'59 Plymouth Forum

Well, with a thread header like this you wonder what is John up to now... Well.....It is very important to carry a fire extinguisher with you when you drive your 59 Plymouth or any old car.

First of all my car is fine and no damage to it. But on the way back from having the front end aligned Tuesday AM I was close to my house just enjoying the morning (and straight steering) I noticed in my inside rearview mirror a cloud of smoke trailing behind me...Hmmm what could that be?

I pulled over and I saw smoke come out of the seams in my hood between the fenders. Then I smelled it... Burning oil! Jump out and opened my hood to an even larger plume of smoke to see a nice little fire below my exhaust manifold on the drivers side head pipes (down low) there was also oil everywhere in my engine compartment and on the street too!

I pulled back and said "Shoot!" (you know what I said and it was in rapid succession too!) I started dialing my local fire department, then stopped and thought the car would be burned up by then. I started huffing and puffing my 57 year old , asthmatic lungs at the visible flames and with the spirit of Virgil Exner by my side was able to blow out the visible flames! Now it was just smoking a lot from the oil on the hot exhaust pipes.

Relieved, I called home and my wife called AAA for a short tow to my house 5 mins away. While I was waiting, my son Jack who just got off a 24 hour shift from his firehouse (not in Arvada) came to keep me company( my wife had to call him and divert him to me) , just shaking his head at me. Jack likes a good "car-b-que" cause Firefighters love taking an axe to any car on fire to put it out.Along with hundreds of gallons of water too! And he said he was glad I held off calling them because some times the fireman are a little rough on a car to put out the flames. But If I could not blow the flames out then by all means call them!

We then had time to look around the engine compartment before the tow truck arrived and saw that the heater vacuum line hose and the small white nylon tube that went to my auxiliary Oil pressure gauge had come off the little "J" hooks below the heater box and had been snagged by the accelerator rods/Bell crank and that caused the small nylon tube to be pulled out of its fitting at the rear of the engine causing the oil to be pumped out in a stream towards the firewall and then below to the hot exhaust pipes.

Having the car towed home, I went to work still shaken up a bit and when I got home that afternoon, I took off the fitting and plugged the engine block hole with a plug, Put 3 quarts of Oil in her, fired her up and drove her to the car wash to de-oil the engine compartment. I then went to Auto Zone and bought a fire extinguisher to go in my car. The most expensive one they had! It is now in my trunk ready for action.

So I dodged a bullet big time on my newly finished convertible and want to have everyone to have a chuckle at my expense on my "Chinese Fire Drill" and to make sure they have an extinguisher in their car to put out such fires or other mishaps. Or you could come upon someone else who needs a fire put out on their car too!

I debated deciding to post this but if someone puts an extiguisher in their car and this saves the day then we have benefited from this short story about what happened to me.

John "Flame on!" Q.

Hooray for the Fire fighting Quinn's! Good job saving the Frau. She is a lot of fun, as well as valuable.

I must take my asthma medicine everyday in case I have to do this again!!!

John Q.

John,

I am so glaf that you got through this without major damage And yes I will follow your advice and put one in our cars, been thinking about ut for a long time but never got to it. I started thinking about it when we got to Carlisle, think it was the first time you went to Carllisle when Dan put out a fire in a car that was parking next to us.

Ron

Greatest risk of fire is from gasoline spills...anything from broken glass fuel filters, to leaky fuel lines, to messed up carbs.
Second is electrical...short circuits in old wiring
Third is as John experienced..oil leaks hitting hot manifolds.
Be pro-active!

Glad to hear that you and your car came out of it OK. Car fires can be a scary thing indeed.

---John

You were lucky. I have a fire extinguisher in all of my classic cars and on the wall in my garage. Not sure the trunk is the best place for it. Mine are usually on the passinger's side floor if I'm alone. Or on the back seat. Once you see the flames or smell the smoke, you don't want to stop, take the key out of the ignition and hope you remember which one is the trunk key. I picture me forgetting to pull the parking brake and watching my car roll down the hill while I'm trying to pull the pin out of the extingusiher.

Glad things worked out.

Ken

I'm glaf too, you almost messed up our going to a show in Denver as a pair unless Tom goes too, then we would be trips. I don't know how I missed this post. That was a close one john, I keep extinguishers in my trunk but I have seen some mounted on the side kick panel and on the side of the trans hump. But I think Ken has it right, keep one under the front seat.
Dick.

Ron Keij wrote:I started thinking about it when we got to Carlisle, think it was the first time you went to Carllisle when Dan put out a fire in a car that was parking next to us.

I was out in Faulkner yesterday for the 3rd annual Videon Chrysler car show (pix this evening, maybe), and I was thinking about this very incident. I never did replace that extinguisher, although it may have some juice in it yet. I'm taking John's advice here...

I remember the guy never thanked me for putting out that fire - I guess he was just too shaken up by what happened. Kinda like John!

Dan

Yep I was shaken, rattled and stirred up on the engine fire, Hope no one has an episode like mine with an engine fire. But if I do have another one , I will be ready!

I think I will get a smaller one for under the seat besides the bigger one that now resides in my trunk. Just as a back up.... Better safe then Car-B-Qued!


John Q.

Your stories are a wake-up call for me...I need to get an extinguisher for this trailer I currently reside in!

I have a friend who takes his '70 Cuda to car shows fequently. He carries fire extinguisher on floor behind drivers seat when he's driving and puts it in his trunk while at show. I can see how it would be handy and at the ready inside your vehicle but if not secured somehow, it could become a flying missle in an accident. I carry mine all the time in the trunk.