What's the worst part about working on your own car......gasoline showers...
 

Okay, I just had to vent......the garage that is. I have to drop the 356 engine, because the clutch went out on it, and needs to be replaced. Never quite done this one before, but the sources tell me that I could do it in an hour. No problem, except that I accidentally miscalculated how much clamping I would need on the gas line.

Can't say I enjoy having gas squirted into my mouth and face. Anyone agree with me?

The first reaction is to get the hell out of there. Then, after taking large gulps of air, you think, ok, how stable are those halogen lamps on stands that the gasoline is now flowing past?

Okay, grab a big gulp of air, and run inside the garage to the toolbox. Grab the visegrips (all of them, don't make the mistake I made tonite, oh, I only need one more...)...run back out side. Gasp, gasp, gasp. pant,pant,pant.

Assess the damage...about a pint to a quart, and still coming out quite quickly.Grab a big gulp of air, run back into the garage, carefully grab the FLOURESCENT lamp, and dive under the side of the car. Where the **** is the gas line, I can't see it...lungs really wanting air, take a sample small breath

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Okay, blackout almost, run back out of garage...where the heck is that line. Run back in (after taking a big gulp of air) and dive further under the car. There's the line. Clamp down and run back out.

Still streaming out. Crap (and assorted obscenities). Consider calling FireDept. Potential embarrassment = HIGH. Risk fire instead.

Run back into toolbox, grap visegrip. Run out gasp, gasp, gasp. Run back, dive under car, clamp down. Crap, guessed wrong, too loose. Adjust, clamp, crap, breath coming. Damn, lots of fumes under here, must get out.

(repeat previous paragraph three more times).

Check to make sure that the gas was turned off (ooops, it was on RESERVE, crap, I wish I could read German (handle is written in German)).

Gas has stopped flowing. Smells like gas wherever I go because...you know...

Get large roll of paper towels, and start mopping up spill, run back outside, gasp, gasp. Getting slight headache now...

Head inside to check the room kindof above the garage (wife sleeping). Doesn't smell any worse inside than in the hallway, although I probably can't tell being somewhat smelly myself.

Carefully mop up the rest, and carefully pull electrical cords out of gas puddle. Good, it's stopped now. Come upstairs, take long shower, come out sit down and write BBS about my stupid mistake...

-Wayne


[This message has been edited by Wayne at Pelican Parts (edited 06-08-2001).]

My experience.

Started the engine after carb removal. Power on, wait couple minutes to see if there are any gas leaks. Nothing leaking to the ground, ready to start the engine.

Of course the carbs and tubes are empty of gas so it takes a while to start the car. After starting the car just coughs and backfires. Then, flames up in the engine compartment from carburetors. I decide to switch off the engine because something is wrong. Carbs adjusted very poorly it seems.

I turn off the engine and start smoking a tobacco. Then, I hear this "Tss!...Tsss!...Tss!..." sound. What could that be? Exhaust cooling? No, thats a pinging sound. I go under the car suspecting there is a leak of some sort.

Indeed there is! There is gas dripping directly on the exhaust pipes! And I don't know where its coming from! I am thinking of running to a friend to get a fire extinguisher, then, if it would get on fire before I got back, it would be too late. I just start to back off couple meters and pray. Still smoking my tobacco.

After a while, the gas stops dripping, well at least I don't hear the sound. Yes, no more gas coming on the exhaust. Maybe its safe to check where it came from. I open the engine compartment and Uh, smells of gas. The carbs were not flooding, I check the gas lines. Carbs...metal fuel line...rubber hose...fuel filter..YES! thats it. The fuel filter was leaking, it was new but somehow it was cracked and leaked all over the engine compartment, and on the exhaust.

No wonder I smelled gas on my way from Germany to Finland, no wonder we ran out of gas on Autobahn while we had just driven 200km with full tank...

Thank god the car did not get on fire, not here in Finland, or worse, on my way home. After all, 1500km is a long way to walk.

Next day, EVERY rubber hose was replaced that has something to do with fuel.

//Zen


[This message has been edited by Zendalar (edited 06-08-2001).]

Whenever I pull the engine out of my Beetle I put a stubby #2 Phillips screwdriver in the rubber fuel line and reclamp it. This works as a really good plug. I've done it a thousand times this way.

One day, though, it just wouldn't seal. I was completely covered in gas by the time I found my visegrips to clamp the line. I was lucky that I didn't have any electrical stuff going on, and there was a garden hose handy to soak everything down, including me. The one thing that really bothered me later was how fast gasoline dries out your skin!

Okay Wayne, you have brought back some uh....memories. I had an absolutely gorgeous red 1965 Alfa Romeo Sprint GT. It was 1967 or 8 and I bought the car from a beautiful blonde for only $900.00. But that's another story.

Okay, I've got the brake booster apart and I'm cleaning some grease off with gasoline. the jar of gasoline and the brush are next to my leg as I am sitting on the floor. There's this big spring in the booster and the only way I can clamp the thing together is with my legs. The spring keeps popping and the booster spreads and the metal clamping ring flies. I finally get a good purchase on it with my thighs and the ring is just out of reach. I stretch and get the ring, but manage to knock over the jar of gasoline! I can't let go of the booster since it took a while to get it all packed together and that big spring is going do a NASA. By now my bum and ah... family jewels are being pickled in gasoline, but I can't let go and #$%* metal ring is really being stubborn so I have to sit there and UHHHHHHHHH! It doesn't feel good. It seems that 20 minutes of being soaked in the groin and bum paid off and the booster was repaired with a $10 or $20 kit instead of $100 or $200 replacement. I don't even want to think of the disaster a fire would have caused!

Diverdan

Yup.

Two weeks ago - want to break the seal around the base of the gas tank after removing all of the top hoses and electrical connections. Floor jack underneath with 1x10 to prevent damage - jack, jack, jack POP spalsh splash splash. Damn, forgot about the fuel line underneath - gas everywhere. Quick - lights off, unplug stereo. "Honey, I've got to run to the store really quickly, be right back - uhhh, please don't turn on the lights in the garage...." 10 minutes and a couple of liters of fuel later - tank turned upright on it's side, kitty litter (I just bought) everywhere, fumes choking me as I pray to the god of all Porsches for no sparks...

About a week ago - Removed the fuel lines from my MFI 2.4, gas all over the engine and drippign onto the (oil stained) floor. Use the kitty litter (bought the previous week) again to soak it up, but that $#%^& smell persists. Few days later drop the engine, holler to wife - come see what progress I've made - hoping for some real excitement (because I was so thrilled). The only comment I get is "What is that disgusting odor, I've got to go..." Not the excitement I was hoping for.

I guess mine aren't very good stories compared you the others here, but I can understand how you felt.

The joys of being your own mechanic...

Charlie

Argh!!!!

It brought back my worst Porsche experience (hell, car experience) in a pristine rush.

Repairing a leaking fuel line between the gas tank and the aluminium pipes that run down the center tunnel between the seats.

very bad access, very difficult to see, remove pipe, attempt to block it, fail! Trapped underneath car, gas everywhere, over me in my eyes, in my mouth, beginning to black out, crawl underneath, its burning my skin, spreading everywhere!!!!

Argh! the "sunburn" rash lasted for days, the headache just an hour or so.

Horrible experience!

- roGER

from "Red Gas" on the 912TF

So I'm playing with my parts car tonight and decide to remove the gas tank. I lift the
edge 1mm w a flat screwdriver, just to guage how full it is and whoosh, the rubber hose
at the base splits and there is gas all over the place. Buckets (hauled away almost 9
gallons) and rags and awhile later we clean up and I keep thinking this red gas smells
horrible. I pulled the fuel sender - red - as in jelly jam red - up to apparently the "gas
line" and then the standard aluminum color. After I got the tank out I found the rubber
line was dried, cracked, and waiting like time bomb.

That happened to me while i was changing a fuel filter underneath an old MG. I pretty well blacked out, could hardly walk, the headache lasted for days.

it's a scary thing to know you could go up in flames with one wrong move that caused a spark, or the bulb style trouble light falling into the mess. hard to be prepared for it , but plan your moves carefully if it happens.

Wow, I don't feel so bad anymore...

-Wayne

Brings back memories of another P car. My girlfriends Pinto.

About 15 years ago my girlfriend's Pinto got caught in a flood, completely submerged the engine. I cleaned it all out and tried to start it up. No go.

Check for spark, yes.

Check for fuel to carb. Remove fuel line into carb and position jar to catch the fuel. Remove coil wire then have girlfriend turn over engine while I watch for fuel.

As she turns the engine, I see the fuel .... and the sparks being generated by the alternator. Pressure from fuel pump knocks line out of catch jar..... engine is on fire.

This is in the middle of an appartment complex parking lot, not a fire extinguisher or blanket in site. Panic. What to do?

Run to nearest apartment and scream for an extinguisher. Guy comes running out with a pale of water. Through water on engine.

Fortunately there was not much fuel and it burnt off quickly without igniting the rest of the car.

I felt very lucky, and stupid.

The joke after the fact was the I had set the fire to dry the flood water out of the engine.

------------------
Chuck Moreland - '86 Cab, '77 Targa, Family Truckster

1967, I drive from Toronto to Montreal for the world's fair "Expo 67". The first night it rains a lot and in the morning my 1962 Mercury Meteor will not start. We coast in it down hill to a garage. The "mecanicien" opens the hood lights up his acetylene torch with a bright yellow flame and waves it all over the engine. Voila - $5 and 5 minutes later it starts - of course it seems to me it could just as easily have burned to the ground.

Buddy came over to get me to help put in his new front sway bar...he's an apartment dweller.

So we pull the tank, and the line cracks and spews....AVGAS!!!!!!!!!!

This guy works at the airport and fuels up there....free. I run to the water heater and turn off the pilot....run inside and get buckets and then a large fan to ventilate the garage....wooohoooo what a high....

110 ocatne low lead, fortunatley the vapors and gas evaported quickly. Almost toasted the house....

Unless you have very much of that water, it won't help much. Because the water spreads the gasoline (lighter than water). Thats why its very handy to carry 10$ fire extinguisher somewhere in the car, well thats what I am gonna do for now on http://www.pelicanparts.com/ultimate/smile.gif


//Zen

Hello

Yes i can recall such situations, one was with the fuel runing down from the arm all way to the socks ( that was a fast PPI around midnight and the Y from the MFI broke ).
But I learned to keep the head away.

Also I allways have a labor clamp in the pocket and some screws ( 10 & 8 mm fits to block ).

But still waiting to top this: http://www.mejor.com/356/maestro/stories/watercooled.html

------------------------------------

Was it the Newfangled Reformulated Gas California has now (At $1.76/gal)
and that you'll soon get hit with- right in the Pocketbook and your
Fabric Fuel lines! For while the Maestro was changing distributors, he
noticed that the Man from Alaska's Inlet Fuel Line to
the Fuel Pump, purchased from a Large, Midwestern Porsche Dealer
four years ago, was wet with California Reformulated Gasoline.
Almost like a sponge, and in dire Need of
Replacement. A Word to the Wise. Watch those Fabric Fuel Lines!
Especially on those 356's parked in the Garage, next to the
gas-fired Hot Waster Heater!
http://www.mejor.com/356/maestro/stories/deathvalley.html