Prius caught on fire!

My theory is that the flaming Prius was the Ford Prius mentioned in a poll.

 

Frankly, I think there's a better chance of getting smacked by that penguin in maggieddd's avatar than having your Prius catch on fire. So, I'm on the lookout for penguins.

 

I am too! Have you seen how many times the one penguin gets hit by the other one? You'd think the victim would get wise to it after awhile, but he just keeps walking by. Guess they aren't known for their intelligence...

 

I agree that this post was very odd...What was the point...I saw a Prius speeding the other day........

 

And if it was me in my Salsa Red, you may have thought I was on fire!

 

funny, my bOther-in-law told me some bitch cut him off near Sacramento, and he torched her car.

guess he wasn't kidding...

h34r:

 

Sorry, lost count!

Seriously though, the thing is absolutely mesmerizing.......almost more so than Rancid's "dancing Napoleon Dynamite".

 

Twenty years ago my parents bought a new Chevy that burst into flames on their way home from picking it up at the dealers. It was caused by faulty wiring under the dash.

 

Napoleon's since been retired; he was getting on my nerves. LOL...

 

I had a '66 Mustang that I restored. One day my wife was driving it and the float in the carburetor I had just rebuilt stuck down in the bottom of the float bowl. The gas just filled the bowl and kept coming in and some how dumped out all over the distributor which caused a gasoline fire under the hood. She just pulled off the road and fortunately the local fire chief was right behind her in his fire chief's car. He saw the smoke, stopped, and grabed his extinguisher and put the fire out before any real damage was done. Just needed some new wires and a paint job on the hood. A new carburetor too as I recall.

 

If you were on I95 in PA, it was probably my son.

 

If it was a 289/302 the distributor is at the front of the block. If restored to stock the standard 2 bbl is fairly easy to flood that way. The inline 6 with single bbl is also easy to flood.

The biggest problem I've had is with fuel lines. Say you run all new fuel lines to the fuel pump, then into the carb. There will be dirt, dust, even some shavings in the fuel lines. That can easily get caught on the seat and the float will either stick or the junk on the seat won't allow the gas to shut off.

My uncle taught me a neat trick when I was a boy: hook up a bump switch to the starter solenoid. That's easy on Ford's as it's on the inner fender next to the battery. Make sure the ignition switch is OFF.

Before hooking up the fuel line to the carb, put it into an empty coffee can. Crank the motor over (It's easier on the starter if you pull out the plugs first) until gas comes out the fuel line. It doesn't hurt to fill the coffee can half full with gas, that's a good flush.

Now look into the coffee can. You might be surprised at the crap at the bottom of the can. Now hook up the fuel line to the carb.

I've had the best luck with the Edelbrock/Weber carbs. I've had it with Holley's and their finicky settings and float bowls and their zillions of different jets. Drop in an Edelbrock 600 and it just works, the way it's supposed to.

I hope your wife wasn't too cross with you!

 

odd, I always thought that my bother-in-law was my brother-in law's female parent....



.....hmmm

 

I hate to sound cynical, but cars burst into flames all the time, for a wide variety of reasons. I'd be surprised if there hadn't yet been a Prius burst into flames by now. I don't know about you, but about every year or two I see a car beside the highway burst into flames, usually with no sign of an accident.

One of my earliest memories is sitting in a parked car idling waiting for someone when flames came out of the hood and a few minutes after we got out the whole car was engulfed.

If you think about, it's not that surprising... ICE engines actually operate by causing explosions over and over again. It's kind of incredible to me that there aren't more fires. But apparently most car fires are caused by defective electrical systems.

I used to drive an electric vehicle, the Corbin Sparrow. Only a couple hundred were ever produced and the corrupt company that produced them didn't do proper safety precautions. There were at least three confirmed reports of fires starting while driving.

From everything I've seen Toyota went out of their way to make sure their hybrids are very safe, so I'm not particularly worried.

But I can't wait for hygrogen

 

You got it Jayman it was a 289 with the stock 2 bbl. Fortunately my wife isn't to easily excited, she just said she hoped it could be fixed so it didn't do that any more. We kept the car several more years and had no more trouble, at least with the carburetor.

 

Yeah I have sad experience with those Motorcraft 2 bbl carbs. My 1984 Ford F-150 with 302 came with one and in 1985 I put on an Edelbrock in take and a Holley 4 bbl.

Sad how a Holley 4 bbl was an improvement ...

Trust me on this if you happen to get an old non-emission car in the future: unless restored for "accuracy" ditch whatever carb it has and put on an Edelbrock/Weber 4 bbl. They are SO easy to install and tune.

Matter of fact, most adjustments beyond basic mixture setting - if even needed - require swapping metering rods. The metering rods can be replaced while the carb is on the car, usually in less than 5 mins.

You know what happens if you try to change jets on a Holley while it's still on the motor: take off the bowls and gasoline is all over the motor. Never again.

 

:lol:

 

I passed an interesting site one day. A car was on the side of the road in flames and a water truck from a nearby construction site pulled up and started pumping water on it.

 

ya right!!... i bet you $20 it was the salesman from the GM dealer down the street that torched the thing