CentralCoaster

If you're ever working on your vette, and leave the fuel lines disconnected, say at the fuel rail, then you must open the gas cap, then push in the schrader valve to vent the fuel pressure. This is obvious.

But, DO NOT put the gas cap back on until the fuel lines are reconnected.

I was working on my vette last night till the wee hours of the morning, and put the locking gas cap back on (because I'm paranoid about one of my roommates) and went to sleep. A mere two hours later, I went back in the garage, and it was filled with gas fumes, and there was about a gallon of premium on the ground, and it was still weeping out. It would probably be much worse had I left it for 6 more hours.

The garage isn't insulated, so as it heats up, the fuel heats up, and forces gas out of the system. Gasoline can also dissolve RTV, especially if it's still setting up.

The sealed gas cap is purely for emmissions, nothing else. Because of those damn dirty hippies ;), I could have burned my house to the ground! :eek: I bet smoldering fiberglass, rubber, paint and roofing tar is much worse for the environment than gas fumes!


[Modified by CentralCoaster, 9:34 PM 8/11/2003]

STL94LT1

:iagree: Been there, done that.

SkunkCar

If you've got a gas water heater in the garage with a pilot going 24/7, I suppose that could be a disaster waiting to happen. Thanks for making us aware of the potential for disaster. Glad to hear nothing catastrophic happened in your case.

AGENT 86

:eek: Were they circled in the garage inhailing all those fumes !! :crazy: :crazy:

SunCr

Put vacuum line caps on the open lines; you can buy an assortment at any discount auto supply. Loosen, but don't remove the cap.

Rich B.

For the same reason, *don't* put a fan in the garage to try to vent the fumes... :D

bogus

uh, lemme figure this out... you are pissed cause you proved simple fluid dynamics to be correct, and don't like dirty hippies cause of it? I don't see the connection.

Let's try this theory... every nite you park your car into that same garage, and you have the fuel vapours oozing out of your vented gas cap... some idiot room mate, goes down and lites a smoke... it still go boom.

Now... we all know that gas as a liquid is NOT flammable... it is only the vapours....

geez... :rolleyes: :skep:

Good nothing done blowed up.... :cheers:

Southern Comfort

hmmmmmm maybe you should dump the roommate. :skep:

CentralCoaster

Hey jerkoff, take it for what its worth.

Oh, and why don't you soak your clothes in gasoline and jump in a bonfire, then tell me liquid gas isn't flammable.

Strick

:boxing How's it look going into round 2? Looks like the CentralCoaster has just landed a hard right. Does Bogus have anything in reserve?

0ski_dwn_it

I think its worth posting this information. I did the same thing in my garage with my car about 2 yrs ago. Unhooked the line and nothing appeared to be coming out. Next thing you know I have a circle the size of the car of gas. In a closed garage with a wood burner going!

Here the fuel was coming out real slow and steady, then running down the backside of the fuel lines, and then dripping under the car.

The whole gagage probably would have been blown off the foundation along with my in it. By the time I realized what had happen, the fumes were sooooo bad that my eyes were watering and I couldn't stay in the garage any longer.

I quickly put a cap on the line, and ran out the man door. Went in the house and opened the other door (not above the car) with a garage door opener. I was fearful the electric motor would cause a spark, but knew I probably only had minutes anyways before the wood burner ignited the fumes, really to this day can't believe it didn't. I opened the garage door and held waited to see if the air currents were changed and would blow the fumes back in the wood burner.

Fortunately for me it was about 0* outside and I think all the hot air rushed to the outside and carried the fumes away from the open flames.

Now I always, get a pair of vise grips and crimp the supply line that is rubber off the tank. No more problems.

Good idea posting the warning. Alot of people don't realize how quick they can loose everything when making this mistake. I feel I was VERY fortunate.

:blueangel: :blueangel: :blueangel: :blueangel: :blueangel: :blueangel:

OleDog

Good advice.
Ski, the actually make a tool for closing off the gas line, works like a little mini vice. Look like a mini tube cutter without blades.

loiq

Hey Centralcoaster-

Maybe you should post this in Tech Tips. The proper way to let the car sit while the fuel lines are disconnected or something. Personally, whenever I do something to my car I've never done before I always do a search (sometimes not very productive) and check Tech Tips (usually very straightforward as you can simply look at the topics).

Just an idea. I never would have known had i not read this thread. :thumbs:

Strick

:iagree: Tech tips is waiting, no demanding this as an article. Remember, only you can prevent vette fires, isn't that what Smokie used to say? :thumbs:

Fuzzy Dice

Your post is right on !...there was a fellow on this forum a couple of years ago who lives not far from me in central Florida...he and a buddy did some engine work on his vette in his garage on Christmas eve...they finished the work about 4 in the morning and decided to button everything back up the next day...

at 10 AM he was awoken by his Mom and GF that the garage was on fire !...his vette burned to the ground and a lot of the garage too !...gas had leaked all over the floor and it seems the hot water heater in the garage ignited the fumes.. the insurance company fought him on the grounds it was his negligence that caused the fire... :eek: :cry ...as I recall he ended up with a cheap used Corolla cause the totalled vette busted him...

CentralCoaster

LOL, yup. :cheers:

TTT :cheers: :flag

I do suppose having a vented gas cap wouldn't make the situation any safer. I'll submit it when I get some spare time. I've already skiipped out on work 2 days because my Ford broke down while on the way to the parts store to get stuff for my vette.

keefyboy

Here's the connection genius - we're Corvette owners. Not the most ecologically responsible choice in automobiles. We, as a group, tend to relish ANY opportunity to bash damn dirty hippies, tree huggers, ELF wierdos, PETA nut-cases, NOW groupies, and just about any other extreme-left group that you can think of.

And the connection is simpler - because of the damn diry hippies, if you close the gas cap, fluid dynamics takes effect. Now, go back to 1969 and unleash Ahnold from T1 on them, and voila, near-useless environmental laws are gone, and there would be no gas on his floor. And no, the non-sealed cap would NOT vent fumes like puddling fuel.
-keith

CentralCoaster

Halleleuyah! :flag

I am a MACHINE!

BTW, the damn dirty hippie is looking for a new place to live.

bogus

:rant:

hm. I am now a jerkoff.

byte me.

first, it is the vapour of gasoline that is flammable. as soon as you douse that shirt into the gas, the vapours start pouring off. walk into that fire, and sure as hell it is going to catch fire.

try this: drop a match into a bucket of gas. if the match is moving fast enough, it will pass throught he vapour barrier and snuff on the liquid. neato, eh? and yes, I have done it. If you hold the match a couple inches above the gas, it will ignite. if you spread gas over a large area, it will start to evaporate and ignite... but it is not explosivly fast until the local atmosphere is saturated.

As for the prevailing attitude towards "tree huggers".... I may not be one, but I respect the results of emission controls. You may not want to breathe clean air, but I sure as hell do. And if keeping a functioning emissions control system on my car is the price I have to pay for that, then so be it.

The cars today are so much better - performance wise, styling sure has taken a hit - than the "great" cars of the 60s, that I for one, would rather not go back there.

I would rather be in my 92 vette in an accident than a 72 any day of the week. Not that I want to be in an accident, but then again, you might want me in one.

Back in the late 50s, "smog" was first identified in the LA basin. They put hard felt paper filters inside of these box things on the roofs of tall buildings to measure air quality - or the lack thereof.

Within 24 hours, the paper filters were BLACK. Black as coal. Now, after 3 months, the filters are just a bit off white. Now... lemme ask... which air would you rather breathe?

removing cat's, installing carbs... it's a waste of time and energy... we have to breathe from the same atmosphere... dammit... and I don't think the 5 horsepower you gain from taking the cats off is worth ultimate cost.

A new car today is SO clean that it takes a year to put out the same amt of emissions that a new car in 1968 did in like a couple of days (I don't remember the EXACT ratio, but it is similar). Insane.

All the while, we get to drive 300+ hp cars that get 30mpg on the highway... show me a 67 vette (however beautiful... drool) which will do that without serious upgrading.

So, if I recycle and want my atmosphere clean, does that make me a tree hugger? I think not. What it does make me is a concerned citizen of this planet.

Tom Piper

The vapors in the fuel tank expand and cause the tank to pressurize.

If the fuel system/fuel line is not open, the relief valve to the charcoal canister will vent and the charcoal will remove the fuel vapors from the venting gases.

If the fuel line is open, the building tank pressure will push liquid fuel out the open line before the charcoal canister relief valve opens.

The best solution seems to be to have the fuel lines capped so the charcoal canister does its work.

The second best solution is to leave the cap off the tank -- it's better to have a small amount of vapors come out than liguid fuel that evaporates to a large amount of fuel vapors.

My '64 coupe does not have any emission equipment -- no charcoal canister, and no relief valve. When I put it in the garage, the tank vents to the atmosphere right beside my '92 that has the fuel vapors captured by the charcoal canister.

Tom Piper


[Modified by Tom Piper, 1:57 PM 8/12/2003]