For the one other gear head in here.

Mar 5, 2019, 11:30 AM

I posted this on Pelican Parts Mercedes form in response to a article about an automobile burning due to Jiffy Lube fouling up an oil change.

That would be the first time I ever saw engine oil burning a car.

Back in the early 1970s I had a 67 Chevy II which had a really powerful 327ci engine. 12.5/1 pistons, steel crank, pink rods, Phase III Z28 cam, aluminum intake with an 800 Holly double pumper carb, 300 double hump chevy heads with zero rocker arms, orange GM springs and a 3 angle valve job. Behind it was a 40lb flywheel, purple, Zoom pressure plate, clutch and a lakewood blowproof bell housing. Behind that was a super T10 Borg Warner trans w/ a 264 low gear.

Behind that was a BW power brute u joint, stock drive shaft with a safety loop then another power brute u joint. The rear diff was a 12 chevy with a 5.13/1 gear and pinion. AP headers made by JC Penny because no one else made headers for the car other than fenderwells for which I would not cut into the unibody frame.

The owner of a Vette smarted off to me on Friday night in front of a group of fine women and I told him I'd blow all four doors off that snail he drove. He couldn't back down so we line em up on a ~2 mi straight hwy between Harriman, TN and Oliver Springs.

My BNL who was going to flag and sent his wife to mark off a quarter mile. Off we went, I didn't even remove my headers. I did a 4k hole shot because he wouldn't let me put my 9" wrinklewalls on my car. When I hit second gear I hooked up and left that stock vette like it was sitting still. No, more like reverse. Some long tim after I hit 4th gear turning about 7200 rpm I realized I was chasing a pair of tail lights which were moving.

Three things had happened. My sister in law had turn around to go back and find out how to measure a quarter mile on an odometer, after we had adjusted the poly locks on the tip of the rocker arms my BNL who was tasked with the valve cover replacement on the left bank had put the new gasket on so that the rear didn't seal and the engine oil was pouring out onto the header on that side. I lost a qt of oil and most of it went to smoke on the left header sticking out of a small block chevy engine which had just run a mile wide open at 7200 rpm over 3/4th of that mile.

So no. there's no way the oil would have ignited from exhaust. Maybe a hot cat converter but not normal engine exhaust.

If anyone has seen [with their own eyes} oil start a fire by leaking out of an engine and pouring on exhaust please inform us so I can withdraw my, 'It ain't happened,' opinion.

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I've seen it burn on a header, because it was on my car. 1982 Mustang GT that had a warmed up 302 in it. I put Do0Z heads milled .020, and Hedman stainless headers.

Those heads used the old cork gaskets with keepers on the valve covers. If you used too much RTV, or tightened the valve cover bolts too much, it would either squeeze out the cork gasket, or the RTV, or both. I bet I replaced 10 sets of valve cover gaskets on that thing until I finally found some rubber gaskets with steel bolt inserts.

Because Ford heads breath like chit on the exhaust even when they are ported, I put a cam in with a pretty high overlap and high lift to scavenge some exhaust gases. Because of that, that the engine didn't make much vaccum, at least not enough to sufficiently scavenge the block of back pressure through the PCV from the carburetor valve body plate. That was another reason I was blowing out cork valve cover gaskets.

It was a 10-10.5:1 CR engine at that point, so to get it to run worth a crap I had to run av-gas in it. With av gas I could crank up the timing about 10-12 degrees additional, but it made the engine run hotter as well as the exhaust temps were higher.

Add together a leaking valve cover gasket on an almost red stainless header after a couple quick passes, and you get a liquid fire as it drips to the ground.

For the one other gear head in here.

LOL...your trash talking reminded me of my grandfather

That's why a young man buys, or builds, a fast car.

a 4 door vette?

Robinson garage on hwy 135 in Easley used engine oil...

Not sure what to tell you.

I stand corrected.

I tried white gas once.

why get an oil change at jiffy lube? first mistake

Driveway?

Much like cutting grass, I've graduated from doing my own

Time versus missed work/pay. That's the equasion I make.

My best oil change came in a boat...

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