out). The car drove home.

We were lucky. Buy a fire extinguisher. Get over the "she'll be right" attitude

Enough said.

Nick

Supa R00 · 08-19-2004, 04:23

Holy Crap!!! thats one helluva experience u hope ya never have to go through! glad to hear all ended up ok... good advice but, u can just never be too sure!

useless · 08-19-2004, 04:25

go light a candle in church this sunday

Red_EB_S · 08-19-2004, 04:35

Holy Crap Nick! Thats my ride to Bathurst!!! Good to hear your aaiight dogg!

Rayos

Timmeh · 08-19-2004, 04:52

Fair dinkum.

I had a fire extinguisher in my EA - I never trusted it.

Hope the car is ok.

Tim

9psi EB · 08-19-2004, 04:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by useless

go light a candle in church this sunday

Just leave the petrol tin at home

TIKFD6 · 08-19-2004, 04:53

Bugga Nick, Exstinguishers are heap insurance.

XD 351 Ute · 08-19-2004, 04:54

Hehe, yeah it is hey.
At my last place of residence, I was busy trying to get the old busted-arse 2 stroke Victa lawn mower going.
Plenty of juice, heaps of yanks on the starter cord, resulted in nothing.
Forgetting I had split some fuel on the mower, the ground, and myself.

Pulled the sparkplug out, covered in fuel.
Thought to self, "I'll just earth the plug lead near the head and give a couple of goes to clear the fuel"...............

Sure enough, the spark decided to do it's thing just before the whole now very flamable mixture decided to ignite.

Shortly after, my flatmate came out to see the mower, and myself rolling around on the ground trying to put out the flames.

She ended up putting us out with the garden hose.... and I still had to mow the yard once I got it going.

Stupid bloody mowers!!!

Ed :)

Peuty · 08-19-2004, 04:54

Holy crap GreenMachine! That was going to be my car! If you still want to swap

GreenMachine · 08-19-2004, 04:57

XD - i did almost exactly the same thing with a Briggs and Stratton paddock slasher about 6 months ago - for some reason the cylinder was full of fuel (couldn't pull the starter), so I pulled the spark plug and gave it a pull... the fuel in the clyinder shot out across the hot head and caught fire... fortunately it burnt out quickly with no damage.

I'm an accident waiting to happen...