Many moons ago, I owned a '63 Southhampton. Green with white leather
interior. I really enjoyed driving it and it became my daily driver
(although I had brand new Mercury Capri at the time...). Anyway, on my way
to church, I lost power steering and pulled into a parking lot. Thinking I
lost a belt, I popped the hood. To my dismay, a small fire errupted on the
exhaust manifold! The power steering pressure hose burst and blew ps fluid
all over the manifold and it caught fire.
I ran into the store and borrowed their fire extinguisher. It was dead. The
water hose next to the building was too short. I grabbed everything out of
the car to watch it go into meltdown. When the battery blew up, I thought it
was a goner. Suddenly, a guy in a pickup drove up, pulled out his
extinguisher, and put the fire out. Before I could thank him, he drove off
never to be seen from again.
I ended up having to replace the PS pump, engine compartment wiring harness
and battery (of course). Other than the acid burns and smoke stains under
the hood, you'd never know the incident happenned. Externally, there was a
paint discoloration where the battery acid spilt onto the paint turning it a
rich dark green.
So, I've had direct experience that the normal heat from the manifold can
catch just about any petroleum product ablaze; gasoline should be no problem
at all!
Mark Evans
1963 Imperial Crown Convertible
http://www.io.com/~maevans/MyImperial/index.html
1968 Dodge Polara 500 Convertible
http://www.io.com/~maevans/MyPolara/index.html
----- Original Message -----
From: <dardal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, August 15, 2002 1:40 PM
Subject: Re: IML: My 64 Crown up in flames!
> Dave, the question remains. What ignited the leaking fuel? I am not sure
if a
> hot exhaust manifold can really ignite the fuel, unless its bright red
after a
> 3 mile drag race. It may be possible that your plug wires were a bit old
> (leaking spark), and the fire started just before you turned off the car.
Or,
> may be you have a short. You may want to consider disconnecting the
battery
> until you solve this with certainty.
> D^2
>
> Quoting dave sankey <wedgehead413@xxxxxxxxx>:
>
> > Last night I parked the Imp in the driveway after
> > returning home from work. Locked her up and took a
> > step back to admire the car in the amber glow of the
> > corner street light. What a thing of beauty.
> >
>
>
>
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