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Old 10-21-2012, 03:49 PM   #9
Napa Skip
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Napa CA
Posts: 412
Default Re: Garage Car Exhaust System

I seldom take issue with posts on this forum (being somewhat inexperienced in the art of Model A ownership and maintenance) but I wonder why an open garage door isn't sufficient, at least for the occasional once-a-month "light it off and warm it up" routine?

Now, before someone looks at my avatar and questions what right anyone from California has to comment on a foul-weather-state-querry, I hasten to add - as evidenced by the images below - that in the 10 years I lived in Idaho, my Model A and I were exposed to some inclement weather. In fact my 1930 Coupe hails (no pun intended) from southern Idaho (or at least that's where I purchased the pile of parts - see the photo on the left - that eventually became what I now drive). On those days when I needed to start up the coupe, I opened the garage door. Even better, as the image on the right shows, the alternative is actually backing the A out onto the driveway. (Btw, the image on the right was taken on a mild - for Idaho - spring day just before summer.)

1977 in Idaho Falls - small.jpg 1979 in Idaho Falls - small.jpg

Now, to bring a note of seriousness to this post, I have some small (22+ years worth of) experience operating rather large internal combustion engines (albeit Fairbanks Morse 38-1/8 ND opposed-piston diesels, standing - as I recall - about 10-feet, from the lower crank cover down in the bilge to the upper coffin cover in the overhead) in confined and somewhat enclosed spaces (submarines) and my concern with clamping a piece of flexible tubing onto a muffler and proceeding to run up your Model A in an enclosed garage/barn/living room/whatever, is that it gives a false sense of security and does nothing to protect one from the CO, CO2, etc., coming, not out of the tail pipe, but from exhaust manifold or exhaust-manifold-to-muffler-inlet leaks, or from pin-holes anywhere else in the exhaust system. High concentrations of CO2 in confined spaces will (in my experience) sometimes announce themselves with a splitting headache, but the first indication of CO poisoning is all too frequently an obituary in the local newspaper.

So, if you can't move to California (I have it on good authority that there are some individuals living east of the Sierra Nevadas who don't realize they are free to leave) and can't stand to open your garage door for the short time necessary, at least do as others have suggested and make sure you have an operable CO detector with an audible alarm in the vicinity of your operating A.
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Skip Keyser
Napa Valley A's
Olympic Vintage Auto Club (1980-1982)
MARC of San Diego (1977-1978)
MAFCA (since 1978)
MARC (since 1977)
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Model A owners belong in their Model A’s; Model A’s belong on the road.
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