Amish, your plan for the nitrous nozzles applies to gasoline as easily as it does propane. I'm using NOS brand fan nozzles in mine. Good thought on the remote bottle opener!

I have electric cutouts so I'm installing this on the open side of the cutout, so flames will only be with open headers, not with mufflers and they exit from the sides just behind my cab. The portion of pipe that the plugs and injectors mount into is about 17" long and can be easily removed to work on it or modify if if need be and it's completely independant of the rest of the exhaust.

I agree, I have yet to see anything that states you cannot have spark plugs in your tail pipe. They can nab you for blowing flames down the street but not for having a vehicle equipped to do so if you only use it offroad (at least in Washington).

 

You would think that here in Kalifornia with the weather, lowriders, cruise, thing we would have real strict laws. The people with flamethrowers control their events quite well which I have to give them respect and credit.
Ivan, I got it; a long tank with dividers to yield 3 one gallon chambers, seperate caps to fill to add different chemicals for flame color. Three fuel tank pumps with check valves for safety, 3 lines to 3 spray nozzles per pipe. A electronic timer to allow length of flame as well color change, Red, White, Blue. I know one thing there's alot of heat even at the tips as I have a stainless nut with nylon insert for locking, the nylon dripped and burned away, this is to hold baffles in the 4 1/2" tips, a noise reduction thing.
Ivan, would flamethrowers work for snow removal up your way?
Ponder some more ideas then post you crazies out there.
.....=o&o>.....

 

The flame kit is great fun, but I prefer the "conrolled backfire" method. Works best on manual trans, carb engine, straight pipes/glass packs.

1) While driving, turn off engine, pump gas pedal twice, wait 5 seconds
2) press in cab button that is wired to a spark plug in the tail pipe.
3) Instant flames plus a huge BOOM that will wake up anyone within 500 ft..
4) turn key to "run position" and engine will start right up again without using starter.

-I have done this redneck trick for about 10 yrs and have not damaged anything. Since the explosion is quick, I don't think there is much damage to cyclinder/valves with the flames traveling back up the pipes into the block. Most of the combusion is in the pipes.
-You can also do the same trick by turning the key on/off/on a few times, but this causes the combustion to take place in the cyclinder via spark plug, this could mess something up I think.
-Since flames are minimal, people simply think that its just a ragged old truck and it backfired. When you live in Kentucky with no state auto inspection, the cops are used to clunkers on the roads.

This is great for
-rush hour traffic
-drive by at your friends house
-or just to let everyone know you have arrived the the local mud pit..

 

might just give me reason to put plugs in my pipes, where are the plugs mounted? closer to the engine or farther back twards the end?

 

Ok guys, I am not an expert on other states, but I can tell you that Illinois and most states follow example with each other. If anything, IL is generally harder on equipment laws. For example, no front window tint on newer model vehicles, have to have 2 plates (no exceptions), and highly restrictive lift laws...just to name a few.

I will tell you I am a current peace officer and have grown up with a Trooper (current) as a father. I am aware of no laws stating you cant have flame throwers installed or prohibits the use of them. However, if there was any kind of an explosion, the current exhaust laws or noise statutes would cover that.

With that said, if someone was being a pain in the butt, or firing flames off in front of my patrol car, I would find something illegal....if it wasnt the throwers, then any other equipment violations I could think of. On trucks like ours, wouldn't take me too long to start adding up the fines.

When it comes to California though, I wouldn't doubt it if they did have a particular law against them. I am sure there are other states too, but I do not know of one personally and can say IL is not one fo them
Ryan

 

I had a guy in a honda stop behind me the other day and the front of his car was under my back bumper. The flame thrower would have come in handy.

 

yes it would've. I guess I'm wrong on the illegality issue, but I thought that the man would get you for 'em if he saw 'em. Anyway, I still think hiding them is the way to go, makes for a better look and more surprise value.

 

After doing my own version of 'Myth Busters' for flame thrower exhaust, and talking with profesional builders/installers of them, I have a better understanding of them than I did before. I thought I'd share some of that for those who plan on doing this.

Spark plugs fire only once when they get the surge of 20,000 volts from the coil.
The coil discharges it's power only when it's power supply is cut off.
To produce enough spark to ignite the fuel, you need a constant spark from the plug.
If you use a relay to achieve the constant spark, you need a ballast resistor and a condensor.

Gas works better than propane. Mainly because propane needs more oxygen to burn and there's not a heck of a lot of that in the exhaust gases.
The gas has to be atomized to burn. Nitrous fan spray nozzles and a high pressure fuel pump work best. You just have to play with jet size.

Safety devices are a really good idea. Since this whole setup is dangerous to begin with, the more safety devices you have the better. I prefer a WOT (wide open throttle) switch for starters. The system is disabled unless you have the pedal to the metal. This prevents it from going off at low RPMs. You can also use some sort of vacuum switch that closes when there's vacuum in the engine. This will prevent the system from working unless the engine is running.

A master 'arming' switch is a must. This simply supplies power to the other switches that operate the system.

A toggle switch to turn on the coils and the fuel pump.

A momentary push-button switch (as opposed to a toggle) is a must for opening the solenoids and allowing the fuel to flow. This prevents you from leaving it on.

Hope this helps.

Kevin K.

 

Kevin, when you say "high pressure" pump what kind of PSI does it need? I was planning on a fuel pump for carburation at 5-7psi but should I be looking at a pump for EFI instead?

If you spend the money to buy one of the aftermarket spark boxes (and they're not that much) it cycles the coil for you, giving you a "constant" spark. There are diagrams out on how to do it yourself. I tried but me drunk with a solder iron was not a good thing. I did manage to zap myself with the coil once.

 

to get the coil to fire you need to create a buz box which is easially made from a 2 pole single throw normal open/ normal closed relay. you bring the power to the relax coil to one side of the normal closed and the out the normal closed to the relay's coil then to ground. you bring your 12v to the normal open the out to your spark plug coil, note some coils require a ballast resistor. when you energize the relay coil it will buz from the contacts being made then broke. i am working on building flame throwers for my twin 5" stacks. right now experimenting with propane flame as the primary ignition source with a diesel fuel mist to INCREASE the flames. as for a shut off on the propane tank a 12v propane solinoid works great and you can find them cheap at folk lift shops.

 

Ivan,

Any fuel pump from a modern fuel injected car will work. You need about 50 psi to get the fuel to atomize. I tried with a regular pump and an external pump from a FI mustang and neither worked. They just poured gas into the pipe and it wouldn't ignite. The in-tank FI pumps work the best and are pretty cheap.

Also, make sure you get a good fuel solenoid. I got a cheap-o and it wouldn't open because of the pressure of the pump. The NOS cheater ones work nicely and can be had for cheap on e-bay.

The spark boxes are extremely easy to make and really cheap, too (in keeping with the 'cheap' theme). All you need is a toggle switch, pust button switch, standard relay, ballast resistor, condensor, plugs and coils. You need the condensor (like the one on old ford distributors) because without it the relay would just arc inside instead of flickering on and off. The ballast resistor keeps the relay from frying (I went through 4 relays before I figured this out).

The only not-cheap stuff is the braided fuel lines, which I would recomend.

I have pix of mine and the diagrams I used if you're interested. I just have to find them.

K.

 

You can use a small automotive relay with double pole contacts which are standard issue in many newer cars found in the wreckers. If you wire the relay coil thru a set of normally closed contacts the relay will buzz, add power to the other normally closed contact, other side of contact to your coils the output power will buzz for the coils. A cap should be added across the coil feed contacts to extend contact life. This is what is in those cheapo kits that sell you a relay and scrap wire $50 or more unless it's a real electronic timer. I'm going to use a switchable timer adjustable from 1/10 second to a minute plus in 1/10 second increments for $27 and let it control the coils. I want a blip or flash left right inside the 4 1/2" tips not a constant flame where a buzz would be better for the coils.
.....=o&o>.....

 

sparky, on feeding the ignition coil from the second set of normally open contacts in a relay, the normally closed contacts will barely open then break current to the relay coil before they close again not allowing the relays movable arm to swing across to close the normally open contact. That's my experience with relays. Ignition coil feed thru NC contacts will just break as well the NC that feed the relay coil where the buzz will feed the ignition coil.
.....=o&o>.....

 

On mine, I only have one relay that feeds the 12v to the coil. It's wired to itself and uses a condensor (capacitor) to achieve the 'buzz' and a ballast resistor to keep it from burning up the relay. I think without the condensor, it wouldn't open/close fast enough to actually flicker the power to the coil.

K.

 

have not heavely proven the buzz yea but seemed to work on the bench. maybe i will have to add a timer circuit to it to hold it for like 1/10 of a second then. i also thought about taking a stun gun apart and using that for the ignighter