A question about safety, cutting torches, and frozen manifold nuts

I know enough to remove the carburetor, and ensure that no dripping and residual vapors from the line are present. But, I want to ask the experts here so that I can bother you'all with more neophyte questions, rather than this being my last message.

The old saying is true: "measure twice cut once", but in my case: "ask once or twice, think twice, and come back for more." 9N'er

p.s. advice appreciated.

I work at a hospital that has a major Burn Center. I work very closely with those folks especialy our Burn Surgeon. We do Great work here and are nationaly known.

BUT, Just take a 15 minute walk through there and get a look at what coud happen with one mistake and you will become a lot more concerned with safety and start to not even think about short-cuts.

The Burn Center folks say the lucky ones are there, the others are dead.

Skin grafts, wound cleaning, a lot of therapy and at least 2-3 years of follow up care...not worth it at all...and for the kids they will follow up til they are 17-19 years of age and most will require several more trips to the Operating Room to correct some problems as their bodies develop.

Nothing good about any of the burns.

Please be safe.

later,dave

Unless Al thinks "Peanut butter" might be corrosive ??

ROFL, I kill me!

later"Belch"dave

Belch,belch

later"Belch"dave

LOL,
later,tyman,belch

Happy July 4th,
Tyman

I'm always doing something that's questionable or a little "different". But having seen what a person goes through after being burned, I wouldn't take any chances. It takes a lot longer to recover(if you do) than it takes to remove the tank...Al English

"then when the job is done, pour in a bunch of dry gas,slosh it around, drain and then fill with gas."

Am I missing something???,I'm not 100% sure, but I think,I just think,I'll read it again,I'm pretty sure that's kind'a what I said?? ROFL

later"Belch"dave

Tyan

Fuel tanks are plated with either zinc(mostly older ones) or Terne(which is lead/tin). As you probably know, there are different kinds of alcohol. I don't know the technical reason why, but methanol is corrosive to a wide range of metals and plastics (including Terne and zinc)that can tolerate the other types of alcohol. I never appreciated the full extent of this until I saw a compatibility chart that included methanol. Gasohol is normally 10% alcohol. When it first became available some suppliers were caught using cheaper methanol rather than ethanol. The reason this was an issue was not because of the cost, but rather the fuel system damage it causes even at a 10% concentration, including damage to the protective plating in the fuel tank. Race cars that burn methanol use different materials where possible, but brass parts, zinc alloy carburetor bodies, aluminum fittings, etc. are all corroded by the methanol. Anytime the car will be idle for any length of time, the methanol is flushed out with gasoline.

As you may know non-permanent anti-freeze was methanol. Amazingly it is even mildly corrosive to the steel cans they used to package it in. For about four years I worked for a shop that restored old cars that had aluminum blocks and wet cylinder sleeves which were nickel plated on the water side. When we would encounter an engine with water jackets that were badly etched and corroded, it was always a car that had been in a cold climate in it's early years. Non-permanent anti-freeze also ate up the solder holding the radiator together(Terne plating is basically solder).

I hope I answered the question. In any case it's probably more than anyone really wants to know...Al English

later,dave

Tyman

Just wanted to be clear on that my frEInd LOL

later"belch"dave