No, I didn't wet myself...

[glojo]

Surely petrol vapour is extremely volatile?

People filling up petrol tanks whilst smoking?

I remember many, many years ago when I was on a fire fighting course,

the instructor placed a saucer of petrol on a desk and then placed a metre long tube above this fuel.

They then lit a match at the top of the tube

pooooof

The vapour instantly ignited and in turn ignited the saucer of fuel

The moral of the story is to treat petrol with a lot of respect.

 

[Sp!ke]

Much safer to have a can of parafin instead of petrol surely?

You sure it was petrol?

 

[st13phil]

You sure it was petrol?

Absolutely, 100% certain. Parafin wasn't used because it left an oily residue which was no good at all on brake wheel cylinders and suchlike. They used to use high-pressure airline blowguns without the multiple bleedholes in the nozzles to blow the petrol off the components which they held in their hands, too. And to blow out brake dust from brake drums when the friction materials still contained asbestos. All practices that either illegal or seriously frowned upon nowadays.

BTW, Dad will be 80 later this year and never suffered any ill effects.

 

[st13phil]

The moral of the story is to treat petrol with a lot of respect.

Absolutely. And I do. It still amazes me that people obviously don't consider the consequences of uncontrolled ignition of petrol when the 12 gallons of the stuff they've just pumped into their car's tank has enough energy in it to transport them from London to Edinburgh. However, the liquid itself does take a good deal of igniting.

 

[HowardD]

(BUT PLEASE DONT TRY IT).

Too late. Ouch, that stings!!

 

[Carrotchomper]

I saw a Fiat Punto at the side of the motorway yesterday, there were flames coming from the engine compartment but I was surprised to see a 'clump' of something on the floor under the engine which was firmly on fire.

It looked like a solidified mass of some kind, rather like the drippings off a massive candle had landed there.

Plastic?

No, poor quality engines

Hateful vehicles

 

[Spinal]

Phil; I have vivid memories of my fathers mech's cleaning off parts in fuel as well; but I think it was diesel, not petrol they used... it was a while back though

 

[timskemp]

I saw a Fiat Punto at the side of the motorway yesterday, there were flames coming from the engine compartment but I was surprised to see a 'clump' of something on the floor under the engine which was firmly on fire.

It looked like a solidified mass of some kind, rather like the drippings off a massive candle had landed there.

Plastic?

Quite probably the remains of the plastic engine cover. The one on my car is a huge piece of plastic!

 

[CE230]

Way back when I were a lad I sold Bettaware products door to door and one of my best selling items was a home fire extinguisher. I made many a sale to interested parties by inviting them to my parents house for a demo of the extinguisher by filling a tray with petrol and igniting it. It was a foam extinguisher BTW so little chance of crisping potential customers.

I dread to think what Elfin Safety would make of that these days.

 

[Dieselman]

Phil; I have vivid memories of my fathers mech's cleaning off parts in fuel as well; but I think it was diesel, not petrol they used... it was a while back though

Either will do but diesel is an oil whereas petrol is a solvent, so degreases completely with no residue after evaporation.
We used to clean motorbike chains in petrol, then re-lube them.

Petrol being a solvent is one reason a petrol engine wears more quickly than a diesel, it's stripping the lubricating oil off the bores.

 

[st13phil]

We used to clean motorbike chains in petrol, then re-lube them.

Ahh... That brings back memories. Boiling up a chain in a tin of Linklife and stinking out Mum's kitchen