[Land-speed] What we learned today . . .

David in Durango adin at frontier.net
Fri Nov 27 15:42:09 MST 2009


(I have been to the navy fire school - x2.  I once woke up in  a freshly
painted trailer where EVERYTHING was on fire, and put it out with a small
"kitchen" extinguisher PSHHHHT PSHHHHT in seconds)

1. Electric fuel pumps suck.
2. A "fire extinguisher" (labled "Halon 1211" ) with the needle in the green
zone at 100%  may NOT put out a fire, no matter how small it is.
3. a small engine fire looks really big when the flames are burning up your
newly painted engine goodies and expensive spark plug wires.  NO, BIGGER!
4. If you leave the key on, the electric pump just keeps pumping, and pumping,
and pumping, and pumping (get the idea?
5. No matter how careful you think you are (unplugging stuff, checking fuel
lines, opening the garage door, having the fire bottle sitting "right there")
. . . you really aren't careful enough.
6. That new distributor makes a pretty good spark.
7. If you think you can stick your fuzzy old face down in the engine
compartment and blow out the fire . . . bwahahahahahahahahha think again,
superman.
8. The garden hose canNOT be too close.  and yes, I'll pull the plugs and spin
the motor before much else happens.  OK, right after I check the fuel plumbing
for the 29th time.
9. I'm REALLY thankful the garage queen car and the whole house and
neighborhood didn't burn down. Believe me.

Monday, I'm taking all my "goodies" to the fire extinguisher place for a
checkup, lessons, question and answer period and to leave a big tip.

Do you think you can find your fire bottle while the new project burns?  If it
says green, is it good?
Be careful out there, kids.  Please!  (the smoke fills the whole house . .
.really fast!)

David in Durango
grouchy and dirty and thankfully still on the rare side.


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