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WTF? What do you mechanics on the BBS think happened here?

Here's the theory of someone who posted on the YouTube thread. I agree motor oil doesn't have a high enough flash point unless they spilled something else on the engine. However since the air filter is in place, I'm not sure how his theory could apply. I'm thinking it's more likely one of these lube jockeys spilled something more flammable. What's the flash point Brake fluid?

@lucakiss70 I've worked in mechanic shops for years, and have never seen oil do that. The flash point of motor oil is around 420 - 485deg F. The engine was not that hot or the guy wouldn't have leaned across it.

What you see in this video is a back-fire through a thottle-body type injection system. They likely got the spark plug wires in the wrong order.A spark plug fired while the intake valve was open which allowed the gasoline being sprayed by the throttle-body to be ignited.

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you see were the headlights go out after the fire but about 20 seconds before the clips over they come back on. and no one gets into the car from what i can see. also looks like the thottle-body blow up. but it looks like a quick change oil joint so who knows what was done to that car for sure. they could of done a fuel system injection clean and not reconnected all the fittings back up correctly .

Motor oil will not do that. I've spilled it directly on the exhaust manifold and all it does it smoke. I don't know what caused the fire but it definitely originated in the throttle body. A crossed plug wire would cause a backfire like that.

They likely got the spark plug wires in the wrong order.A spark plug fired while the intake valve was open which allowed the gasoline being sprayed by the throttle-body to be ignited.

No, total BS there. Either it was rigged for the video using gas or ether (starting fluid) or the car had a fuel leak, maybe bad wires too. That's usually how gas fires start, end quickly too 'cause usually no one has a fire extinguisher.

It wasn't uncommon in old Jaguar V12 cars. They used fuel lines with clamps that would eventually get brittle and leak, then (brilliantly) the distributor was right there in the middle of the valley (just below the leaking fuel lines) so start, ca-boom! I saw that happen to one a few years back. Fortunately a fire extinguisher was close by and the fire didn't do too much damage.

I am at a loss.. I would tend to think the bad wires throttle body back fire explosion. But that doesn't explain the constant flame. If it was a backfire you would get a big fire like that right away then it would quickly die down unless a fuel line was blow off in the process that kept feeding it.

i know very little, but since it's a quick lube place, perhaps they sold some "performance cleaning" (aka clean the throttle body or something simple via a flammable spray). sprayed flammable crap all over and didn't clean it up?

If they used TB cleaner inside the TB (where it should be) and it backfired, while cranking the vacuum drawn in through the TB would suck the fire in, now blow it out. That car also has its intake hose attached, not just opened to air like a carb top w/o an air cleaner. It's very possible that they sprayed carb or TB cleaner or Brake cleaner (likely) on the outside of the TB and that it has bad ign wires, it'd flame up like that easy.

Come to think of it, I'll bet that they spilled oil all over the engine and used alot of brake cleaner to degrease their mess so that oil wouldn't be dripping on the customers garage floor. Seen that happen MANY times in the car bus. due to carelessness and/or lack of experience. They also probably failed to blow off the excess brake cleaner with compressed air which would have prevented a fire like that.

Got me, looks like they went crazy with some sort of cleaner like Evil mentioned.