Technical FLAME THROWER FAIL

Wow. Well, some of those folks have been lucky. And, while it may be better to be lucky than smart, being smart about things reduces the number of times you need to be lucky. I guess I am fortunate enough to be both, so far.

 

Gas is supose to explode, it's gasoline, 4 pages of Perdue etc. so silly, started as a flame thrower discussion, now we're over at the university, plain silly. This is an old car site get back to cars and ditch the university studies. JW

 

OK, John, I will. I think the flamethrower effect is simply silly. Yes, it is traditional but it is dangerous. I usually try to cut my losses and this deal looks like it would be hard to explain to my insurance lady when the paperwork comes in. Maybe I'm old but the practice is silly.

 

Mr. Williamson, how old are you? Can you tell us what year you remember seeing your first flamethrower? Just trying to see how traditional these really are. I always thought they were a 1980’s thing.

 

Sometimes, a little knowledge, can be dangerous !

 

if you want to be the center of attention it would be much safer to dress like Elvis everywhere you go with the added benefit of not looking like an idiot.

 

i'm not mr. williams, but as a kid mid to late 60's i remember one of my uncles buddies had flame throwers and would give us kids a light show. years later i asked my uncle about them and he said he thought he used propane for it.

 

I have no doubt that it may have been around sporadically in the 50s, but certainly not widespread. It definitely feels like an 80s/50s thing to me, along with etched glass, air brushed sock hops on continental kit covers, and the like.

I do recall as a kid, my mom used to take me to a local cruise night, and there was a dude there, "wild Bill", with a flame throwing 56 Ford Customline. I thought that shit was a coolest thing ever. But it was 1990 and I was 6, so you take that with a grain of salt. It was also nothing like how some of these guys throw fire with auxiliary fuel systems, it was just just some loud ass glass packs and working the choke. Come to think of it, that car had all of the offending stuff mentioned above, including a huge diner scene etched into the back window. Ridiculous to think about now. I remember the Grease Merc had flamethrowers too, but I hate that fucking movie because I had a pompadour when I was young and trying to prove myself and wasn't bald yet, and people were always like, "oh do you like Grease????".

 

This threads gone RIGHT off the rails !

 

Even the most extreme automobile accident, with even the most dangerous automobiles involved, only results in injury or death of a handful of people as well as a small amount of property damage.

In my state, single sparks have resulted in entire towns being burned off of the map, and dozens killed.

Think about it.

I am all for anyone and everyone engaging in whatever irresponsible behavior they wish to engage in, so long as they are informed of the risk, and have willingly agreed to take it.

I do not, and cannot approve of anything that places a member of the general public in danger either as an individual, or as a community, through no actions of their own.

As I have previously mentioned everyone that does anything dangerous usually believes that they have it completely under control, until they don't. It's what happens when they lose control that is the problem.

Insurance companies have entire departments that are dedicated to denying claims. If you are found to have created a public nuisance of this magnitude and you have caused harm with it, and I don't believe that there is a single insurance company out there that will write you an automobile policy that will cover it, whatever the outcomes are you get the pay them yourself.

 

Some tech articles ( sorry if this has been covered already)
https://m.roadkillcustoms.com/build-install-exhaust-flame-throwers/

 

I was 7 in 65 and they were around then. At least in MD anyway and mostly customs.

 

Ye

Yeah, it's the VAPOR that's super explosive. Ever seen an inboard boat hatch go up because an idiot didn't run a blower? I have. Gas, not so much. A gallon of gas compared to 83 sticks of dynamite? Ye-ah, alright. You must not have lit off many 1/4 sticks, because I've lit off plenty, and I've seen a gallon of gas go up on a bonfire. Not even close. Lets make a deal. I'll light up a gallon of gas, and you light up all them boom sticks, we'll see who fares better. I'll be burned. You'll be pink dust.

Hey, I decided to sell my 50% ownership of Mackinac bridge! Message me for pricing! Lol...

 

They were around in the late 50's using a Model "T" coil and sparkplugs in the exhaust about a foot from the ends.
you'd drive and shut off the ignition, pump the gas about 10 times then hit the igntion coil and it would light the gas in the pipes. Was not a big trend 2 cars had it when I was growing up around 1957, both were guys who moved to So Cal from the mid west, one from Indiana and one from Michigan. JW

 

So your car doesn't attract enough attention?... How 'bout flame throwers! Everyone will look! In the mean time:
Lowered car backs into a parking block accidentally. Lowered car bottoms out on a steep driveway approach accidentally... gas tank eventually develops a slight crack which slowly, un-noticed, grows to a minor nearly un-detected leak.... a puddle develops. Flame thrower activated... Big Baddah BOOOMM!!! Car, passengers and by standers for yards around turned to crispy critters... No thanks.

 

A little OT but those 83 bang-sticks are equivalent to 2.5 gallons (so dynamite is 2.5 times as powerful on a volume basis) but dynamite is heavy... the gas has 5.5 times as much grunt on a weight basis.

Cheers,
Harv

 

They were around in the late 50's using a Model "T" coil and sparkplugs in the exhaust about a foot from the ends.
you'd drive and shut off the ignition, pump the gas about 10 times then hit the igntion coil and it would light the gas in the pipes. Was not a big trend 2 cars had it when I was growing up around 1957, both were guys who moved to So Cal from the mid west, one from Indiana and one from Michigan. JW

 

They were around in the late 50's using a Model "T" coil and sparkplugs in the exhaust about a foot from the ends.
you'd drive and shut off the ignition, pump the gas about 10 times then hit the igntion coil and it would light the gas in the pipes. Was not a big trend 2 cars had it when I was growing up around 1957, both were guys who moved to So Cal from the mid west, one from Indiana and one from Michigan. JW

 

There are those things that guys put on their car or do at rod trots because they don't believe that their car can draw enough attention on its own merit and feel that they have to do something to draw attention to the car.
Three that I can think of are:
Flame throwers, normally on a car that isn't the best built custom in the show.
Starting the car every half hour on the half hour and gunning the engine several times until you get a crowd of mouth breathers around the car for you to tell them about your car.
Uncorking the headers and rump rump around the grounds of the venue every couple of hours to let everyone know that you have this "high powered" hot rod with the big cam and a gear drive.
OOPs I forgot, sticking a gear drive in in hope that people will think you have a 6.71 under the hood.

49 years of going to rod runs says that most of the time those things are done by guys who are afraid that their car will not get attention otherwise.

 

The statement @brando1956 made is correct. Read it again, and understand the full context. I have attached the relevant part below and highlighted the bit you seem to have missed.

Here are some interesting facts that may surprise some.
Energy density is "the amount of energy stored in a given system or region of space per unit volume/mass".
Do a quick search and you will find the following.
Energy density of gasoline is approximately 46 mj/kg or 20.8652 mj/US pound.
Energy density of dynamite is approximately 46 mj/kg or 20.8652 mj/US pound.
Who would have thought, hey...........

Here is the actual statement from Purdue University, verbatim, copied and pasted from their site:
"One gallon of gasoline can vaporize and fill a 250-gallon fuel tank with explosive vapor; that single gallon of gasoline has the explosive energy of 83 sticks of dynamite." (4 June 1999)

At least let's have the facts straight before we weigh into a discussion ....

 

Can I prepare your gasoline before you strike the match...like in a 250 gallon tank......???

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Mine is that flamethrowers are a little bit naff, and that playing with gasoline should not be undertaken lightly. The consequences could sting....pun intended.

 

My first remembrance of flame throwers dates to 1959. They were on a chopped 50 Mercury that was parked at the cafe just down the road from where we lived. I have a pretty clear memory of that car from 63 years ago, but I have to think to remember what I had for supper last night. So flamethrowers, good or bad, are traditional. We should not be able to single out or rewrite our history just because it is not popular or prudent today . I am always amused when people talk about how great it was to grow up in those times, and it was, but there were some dark days too.

 

He wanted to play with fire,,,, and a handfull of comments scared him off....

 

I debated with myself about replying to your post and decided I needed to. Uncontrolled fire is not funny anywhere and I speak from experience having lived through the 1970 Mission Hills fire just outside of Lompoc, CA. Both Mission Hills and Vandenberg Village were heavily threatened by what was known as the Rucker fire. This fire came up so fast there was very little warning. Folks in Vandenberg Village were able to evacuate to the north but where I lived in Mission Hills was only 4 blocks away from Rucker Road which was closed with an active fire front on both sides of the road. Those of us who lived in Mission Hills could do nothing but watch as the aerial tankers came from 60 miles away in Goleta and dropped their loads. There was fire along the ridges to the east and south blocking us from getting to Purisima Road and safety. We couldn't go north as there was a large Union 76 pumping station adjacent to the back yards of some of the Mission Hills inhabitants. The Santa Barbara County FD and the aerial tankers were in a fight to keep us safe as well as the historic La Purisima Mission from burning. No, there's nothing funny about fire when it's on all four sides of you and there's nowhere to go.

Having said all that, if the OP wants to have flame throwers on his car, that's his choice and I hope he uses them wisely. I can be around him when he lights them off or, I can get the hell away from him. Those are my choices.

 

Yep, Maude's a fetcher, she is

 

John Lee, if you ever get to East Tennessee, look me up and I'll buy you a beer, I like your attitude.

 

Ha! Ha! I saw that. America has become too soft for things like that. I had an industrial lot and the county outlawed razor wire on fences and outlawed guard dogs. They protect their criminal in many parts of the USA.

 

You drive a woody. No wonder you're skeered of fire.

 

Been busy working on my other project cars, hosting our car club's Christmas Party, etcetera. I'm getting old but I will never give up having fun and living the outlaw life. I can't sit in that parking lot lawn chair all the time.