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Question (1) I have a 1977 Pace Arrow with dodge 440. Is the excessive engine heat under the "dog house" a fire hazard? A 77 Pace Arrow recently burned in our area shortly after being parked. I have lined my "dog house" cover with a product called "The Insulator" which is a foil lined fiber mat material supposedly approved for engine covers for boats, aircraft & rv's.
Question (2) I have about a 10 inch rubber gas line hose entering the carb.from the metal gas line. This is on the top of the engine where all the heat is being trapped. Is this a fire hazard? Should there be an all metal fuel line from the fuel pump to the carb?
Most fires are because of fuel leaks, rocker cover leaking onto manifold, or short in wiring. If all is clean should not be of concern. Also check every so often for road hazard up on engine, paper, plastic bag etc. Keep air filter clean
I strongly advise you to replace the hose with steel line, the line and fittings are reverse flare, the same as used on the brakes. Also look carefully at your cooling system and heater hoses. If ethylene glycol, the thick, syrupy alcohol used in most antifreeze solutions, is sprayed on a hot manifold, it will ignite, ditto for power steering fluids.
Friend worked for JarTran Truck Rental before they went belly up and they had mostly cube vans on Dodge 1-ton dualies with 440 engines. They had many fires, which they reckoned to be related to the ThermoQuad carburetors on them that were largely "space age plastic". If you have a TQ on it and you've wanted to treat yourself to a new carb, you'd be getting metal and that, in addition to metal fuel lines, would be a safety upgrade. God Bless, jd
Great advice but I would offer a little more on the fuel line. On the old engines they used the hose on some because the rigid line wasn't moving with the engine. Other words the fuel line was attached to the chassis and when the engine would tourqe, this would cause the rigid fuel line to put stress some place and sometimes bacause the carb is a softer material it would crack and cause a leak and a poetential fire hazard. I would keep the rubber hose short and to expose a lot to the heat and make sure you check it often to make sure it isn't leaking. One other source of leaking here is not using the correct size rubber hose and fuel line clamps. If you decide to stay with the rubber hose, replace it with a new good quality one and use the band type hose clamps that don't dig into your hose when your tighten the clamp.
-I also put a LARGE 12 volt fan in front to help pass more air while traveling and left it on when we came to a stop to continue pushing the hot air away from the engine and compartment. Worked great.
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