Transmission drain/fill causes problem?

Not really that silly. Especially on a carb vehicle. If the engine backfires while the breather is off you can get a pretty nice fire going. I cooked a pretty good riding mower like that once.... didn't learn my lesson though since I still play with the cars with the breather off.

Steve B.

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Steve B.
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The idea is that the air filter acts as a flame suppressor in a backfire. Unless of course, you're unlucky like my buddy was with his Nova when the backfire lit the air filter ON FIRE.

Ray

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ray

No, but I've run engines countless times with the air cleaner assembly removed for some sort of diagnostic testing. Yes, if there's a backfire you can get a bang and fireball out of the carburetor. Its much less likely on EFI engines, especially multiport EFI because the fuel isn't introduced until right at the intake valve. With a carb or TBI, the whole intake plenum is full of a combustible mixture and you can get a pretty big fireball. Which is why you don't stick your face right over the carb or TBI intake. But its really not a very substantial hazard if you're careful, The backfire is there and gone in a millisecond. Its like a firecracker and is very unlikely to ignite anything- the biggest hazard would be to a person's eyes if they were looking down the intake (a dumb thing to do). Plus, as I said its VERY unlikely to happen at all with MPEFI systems. I guess the Haynes manual has to put the warning in there because the world is filled with idiots that would stick their noses right in the intake of a running engine....

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Steve

Well, I *have* seen a backfire catch a fiberglass underhood pad on fire, but that's easily dealt with by hitting it with an old shop towel...

nate

Reply to
N8N

It have sprayed fuel on the pad- fiberglass doesn't burn so good ;)

Reply to
Steve

Well, this is on vehicles that likely have pads saturated with all sorts of underhood fluids... if they were in good condition, I wouldn't be working on them and they wouldn't be backfiring :)

nate

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Nate Nagel

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