A strange request to all you "Old timers" out there.

[Da Hawaiian Punch]

Howzit and Aloha to all you vette owners and "I'd like to be a vette owner someday" people out there!!!!
This is going to be a strange request from my self to all you "old timers" out there about, ready for this? making the flame thrower thing that my dad used to do back in the 50's out of they're exaust pipes.
I've alway's wanted to make one, and alway's thought, since that I was a small "keki" (child) that it was the coolest thing to do to your car.
My dad, I remember, explained to me how they used to "customize" they're cars.
Like cutting the spring's to lower them, shave the handles, put light's in the fender well's and under neath they're car's, use actual lead to fill in the seperation seem's of the car body part's, which lead to the term, "Lead slead's" and of course, the flame shooting tail pipe's.
So who can help me here?
My dad can't remember exactly how they did it, and dont want me to hurt my self or anybody else by him giving me the wrong info, so he's not even going to try to explain to me, not knowing the full step's on how to accomplish this feat.

 

[Top]

They tapped the exhaust pipe at the rear of the car and installed a spark plug. It was wired to 'fire' by a switch. Then the car was set up to run really rich so raw unburned fuel was coming out the tailpipes. Hit the switch and vrooom......

That's my understanding anyway.

Ahola!

 

[Ken]

Top about explained it perfectly. The source of ignition for the spark plug is a second coil. Bear in mind though that excessive amounts of unburned fuel running through your engine is not the best thing in the world for it. As a matter of fact, it may just be the worst thing for it.

_ken

 

[Top]

Ken's right, I forgot about that part. Raw unburned fuel washes the oil from your cylinder walls leading to early engine failure. Back in the '50's when engines were cheap and lots of them in the junk yards it was affordable. Today it may look cool to be retro but the cost would be too high in my book.

Good Luck in whatever you decide to do.

 

[Da Hawaiian Punch]

Top about explained it perfectly. The source of ignition for the spark plug is a second coil. Bear in mind though that excessive amounts of unburned fuel running through your engine is not the best thing in the world for it. As a matter of fact, it may just be the worst thing for it.

_ken

Oh well, I guess that it'll be a while longer before exploring this fun thing.
Mahalo for the info and help there guy's.
Maybe a different source of igniter gas or something, like propane or something like that.

 

[Ken]

Be careful! When you play with fire you're liable to get burned. (In more ways than one, i.e., police. )

_ken

 

[Da Hawaiian Punch]

Be careful! When you play with fire you're liable to get burned. (In more ways than one, i.e., police. )

_ken

Really, I agree, just something that I wanted to empress myself with, thats all.
Not going to use while driving or anything like that..

 

[JRMaroon]

Check out http://www.autoloc.com/detail.lasso?itemid=FLAME


This sounds like the kit you're looking for.

Good luck and don't burn it up or melt it.

Jeff

 

[Black Ice]

The same idea can be had by mounting a small Propane tank in the trunk and rigging the line to the last 12 inches of tailpipe.

 

[Moonunit 451]

I was reading something about this within the last monyh or so, I'm pretty sure it was in this forum, but it might have been the other one. There was a link to maybe Hot Rod mag or something as I recall that had step by step instructions. I don't recall the details, but if you have a lot of time o your hands, it wasn't that far back. I bookmark a ton of stuff for reference and found this interesting enough to scan as a novelty, but nothing I was interested enough to revisit. There was a lot of info though if you want to look for it. There are no doubt people doing this currently. Maybe a Google would turn something for ya

 

[WhalePirot]

Please, not on a Vette!

You guys really like to play dangerously. The line between "cool" flames and an explosion, especially near the gasoline tank, scares me to death. Seems that smart people never even smoke at gas stations, either.

If you have any questions about just how explosive gasoline or propane are, stand back a it and toss a small amount on your BBQ flames. Hopefully you'll be impressed into smart, safe thinking. It's how 'old guys' get old, after all. :s

 

[slashnick]

i saw them do this on either trucks or horsepower tv a few weeks back. the result was quite cool, but they said you can only do it on vehicles without a catalytic converter.

 

[Ken]

BOOM!

You guys really like to play dangerously. ... If you have any questions about just how explosive gasoline or propane are, stand back ...

That piece came down about a hundred-fifty yards from where it was burning. :eek

_ken

 

[Daryllawman]

Da Hawaiian PunchDon't do it.!! :bash :nono

 

[Da Hawaiian Punch]

Da Hawaiian PunchDon't do it.!! :bash :nono

I'm not going to.
Decided to spend the money else where...like on going fast thing's!!
On a different note: Heah Daryl, is that your picture in on your avatar?

 

[Da Hawaiian Punch]

Re: BOOM!

That piece came down about a hundred-fifty yards from where it was burning. :eek

_ken

Ken, what the heck is that thing?

 

[Ken]

That is the second trailer of a dual-trailer truck that exploded at the Chevron refinery in El Segundo sometime back in the mid-eighties. The truck was being filled and the hose came loose from its connection and started wildly swinging the metal end of the hose around until it contacted something hard enough to cause a spark. The rest, as they say, is history, and so is the driver; they never did find all of him.

I did not see this piece fall, but the people who did said that it looked just like what you see in cartoons where that heavy piece of truck was floating down as though it was light as a feather. :L

Seeing as how you're from Hawaii, have you ever seen footage of the Chevron refinery fire there? That was the one where the firefighter fell in a pipetrench full of gasoline. The gasoline was foamed so it wasn't burning at first -- not until he fell into it and broke the foam surface. Talk about scary!! :eek

_ken

 

[Da Hawaiian Punch]

Seeing as how you're from Hawaii, have you ever seen footage of the Chevron refinery fire there? That was the one where the firefighter fell in a pipetrench full of gasoline. The gasoline was foamed so it wasn't burning at first -- not until he fell into it and broke the foam surface. Talk about scary!! :eek
_ken [/B]

Yes I remember that well, I was living in Cali, at the time, but still kept up on what was happening at home here.

 

[GS583]

I'm old enough to remember guys doing this on their cars back in the fifties also. It can be really impressive. ESPECIALLY if you are behind the car!! Anyway, if anyone is thinking about doing this on a Vette, just remember that the body panels on our cars will burn unlike those made of tin, although there was a story that floated around here years ago about a guy that caught a somewhat fresh paint job on fire one time.

 

[Ken]

Anybody watch the Bristol Nat's yesterday where the guy was walking through the staging lanes when someone fired up their Pro car and the flames almost fried him! They had excess fuel lying in the headers. :eek

_ken