Car Geeks

[danaeris]

My father's answer to my question... you might find interesting:
Hi you young rebel,
It never had an official name as far as I remember. We just tapped a
threaded hole into the exhaust system downstream of the muffler (no
catalytic converters in those days, stuck in a spark plug, and rigged a
separate electrical line up to the ignition system with a separate switch on
the dash. It only worked because carburettors were so horribly inefficient
in those halcyon times of yore.

If your put your foot down hard to accelerate, the fuel system would richen
up the air/fuel mixture ie. higher ratio of gasoline to the air, then if you
lifted off the gas pedal radically, a lot of unspent fuel got vacuumed down
the exhaust system (we're into engine valve train overlap now so just take
it on faith or look it up). So for that second or so before you restore the
gas pedal to a 'normal' position you had an inflammable mixture in the
exhaust system. You flipped the switch, the spark plug took a hit off of
the ignition coil and voila, a gout of flame about two meters or so out of
the tailpipe.

Looked great at night (see American Graffiti), but I actually cannot
remember anyone having a sweet young lady throw herself into the car after
becoming overwhelmed with lust due to this gimmick. But hey, that's the two
solitudes between the sexes.

Obviously you can build anything, but with today's ultra-efficient fuel
injection system and solid state ignition systems the method would be much
different.
luv
Dad

Comments

[stollman.livejournal.com]

Wow... your dad is neat. Thank him for educating me. :-)

[danaeris.livejournal.com]

My friends always hate my mom and love my dad.

He used to be a race car driver. My car geek friends would adore him.

[emmett-the-sane.livejournal.com]

Yours, too?

[(Anonymous)]

You keep saying things about your mom..do you really hate her or is she that awful?

[danaeris.livejournal.com]

That is an awfully personal question to be coming from an anonymous poster.

In spite of that, I will humor you. No, I don't hate my mother. Nor is she "that awful" -- whatever that may mean.

And, regardless of all that, the above comment referenced how my FRIENDS felt about my mother -- not how I felt.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

*Hee* You have a cool Dad...

Re: The modern equivalent

[arcticelf.livejournal.com]

This is still done on hot rods and the like for car showes and just to show off.

The systems I have seen have two parts, one is the spark plug like your father mentioned, usualy very close to the tail pipe. The other section is a fuel injector that sprays high presure gas into the exaust stream father up the system. This will produce a big burst of flame, for as long as you leave the system on.

The other option I have seen is a totaly seperate part to the exaust system, which sprays propain though a burner head hear the exaust line, the ingites it. This is basicaly a hyped up torch, but the effect is very similar.

AE

[lawbard.livejournal.com]

but I actually cannot
remember anyone having a sweet young lady throw herself into the car after
becoming overwhelmed with lust due to this gimmick.

Clearly, he has never met plymouth :)

[plymouth.livejournal.com]

*snicker*

would you believe I've never actually seen this done in real life?

Re: Oh man.....*gulp*

[deedeebythebay.livejournal.com]

I *do* love that icon.

[lawbard.livejournal.com]

I find that suprising! Both the throwing oneself at a car, and the sparking of pipes.

[cortneyofeden.livejournal.com]

By your wording earlier (" what do you call the doodads that people used to put on their car that would shoot sparks?") I thought you meant sparks.

Didn't realize you meant the flames coming out of the tailpipe. Still not aware of what it's called, but yeah...it's fun. And I've never actually seen it get done.

But way cool for the info. :)

[plymouth.livejournal.com]

yeah, I was similarly confused. I've only ever heard them called "flamethrowers" or "flamethrowers in the exhaust".

[unseelie23.livejournal.com]

Strangely enough, that's almost exactly the same way they did the machine guns in the Airwolf TV show. If you ever get a good look at them, those 'sights' are spark plugs. And no, it's not worth thinking about why helmet guided/aimed machine guns had 'sights'. :)

[benndragon.livejournal.com]

Since folks might not realize it, many motorcycles still use carbs and are rather skimpy on the computer systems. This is because most laws regarding emissions do not apply to motorcycles. I'm not sure why, my logical guess is that since bikes inherently get around 50-60mpg (except for stupid-fast crotch rockets and huge cruisers) and are far less common it just wasn't worth the effort.

The point being, you could use that system to make fire shoot out of motorcycles just like cars. I'm pretty sure I've seen something along those lines somewhere or other, unless the sparks I'm recalling are from the pipe/tail scraping the ground rather than shooting out of the pipe. You have to be a bit more careful with a bike, as there's less pipe and your leg tends to be next to said pipe. I wonder if you could cheat by using the choke to richen the gas/air mix?