On Fri, 18 May 2007 15:43:13 -0700, Tim Smith
wrote:
In article ,
"Robert11" wrote:
How "safe" are these things, both in use and just sitting there with the
attached tank ?
I helped a friend put one together. We were having trouble getting it
started, and I was leaning in to see if I could see what was wrong, when
it started, with a nice big fireball. It horrified the spectators, as
from their point of view, my entire head was suddenly engulfed in a big
flame...but the only damage was that my eyebrows were about half as
thick as they had been before. I'm just happy that this was long before
the days of cell phone video cameras and YouTube. :-)
Congratulations.
Not a grill but a car. My brother's car, a 1970 full-size Ford LTD,
wouldn't start. It was in a one car garage he rented in Brooklyn. I
tried it fix it, by checking if there was spark with one plug wire
off, and by spraying ether (starting fluid) into the carburetor.
Unfortunately, after getting nowhere with either of these techniques,
I did both at the same time, while I had my head under the hood.
BLAMMMMMM!!!!
Fortunately, I didn't move while this happened or I would have knocked
my head on the hood and my neck on the metal edge of it. Not a lot of
leeway, so I must not have moved at all.
But I looked at one valve cover, the one on my side, of the V-8 and it
was ripped from the cylinder head. Of the 6 or 8 bolts holding the
cover down, 3 or 4 were ripped sideways, to the inside as the top went
up, so that the outer edge of the hole was broken out. And there were
2 or 3 places where the edge of the valve cover was lifted up between
the bolts so the exploding gas could escape.
I guess the ether was sucked into the carb, the manifold and the
cylinders, and then somehow pushed into the valve cover area, and when
finally one of the right side cylinders ignited, it lit off the ether
in the valve cover. I guess.
Couldn't buy a valve cover from the dealer, and no junk yards in
NYCity, so I had to buy a pair of chrome covers at a speed shop. I
only installed one, so it looked funny, but my brother doesn't care
about stuff like that. I forget if I ever started the car or if he
had to pay someone.
Anyway, consider this: how many news stories have you heard of people
being seriously injured by these things? Probably almost none.
Exactly that. None.
So, that probably means they are pretty safe. (Well, I suppose it could
mean that they are do dangerous that it is no longer newsworthy when
they kill someone! :-))
