We were putting a 289 4 speed into a 1960 Falcon 6 cyl Automatic Station Wagon.
Oh well. What else
do you do when you're 22?
The rear end had no axle and it was up on jack stands. No moving the car. The
gas started dripping
out the gas line after we had jacked up the rear end. I had a pencil stuck in
the end of the gas
line, but it was dripping, so "to be safe" we decided to drain it. The pan was
directly under the
new engine. When the "knowledgeable" neighbor decide to help by spraying water
on it, lots of water
went down the carbs. The fire destroyed the wiring in the engine compartment
and melted the dash.
I pulled the heads, and the cylinders were full of water.
My spirit broken, I towed the car with new engine in it to the junk yard. Spent
the rest of the
summer cleaning and painting the house.
The house came out nice.
Don Malling
Ed Bratt wrote:
> Don:
>
> Your story of draining a gas tank into a tub brings to mind another
> dangerous practice. We had an expert Jaguar machanic, Geoff, who worked
> out of his garage. He tuned and cared for a lot of Jags, and gave expert
> advice and assistance to racers and builders, such as myself. One mistake
> he made was to drain the gas tank on a XKE coupe into a plastic pan.
>
> The pan burst into flame from static electicity. Being a quick thinker,
> Geoff pushed the flaming Jaguar out of his shop, before the shop was
> inundated by fire. He had fire extinguishers, which he emptied in the shop
> and on the flaming Jaguar. This did not extinguish the fire, but subdued the
> fire, limiting the damage done. The fire department arrived.and finished
> off the job.
>
> So, the lesson of Geoff's experience was to only drain gasoline into a metal
> container and only one that is grounded.
>
> Ed
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