Hemi, must be a rite of passage for some of us.
I had just finished my build, had about 15 or 20 minutes of run time on it (NO road time), and fired it up to show a friend how good it sounded. Satisfied, he left, and I figured I would run the car until it was good and warmed up. I was out of the car and about to close the hood, to move it back into the garage, when a HUGE ball of orange flame shot straight up, about 6 or 7 feet, out of the engine bay.
I dove back into the car, shut off the key and fuel pump, popped up and started blowing for all my worth on where the flames seemed to be coming from. The whole time I was huffing and puffing I was thinking "where's the fire extinguisher, you a$$hole?!" Back in the garage, of course.
Cause? Stewart Warner had supplied one of their dandy extruded nylon
oil pressure gauge lines, which I stupidly installed, and it just literally popped open at the seam, spraying
oil on the now-very-hot headers. Shutting off the car stopped the
oil flow and put the fire out - not that I knew that at the time. After my knees stopped shaking, I ran out to the local speed shop and got an Autometer braided-steel line, with swaged ends.
You ain't alone, bro.
