[Rhodes22-list] Gasoline spill under the floor

[Bill Effros]

Holy Shit! Barry.

"No more fire danger?"  I think not.

I can only tell you a story from my misspent youth.

Along with some friends, I completely disassembled a 1955 Oldsmobile 
Rocket 88 when I was in high school.  We were going to put it back 
together again, but we never got around that.

When we took off the gas tank, we were very concerned about our safety, 
so we got a garden hose and immediately started running water through 
the tank night and day for five days.  We then stopped the water and 
sniffed.  There was still a slight gasoline odor which we felt no amount 
of water was going to get rid of.  So we put the tank in the shade, 
outside, to let it air dry.  We did this for three days, and when we 
were done the gasoline odor was almost gone.

So we put the tank out in the sun, and left it there for a week.  By the 
end of the week there was virtually no odor at all.  We felt it was 
completely safe.  "But how can we be sure?" asked my friend Matt.  
"Light a match, and throw it in."  Said my friend Bob.  "It's the only 
way we can be sure."

And so we did.  The flames that came shooting out of that gas tank were 
between 10 and 20 feet long.  The gasoline continued to burn for roughly 
5 minutes.  No one got hurt.  But it's a lesson I've never forgotten.

Now you may think I'm exaggerating, and maybe I am -- it happened a long 
time ago.  But ask yourself this question "Would I be willing to put my 
boat to Bob's test?"  I wouldn't do it, and quite frankly, I wouldn't 
ever want to go on that boat.

After the fire in the gas tank burned itself out, and our pulses 
returned to normal, Bob said "I'll bet if we throw in another match, it 
won't light up again."  And so we did.  And Bob was right.  There was no 
gasoline left in the tank.

This is the only method I know to be completely sure you have gotten rid 
of all spilled gasoline.  I would not recommend this method for your boat.

Bill Effros




b.ivers at att.net wrote:

>   After a sail on Pyramid Lake. (60 mi. N. of Reno) I was cleaning and detailing our 76 model R-22. It was the end of a perfact day. After flushing the Yamaha 9.9 I decided to disconnect the fuel line, when the phone rang. The call generated a couple more calls and I dropped the disconnected fuel line in the deep opening at the aft end of the cockpit. I did not know the connector had a bad o-ring. Overnight it siphoned 4 gallons of gas under the cabin floor.
>   Up to now what I have done is wash with a fiberglass friendly degresser and 20 gal of water and go for a drive to slosh the liquid around. Then using a syarange to evacuate all the liquid and clean it up as best I could. I have done this twice with very good results. BUT there is still a slight smell that is not plessant.
>   I am looking for remedy for aftersmell. Ther is no more fire danger so I might use a small 6" fan and draw air out of underspace via the 5" inspection  hole in the center of the cabin. Any other ideas. I cannot wait for all the match jokes, flamming r-22 jokes and usual jabs and pokes. Hit me Rummy I deserve it.  Barry
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