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    • #57228
      Lori and Dave Noyes
      Participant

        Tonight I found out that the 43 year old fire extinguisher in my Tiger still works. 🙁 I hadn’t driven it for about a week and a half — the hood was off to have the underside painted. When dad had the car painted once years ago, he never did the underside of the hood and it was tinged brown from age and heat. The hood was reinstalled today, so I took it for a drive after dinner.We went to Sonic, then to a friends’ house and took them each for a short spin about town for fun. Then we visited in their yard for a while. Upon starting up for home, we noticed smoke coming from under the hood, stopped the engine, and opened the newly painted hood. There were flames !! at the carburetor/front of air filter. One small squirt of the extinguisher put it out. The underside of the hood now looks like a burnt marshmallow and the outer hood surface is blistered.

        Question is… could the paint be the culprit (my hubby thinks maybe the clearcoat could have melted, dripped and ignited?) or should I be checking for something in the carburetor or elsewhere?

        Any help is greatly appreciated,
        a very sad Lori

      • #62405
        alpine-64
        Participant

          check the carb and filter… what type of filter are you running? The triangle ones with the foam ellement can catch fire..

        • #62406

          Thank goodness you had that fire extinguisher. Everyone should carry one.

        • #62408

          Sorry your new paint job was ruined. I had the same thing a while back. It was caused by some flammable plastic tubing catching light, but I dont know what ignited it though.

          Yours sounds like a fuel leak problem. Check if theres any wetness around the carb. Check fuel hoses and unions, but a high fuel level in the float chamber is also a common cause of leaks. If its a Holley carb its an easy adjustment, but the original Autolite carb needs to be opened up to reset the level.

        • #62409
          Lori and Dave Noyes
          Participant

            The most intense damage on the hood lines up with the screws on the carb under the air filter. There doesn’t seem to be any damage in the engine compartment except for the edge of the air cleaner.I took some pictures but can’t seem to insert them here successfully. [/img]

          • #62411
            Lori and Dave Noyes
            Participant
            • #62412

              A little help for ya –

              4th picture is way to big, cut and paste.

            • #62413

              Get that fire extinguisher recharged, if it’s rechargeable; if not, get a new one. The seal on the extinguisher will leak after it’s used, and you’ll have no pressure if you ever need it again.

              You should rebuild the carb to replace all the gaskets, but fires need both a fuel and an ignition source to start – did you have a backfire through the carb from the intake manifold? Check your ignition wire routing (specifically #7 and #8) to make sure you don’t have a situation where crossfires are encouraged. Also check the condition of the plug wires in general, and if they’re old or if you recall ever hearing snapping sounds under the hood when the engine is running, then replace them.

            • #62414
              Lori and Dave Noyes
              Participant

                Thank you to all for your help. My wires are all new, and there were no snapping sounds. The carburetor (the original autolite) will be getting a good going over. (I resized the photo of the carb, but I still don’t get how to cut and paste in this application! — Maybe it’s a Mac thing. Anyway, there’s a link to it.) And I’ll be more cautious about starting a hot engine. The guys in the body shop will wonder why my friend has my hood to paint again! Hopefully the car will be up and running again for Taste of Britain at the end of August. Can’t say this helps convince my hubby or my dad that I should drive it to the United.

              • #62418
                stu

                  Mine leaked a few years back, and it was the accellerator pump diaphram. From your picture, the fire seemed to originate right under that. Fortunately, I had no fire, I smelled it and shut it down in time.

                • #62422

                  Hi,

                  Sorry to hear about the fire 🙁 . Your lucky you caught it in time and that the car was not unattended at the time. It’s a real reality check when you see photo’s like those. Better check my Tiger before taking it out next time.

                  Regards, Robin.

                • #62441
                  Lori and Dave Noyes
                  Participant

                    The Tiger is all back together with a shiny white hood. I found nothing wrong with the carburetor or accelerator pump diaphragm — that was new. Several people have suggested that a spark may have ignited hot paint fumes. Who knows, but I hope that never happens again.

                    I ran the engine in the garage with the hood up last week, and it ran beautifully. Today I drove it without incident. I kept the hood slightly popped just in case, and put it up when I parked in order to vent the heat before the return trip.

                  • #62462

                    Hi,

                    Good to hear that everything is OK and all up and running. Did your recharge the fire extinguisher?

                    Regards, Robin.

                  • #62463
                    Lori and Dave Noyes
                    Participant

                      They won’t recharge anything older than 1984. Right now I have the one from my kitchen in the car. I’ll be picking up a new one this week.

                      Lori

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