I post this as a general warning to everyone else. Thankfully nothing bad happened.

My progression on Myrtle slowed recently due to multiple factors. In the back of my mind I've been thinking that I need to make some time to go by, check the fluids, fire her up, etc… just show her a little love. I made some time to do just that Saturday (and got quite a bit of work done surprisingly). Just before leaving I fired her up. She sprang to life. It was so good to hear!! While she was warming up I was cleaning up the shop. I happened to notice a smudge on the breather and wanted to clean it off. When I took the breather assembly off some animal had made a huge nest on the intake under the breather on the passenger side. I didn't see it doing everything else (been working on the body). Basically I was slowly cooking a tinderbox of dead leaves, cotton, pine straw, etc.!! Scared the crap out of me. Thank God I was able to get the shop vac and get it all cleaned up before it ignited.

Luckily I didn't see any wires chewed or anything otherwise harmed. Lesson learned.

I wish I had gotten a picture, but needless to say that wasn't exactly priority in that moment. I share my story of stupidity to hopefully help someone else. Especially if it's been sitting - give it a good look over before you turn the key.

Happy Sunday everyone! And thanks all the FTE members that have helped us all.

 

Glad it was all okay, thanks for the heads-up and the warning.
You're right though, that could of gone horribly wrong fast.

 

Them critters have an affinity for air intakes. Seen it a lot.

 

Wasn't much danger there on the intake ..... intake doesn't get that hot.

 

It will if a backfire through the carb were to occur!

 

If the exhaust crossover is still functional, it gets hot enough to burn the paint off.

 

Yeah .... and if you threw a match on it ... maybe ..... but truck fired right up and was simply warming up. Any unquenched back fire can lead to a fire. He had the breather on and said nothing about back fires. Obviously, the breather he spoke of was the air filter housing to hide such a huge nest.

In time, the paint will slowly cook and turn but the paint is adhered to the surface of the metal and does not burst into flame. A nest is loose and full of open spaces that prevent heat transfer, it's parts only come into contact at "points". The flash point at which wood will burst into flame, is 572°F (how stuff works). It's estimated to be 480 for paper, 536 for gasoline, and up at 660 for charcoal.

Rubber will start to burn about 500 degrees ..... "gas lines"?

Anyway ............. keep the intakes clear.

 

Either way - I don't want to find out the hard way!

 

For sure ...
... and just removing the nest for no other reason than to just remove the nest has it's value.