Gasoline is a fuel and also a solvent. It can be used to clean things, especially greasy or oily things.
Cleaning parts with gas.
- Thread starter Chris142
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All the time. The smell was a nice bonus.
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Was cleaning parts in a bowl when our cat sipped some, hissed, ran across the yard and fell motionless
Gas or fuel oil worked great for cleaning everything in the garage.
Me and my 13 yr old cousin were burning leaves once and they would just smolder and smoke. My cousin had the brilliant idea to pour on some gas to "Help It". He dumped onto the smoldering leave pile right from the can about a quart. ...annnd nothing happened. Hmmm maybe we need some fire from that other pile to light it? so he gets a rake full of burning leaves and walks to the pile and flips it on top. The resulting explosion and fireball knocked him on his buttocks and the leaves pile launched into the air all over the yard. This was a learning experience.
Me and my 13 yr old cousin were burning leaves once and they would just smolder and smoke. My cousin had the brilliant idea to pour on some gas to "Help It". He dumped onto the smoldering leave pile right from the can about a quart. ...annnd nothing happened. Hmmm maybe we need some fire from that other pile to light it? so he gets a rake full of burning leaves and walks to the pile and flips it on top. The resulting explosion and fireball knocked him on his buttocks and the leaves pile launched into the air all over the yard. This was a learning experience.
Originally Posted by SLO_Town
Originally Posted by Lolvoguy
Originally Posted by SLO_Town
Originally Posted by Chris142
Who remembers doing this? Who used leaded gas and no gloves?
Absolutely!
I very rarely used gasoline to clean parts, but I ran out of solvent one time. I was cleaning parts while doing a near total teardown of my 1963 Austin Healey 3000 BJ7. There was a patch of bermuda grass that I decided to kill. I thought, perfect, this filthy, blackened gasoline should do the trick. I poured no more than a quart on the bermuda grass. Then, to make certain I gave the bermuda grass a death blow, I lit it. It burst into a ball of flames with huge amounts of black smoke. It actually blew me backwards, not so much from an explosion, it was more of it causing a big ball of flame and smoke. I couldn't believe it! Roaring flames 4 or 5 feet high! Of course, I didn't have a hose ready, just because I thought there would be only 4 or 5 INCHES of gentle flames. What an idiot.
Scott
Lol, oh Scott, I always find your posts so entertaining!
Since you find them so entertaining, Lolvoguy, here is another incident while working on that big Healey. I was rebuilding the carburetors. It was late, probably around midnight, me working by myself in the detached garage far away from the house. I had a can of Berryman's Chemtool with the long plastic tube attached. I fed the tube into one of the holes in the stripped down carburetor body. I shot a blast into the carb, which literally shot out of a thin brass tube, 90 degrees from the direction I was shooting the Chemtool into. I actually remember seeing the Chemtool blast coming directly into my eye. This wasn't a misty spray, it was a solid stream of liquid! Instant burning fire in my eye! Now I knew what the bermuda grass felt like!!!! I ran into the house like I was on fire and stuck my head under the kitchen sink faucet, holding my eye open and rinsing it out best I could. That brought the pain level down from a 10 (adjusted for the fear factor that I might have blinded myself in one eye), down to an 8. Off to the ER we dashed. My vision was cloudy in that eye for weeks afterward. I actually consider myself pretty fortunate it didn't permanently damage my eye.
Scott
I have come close to doing the same cleaning the jets on my weber carbs, on my MGB.
Originally Posted by Lolvoguy
Originally Posted by SLO_Town
Originally Posted by Chris142
Who remembers doing this? Who used leaded gas and no gloves?
Absolutely!
I very rarely used gasoline to clean parts, but I ran out of solvent one time. I was cleaning parts while doing a near total teardown of my 1963 Austin Healey 3000 BJ7. There was a patch of bermuda grass that I decided to kill. I thought, perfect, this filthy, blackened gasoline should do the trick. I poured no more than a quart on the bermuda grass. Then, to make certain I gave the bermuda grass a death blow, I lit it. It burst into a ball of flames with huge amounts of black smoke. It actually blew me backwards, not so much from an explosion, it was more of it causing a big ball of flame and smoke. I couldn't believe it! Roaring flames 4 or 5 feet high! Of course, I didn't have a hose ready, just because I thought there would be only 4 or 5 INCHES of gentle flames. What an idiot.
Scott
Lol, oh Scott, I always find your posts so entertaining!
Since you find them so entertaining, Lolvoguy, here is another incident while working on that big Healey. I was rebuilding the carburetors. It was late, probably around midnight, me working by myself in the detached garage far away from the house. I had a can of Berryman's Chemtool with the long plastic tube attached. I fed the tube into one of the holes in the stripped down carburetor body. I shot a blast into the carb, which literally shot out of a thin brass tube, 90 degrees from the direction I was shooting the Chemtool into. I actually remember seeing the Chemtool blast coming directly into my eye. This wasn't a misty spray, it was a solid stream of liquid! Instant burning fire in my eye! Now I knew what the bermuda grass felt like!!!! I ran into the house like I was on fire and stuck my head under the kitchen sink faucet, holding my eye open and rinsing it out best I could. That brought the pain level down from a 10 (adjusted for the fear factor that I might have blinded myself in one eye), down to an 8. Off to the ER we dashed. My vision was cloudy in that eye for weeks afterward. I actually consider myself pretty fortunate it didn't permanently damage my eye.
Scott
I have come close to doing the same cleaning the jets on my weber carbs, on my MGB.
I remember my dad and I using it all the time when I was a kid. Clean grease out of wheel bearings to repack them with new grease.
Oh yeah. NOBODY used store bought parts cleaner when gas was 40 cents a gallon. Reglar was leaded up to the 90s The tingle tells you I keep stale gas around for soaking grungy parts in. When I was laid off in '04< used a small gas bucket to de- grunge the good parts of the 3 Ford 2150s that I made a carb out of with an Echlin kit from NAPA. It went in the last Grand Wag I had. Last carb'ed car I had. Guy who did the emission test, was amazed at how clean the engine ran. Passed with flying colors. Much prefer port injected EFI
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