FYI about antifreeze and flames

[Irish_Alley]

Just wanted to share some info with you guys about an accident I had today.

My radiator has been problems for a while now. But they're fixable for the most part, this is about the 3rd or so repair I've done to it and it will definitely be the last. This time the overflow nipple was leaking, I smelled antifreeze about .5 miles away from home. Check gauge and it's not above normal, turn defrosters on to warm and nothing but cold comes out. I know I've lost some At this point.

Pull up to my house, Pop the hood and can see the passengers side of the engine bay is wet. I release the pressure release on my radiator cap so it overflows to the tank. Take the cap off and attempt to solder the nipple back in place after prepping everything Couldn't get the solder to stick. I'm just getting the hang of soldering wires so I don't know what I'm doing pretty sure I couldn't get it hot enough. Anyway the nipple gets stuck on somehow so I do a few things and head to the inlaws. Arrived at my in-laws and Again I smelled antifreeze, knew my solder didn't hold.

So I had some jb weld in the tool box and I attempted to solder the nipple back in place to hold it and run a bead of jb around to really hold it and make it water tight. So I prepped it again, I'm using carb cleaner to clean the area. When I start to warm up the joint, it caught fire. Figured it was just the carb cleaner. Put that fire out and kept on warming the area. Then the outside of the metal tank caught and followed straight down the radiator. I was able to blow that out but that fast it caught the fan shroud on fire. Now I have plastic on fire, I got some water but by this time the inside of the shroud was on fire and the water couldn't reach it. I had to rip the shroud apart.

I guess what happened was the antifreeze was hot enough to cause vapors and the vapors we're what caught fire. It's hard to imagine something thats water based to catch but it can and does happen. So be careful out there

[Irish_Alley]

https://www.jcmmachineandcoatings.com/understanding-combustion/engine-coolant-is-it-flammable/

[roundhouse]

Breathing burned carb cleaner and brake cleaner fumes will cause permanent brain damage and enough of it will kill you

Burning air conditioner refrigerant (freon ) will also cause brain damage and death .
The Germans used a very similar chemical in their death camps

[Irish_Alley]

i dont think carb cleaner is that bad, in welding shops its used all the time. break cleaner is also used but brake cleaner can have Tetrachloroethylene and hydrogen chloride. when tetrachloroethylene is exposed to heat and argon makes phosgene. at least thats what i was told. it used to be the greek can was "ok" to weld with cause its non-chlorinated while the red one wasnt safe at all. idk i know we talked about it before on here

now saying that i wouldnt breath carb cleaner as its burning but its not as dangerous as brake cleaner with tetrachloroethylene. on a side note breathing too much smoke, carbon monoxide/dioxide and hydrogen dioxide.

[VileZambonie]

I suggest you practice on sweating copper before you attempt a radiator repair so that you are confident in your ability to do so.  If you are repairing or adding plumbing to your home the first thing you do is get the water out of the pipes and then protect the surrounding areas from catching fire. Same goes for the radiator, it needs to be drained and yes coolant is flammable. Clean the area, flux, solder and then clean the repair.

Brake clean and carb clean have their place but are often not needed. Next time you inspect your drum brakes, simply wash them down with a garden hose. No chemicals needed and water will wash away brake fluid. You should always minimize the amount of exposure you have to that crap. Spraying it in a shop while using a space heater or salamander and you will know it.

[Irish_Alley]

i knew about getting the water out of the pipes, the radiator was a few inches low. and if the system isnt open water will steam out the joint and wont hold. nothing was really endanger of catching up top. but when the flame was able to travel down to the bottom where some antifreeze had traveled is where it was able to catch the shroud of fire.

but antifreeze being flammable is something i never thought of before. i dont know if its certain criteria that has to be meet before it can happen (like at what temp it the vapors will be flammable) or if in liquid form its flammable by itself. after the fact it was like...oh yeah it does contain Ethylene Glycol. i dont know if thats is the only thing that can catch or not.

in the years ive been working on vehicles ive not once heard of it catching fire and im kind of embarrassed that i didnt not know this. so thats why im putting it out there to inform others that may not know.
heres a pdf on ethylene glycol
http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9927167

[dr.ifixit]

Came here to talk about carb cleaner and welding and flames, as it's already been said the fumes could cause brain damage. If you use the chlorinated carb cleaner ( usually red can ) welding or burning afterwards will release phosphine gas ( I used to work in a flour Mill / grain elevator this was the gas we used to kill any live animals in the building and nobody could go in the building for a few days after) the gas is oderless unless you buy it in a bottle ( they put in a garlic smell) basically phosphine gas displaces oxygen and kills anything . Please don't well on or heat up anything that has ever( even years ago) been cleaned with chlorinated carb or brake parts cleaner.

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[Irish_Alley]

Never knew they made chlorinated carb cleaner. But in the welding shop red cans can't be found for the brake cleaner just cause of that reason only the green

[JohnCaldy]

I just came across this thread. I'll be sure to keep this in mind, just in case.