steve burges


USA
3 Posts
Posted - 07/25/2004 : 21:38:19
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just a heads up for all you guys out there. I am switching over to my new alum pro topline heads and 1.6roller rockers and had to cut
out the drip tabs in the top inside of the stock 82 finned valve covers. I mistakenly thought the covers were aluminum, but now have
found out from twinturbo that they are made of Magnesium. This metal
burns so hot the military uses it to burn holes through metal such as
enemy tanks! To make a long story short, I was using an air powered
cutoff tool to cut each drip tab off and by the time I got to the
metal baffle under the rubber grommet my hand holding the tool was
covered in the dust. The blade went throught the last tab and hit the
metal baffle and sent a few sparks spinning around which landed on
my hand and exploded. The light was so bright I couldn't look at it
even thought it was the top of my pointer finger that was burning. I slapped it hard and knocked a chunk of skin off about the size of a
quarter which continued to burn brightly on the floor. there was no blood and almost no pain(at least for a couple days) but it has now been 2 weeks of daily pain in the butt care and it is about halfway healed. I have to wear a rubber glove now when working on my car to
cover that hand and hopefully it will finish healing in a couple more
weeks. Hopefully this will keep someone else from finding out the
hard way that the dust from our valve covers is explosive. Marck said
in another post that he uses transmission fluid when he grinds. Marck,
how do you use that?
Steve


82collectorshark


USA
12 Posts
Posted - 07/29/2004 : 22:22:36
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Man!!! Great post Steve.During a union strike we used to burn magnesium in a barrel to keep us warm,that is until the local officials told us we were too close to the airport and were causing a visual concern with the pilots and the landing lights on the runway.
Hope you heal soon,several "cold ones" should deaden the pain,temporarily anyway!I understand that magnesium creates it's own oxygen while burning,so is difficult if not impossible to extinguish.
Underwater welding employs magnesium for that reason.
Get well soon,
Jules