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Wish somebody else had seen that

R

rrlund

Well-known Member
That was the biggest fireball I've ever been personally responsible for! LOL

The oil light stayed on on the Oliver 1600 gas yesterday. I waved the cutting torch around under the oil pan for a minute and started it back up,the light went off. Well,same thing this morning,but after waving the torch around the light still wouldn't go off. So I took the drain plug out and got some clean water and thin oil,then chunks of sludge. The drain plug goes up at an angle in the back of the pan. I stuck my finger in and could feel a slab of ice,so I kept heating it. I got a chunk of something starting to close the hole off,so I stuck the torch up toward it. BAWOOM! That thing shot a huge fireball all the way back behind the back tires and shot out of the drain hole like a torch for a few seconds. All I could do was lay there on the ground and laugh. That was one wild ball of fire! Then the nerves kicked in and I started shaking. Didn't think that would ever end,but I was still laughing over the whole thing.
No damage and I got it cleaned out and changed the oil anyway.
 
Dang Randy! I would like to keep you around a while longer. Years ago when I would do something like that my dad would tell me to use my head for something besides a hatrack lol. Sure glad you were not hurt and can laugh about it.
 
rrlund,

My father-in-law died back in 1970 but he told me about an incident he had in West Virginia back in the late 1950s. He was hauling a singing group out to a church in the sticks. He drove down into a ditch that he hadn't seen and punctured a hole in the oil pan of the car.

Somebody towed his car to a local auto shop. The guy at the shop drained the oil out of the pan and proceeded to braze the hole. My father-in-law said he'd heat the pan a while and have an explosion inside the pan that blew out through the drain plug and vent pipe. Heat/explode. Heat/explode. Finally was able to heat and braze with no more explosions.

I didn't see it, but I believe my father-in-law.

Tom in TN
 
I've had a few of those "what was I thinking" moments myself- and fortunately have not been hurt. My reaction is generally the same as yours- just laugh at yourself. What's done is done.
 
Couple of things here. One I did and other I saw the damage. Guy brought in a Super M farmall gasoline tractor to shop. Hadn't run for a long time so I left it in the lot, went out and drained the gasoline out of tank. Some gas got into clutch housing. Later I put in fresh gas after cleaning carb etc, etc, and hit the starter. Boom, the gasoline ignited from spark of brush's in starter. Scared heck out of me and I never did find the plugs that were in the clutch housing plugging the holes where a belly pump would be if it had one.

Other time was hole in the side of the oil pan on a 5 ton Army vehicle. As all the components like distributor had to be water proof for fording they were all vented. Vent lines hooked together from crankcase, distributor etc to one common connector. Anyway, the spark of the points set off gasoline fumes in crankcase and blew the cast oil pan a nice big hole. Don't recall for sure but I think a check valve was supposed to prevent that.
 
Wish you'd have been here. That was the kind of thing that gets a million hits on YouTube.
 
bought a barrel at auction they said it had a mixture to burn brush i wanted the barrel so gave the mix to the neighbor he was smart enough to throw it on with an open bucket the resulting explosion blew the pile apart flattened the dog and im not sure about the neighbors shorts
 
The boys and my nephews are always trying to blow things up. I fact,I've got a video here on the computer of them blowing up a Cadillac that I'm not supposed to show anybody,left the car unrecognizable.

They hauled a barrel home one time though that they wanted to use for a burning barrel. It had had paint thinner in it. The lid was bolted on with that ring that goes around the top. One of the nephews and another guy had a bright idea. They lit something,I don't remember now what they said it was,but they had it burning on top. Then they stood back and shot at it with a rifle. Ya,the fumes from a bullet hole hit the flame. My son was in the shower at the time and he said it blew the shampoo right off the shelf. It taco'd the lid and blew it right over the house. They found it out in the pines north of the house. Blooming genius's.
 
Randy, I think we have all sometime during our lives have done something like that. Many years ago several friends and their families were boating over on the St. Marys river near Port Huron one beautiful Sunday and when the day was nearing an end we planned to have a cookout at a county park. My friend helped me put the boat back on the trailer while the rest of the people went to the park to meet us about five miles from the boat ramp. We were all extremely hungry and we had a large cooler in the back of the pickup full of nice steaks and a large Webber grill. As we pulled the boat up out of the ramp I said to my friend if we would light that grill by the time we get to the park it will be ready to cook on. Well it sounded like a good idea at the time but we didn't get only about a mile down the road when it seemed to both of us that the people were just too friendly. They were all waving at us like they haven't seen us in a long time. The first thought was they liked either my new pickup or the boat. They did make a nice looking outfit as they were color coordinated. As I looked in the rear view mirror I could see flames going up about three feet till they hit the airstream and then going right over the front of the boat. We pulled over, got the vents closed and the cover on the grill and drove real slow to the park but learned quite a lesson on turning a Webber gril into a forge.
 
There was a young man killed close to RodinNS from drum explosion. Static from his sweater ignited vapour in solvent drum as he was pouring in thinner.
 
I used an old butane sylinder for target practice- one time. Must have still had some gas in it, cause it sure did blow up. There was also anither time in the Boston Naval Shipyard back in the sixties. Yardbird backed a forklift into some gas cylinders alongside the drydock my ship was in. One of the cylinders went into the drydock and sheared the valve off when it hit the bottom. Sucker took off like a torpedo, flew down one side of the drydock, hit the caisson at the end, and came flying up the other side of the ship, hit the other end, and came up the other side again. Fastest I ever saw any yardbirds moving, and the last time I ever saw them moving much at all.....
 
Back years ago when Freon was cheap and didnt cause ozone warming (or whatever) the cylinders that they used to fill home air conditioners were disposable and when you filled a unit you couldnt get all of the freon out of the tank because you let it flow into the system instead of pumping it. SO the pressure in the tank was equal to the pressure in the system. This resulted in tanks being thrown away with a LOT of pressure left in them. One of my friends and I used to get cylinders from back of his HVAC shop and use them for target practice until one of them rose up about 5 feet off the ground after being shot with a 22 and seemed to chase us around for a few seconds.
That was dangerous!
 
remembered one other good one guys had an old outhouse to get rid of. bright idea burn it well the forgot about the cistern underneath and methane gas when the crust got a hole burned in it well it got moved
 
An old mechanic I know had an Allis B...It kept stopping and always had dirt in the carb or filter....After sitting all winter with the lid off the petrol tank he could see the dust or rust in the bottom of the dry tank ...He thought he would vacuum it out, so got his wife's vacuum cleaner out into the shop and was going great until the petrol fumes hit the sparkly bit of the motor....He had no petrol tank, eyebrows or hair and the cleaner went into orbit!
Sam
 
There is something about an open flame and enclosed spaces, a tank, a barrel etc, whereas a flag seems to pop up well before the torch is even lit!

I'm surprised at 2 things, that the flag did not pop up and that there was enough fuel vapor in that compartment ignite ! You'll think twice next time, glad you are ok, and or nothing caught fire, thats usually how it goes, domino effect. Its a demonstration of being human, while focused on the problem, nothing seems to come to mind about that open flame, then you get the fireball!

This site is great for learning, over the years, people sharing experiences, or raising points about things like batteries, what makes them explode, pyrolysis with tires, torch and welding safety, and how many other things similar, yet things still happen, speaking for myself, I'm better for having learned a few things right here on this site,than not, just hopefully not at someone elses fatal mistake...... LOL ! well it may not be too funny, but thats the least you can do if it don't get ya !

So, do you think it was some gasoline in the oil ? I have a pet peeve about checking oil for that, ever since the pony motor on the D7 filled the crankcase one time, the things you never forget !

Like Tom in TN said, I've done that with small fuel tanks, just keep igniting until it stops, then you know you are ok, but it does take several rounds of doing that, of course there are other ways, but what he described sounds very familiar.

Now you could set up a camera, replicate the conditions, get that footage for youtube, or maybe its best left to "mythbusters" where they say "never try this at home" LOL !
 
Not looking for a repeat unless I'm the camera man and somebody else is laying under there. lol
The first thought I had was that there must have been gas fumes in there,yes. In fact,it was around -15 this morning and when I tried to start it,it was hitting on one and I fooled around until I had it so flooded it was starting to lock up. I let it set about fifteen minutes,tried again and it started. Guess I know where the gas went. Right past the rings and in to the oil.
 
Working on a '50's model Onan power plant on a Chris Craft cruiser, about 30 years ago...

It had been sitting for years, owners wanted it running. So I got the engines running, fresh gas, many hours of tinkering.

Then went to the power plant. It was under the back seat, the controls were it the cabin at the front of the boat. I had the flame arrestor off (first mistake) can of either in hand, I went in the cabin and flipped the switch. Ran back, gave the motor a good shot of either, it started, and ran. All looked good...

About that time a huge spray of gasoline and oil shot out of the crankcase breather. It hit the bottom of the hard top and rained down, instantly soaking the entire back of the boat and myself. I instinctively put my hand over the carb to kill it, but it wouldn't die...

Every time it got down to cranking speed, the start circuit would kick in and it would try to recrank!

Now the switch is down in the cabin, I'm not going down there and get trapped. I've got solenoids and relays going crazy. This had the old style spark plug wires with just a fork on the plug, they're arcing.

I'm perched on the back of the boat, by myself in a deserted marina, hand over the carb, ready to jump... It's February...

I finally reached beside the power plant and started ripping wires until I pulled out the start wire.

By the grace of God it didn't explode!

The fuel pump diaphragm was bad, filed the crankcase with gasoline until it shot out the breather. What a mess, but I was grateful to be alive!
 
Good greaf :roll: Why would you even admit it :p :p
Not that i havent done wourse myself :eek: :eek: :eek:
But il be darned if il admit it.. :? :? :? :?
My other half thinks im perfect.. :idea: :idea: :idea: :idea:
I think :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink:
 
Dad had a 1969 GMC pickup with the 305 V6 truck engine. The fuel pump is on the front of the engine. The pump started spraying gas and the engine fan blew the gas all over the engine bay. He drove in the lane with the pickup wreaking of gas and when I opened the hood everything was dripping gas. It could have been a fireball like you see in the movies. Jim
 
When I was a welder I saw a fire behind me reflected in my lens. I couldn't figure out what could be burning back there til my face got hot. That's when I figured out that keeping your folding money in your shirt pocket was a good way to get poor, and a burned face.
 
Great uncle was standing beside a Cat 22 crawler, I was cranking. this was a start on gas, run on Kero model. It had a cracked Carb bowl, and GU was looking toward the carb, when the mag fired. Looked like the Klingons fired the disrupter at the enterprise, a round ring of fire, expanding in diameter, as it was expelled by the Carb. When it was over I almost had to stomp out GU's eyebrows, which were smoldering! He spit on his fingers, and rubbed his eyebrows!
 
While in college, I lived with an elderly woman and her twin grandsons who were my age. She owned several acres and since I lived there nearly for free, I always mowed and took care of the place. There was a patch of trees in the yard that had overgrown somewhat and had a bunch of limbs on the ground. So I cleaned them all up and made a burn pile for her. Since everything was wet, I needed some assistance to start the burn pile. I wanted to have it all the way cleaned for her when she returned. The only thing available was gasoline from her farm fuel tank. So I grabbed a 5 gallon bucket from the garage and filled it with a gallon or two of gas and walked it across the yard to the burn pile. Threw the gas on the wood and lit the fire, no problem. That's when I realized the bucket had a hole in the bottom and the trail of gas that I unknowingly trekked across the yard turned into a trail of fire all the way back to the tank. The fire was burning several feet high under the tank and got dangerously close to the fuel hose which was hanging under the tank. I took my shirt off and smothered the fire with no harm done. The only thing that was left was the evidence- a path of burned grass for the tank to the burn pile. Lesson learned.
 
The "less than sensible" stunt that I have pulled lately was when I purchased an old riding mower. The muffler was just hanging on,so I pulled it off. Removed the carburetor for cleaning and noticed two or three other things that needed attention. Wondered if it was worth going any further,so I sprayed some WD-40 into the intake and hit the starter, it started and would run good as long as I sprayed the WD-40 into the intake port. As it warmed up, flames from the exhaust got ahold of the spray, and needless to say, I had to beat a hasty retreat! Didn't get burned, but sure got warm!
 
This might not count as I did it on purpose when only about 20 years old. All most 40 years ago.

It was cold as a cold spell like now in Minnesota. Way below zero and building a Big apartment building. We where freezing and eating lunch in the basement when I realized the 2 inch higher pressure gas line was ruffed in with a gate valve. Walked over lit the lighter and opened the valve. Flame shot way across the basement and warmed that whole place up in moments. After that everyone ran if I said I was cold and walked towards it.
 
i had a 1968 international pickup that always seemed to have one problem after another with the carburetor.
tall kid and i brought my Cockshutt 50 from a friends and the silly thing started leaking gas all over the engine. why it didn't start on fire i'll know.
i finally sold the truck to in-too-deep.
has anyone heard anything about him lately?
 
Did anyone else read or hear of the missing oxygen tanks? Think it was Three Mile Island nuke plant? They put in cameras to see what happened to them. Workers put them in a cradle pointing into the river and sheared the valves off just to watch em go.
 
Talk about not thinking? About 40 yrs ago I had a "balky" Polaris snow mobile that fouled the plug often. This time the cyl. was flooded , I was thinking how to dry it out. The neighbor grabbed the cutting torch, Lit it and passed it over the spark plug hole. Well after the "Big Bang", it was dried out. Installed the plug and started rite up. Ahhh, the memories,LOL. clint
 
Just before I went in the Air Force I worked as a RV mechanic. Someone brought in a big ole motor home they just bought and wanted us to go through it and check all the appliances, the LP gas system and the electrical. Shop foreman is going through the list, looks at the furnace and tells me to light it run it for a few minutes turn it off, after I'm done with everything else pull the furnace and clean the burner and "Don't mess up the little gasket under the sight window because we don't have one" Well I try to light the furnace, find out the lp is turned off to the coach, turn it on, start smelling gas, Hmmmm seems the coach's LP tank leaks at the valve when it's open, turn the tank back off, unhook it and hook up a shop tank, now we're ready! Laying on my back in the motor home, one hand holding down the pilot bypass, the other pushing the piezo lighter, snap, snap, snap, Hmm nothing, continue to hold & push. All of a sudden BOOM! everyone comes running wow did you see that! Flame six feet out the side of the coach.....Baker you alright? Wow haven't seen one that big for a while... I walk out of the coach, the foreman starts yelling that I broke the gasket, I said I don't think so, then he pointed out the little pieces of gasket in my hair, eyebrows and on my glasses. When I pulled the furnace we found that the ignitor had what looked like a spark plug wire on it, but all the rubber or silicone had burnt off. Me being a rookie kept snapping the lighter and holding down the button. Well with the insulation burnt off it was sparking somewhere other than the burner so the gas didn't light until I filled the furnace chamber up good and full with LP.
 
I was going to burn some leaves one day when it was just starting to get dark outside and the air was getting wet and very heavy just about sunset. I had poured a little gas on the leaves out of a drain pan and was going to stand way back and light a paper and throw it on the leaves. I realized I didn't have any matches so I walked up to the house and got some and came back out. It took about two minutes to get the matches but when I did all the gas vapor must have been dispersed all over the ground surrounding the pile because when I lit it the whole yard lit up in a blue flash and a huge boom. It was over as soon as it happened but I've never seen that happen. Barometric pressure must have pushed the gas fumes right down to the ground and they stayed there. Got my attention and respect really quick.
 
Years ago we had a cop riding snowmobiles with us that decided to check his fuel level at night with a Bic lighter........The fireworks were beautiful and the beer was flowing......
 
jon, many years ago grew first full beard, was smoking a cigarette, and in a stupid moment, flipped welding helmet down. About 3 seconds later realized beard was on fire-burning hair stinks-especially when it's yours. Of course there were laughing bystanders when I did the mandantory "hope no one saw that" look around.
 
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