Shooting a car's gas tank?

[PlayboyPenguin]

There is a reason they have to load them up with explosives in the movies. I have accidently hit a tank with a torch while welding a braket onto the tank. It still did not explode. Quite the opposite really, it flash burned and the tank actuall collapsed in on itself.

 

[Thain]

There is one way to guarantee that a car's gas tank ignites... You just need to hit it with the right firearm:



To paraphrase John Lennon, "Happiness is a warm rocket launcher... Yes. It. Is."

 

[sm]

*sigh*

Worth a re-read : thanks hso

http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=2335249&postcount=18


The reality is - most folks are going to deal with gas tanks in regard to :

-water in tank (bad fuel)
-syphon to use in another vehicle out of gas
- and the rare situation of mechaninc piercing the tank with a petcock to drain wrong fuel (diesel / gas ) from a tank - or water from bad fuel, or even the kid that used the garden hose to play service station attendent.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

gas tanks in the movies explode from sneezes

As I remember the dialogue from Return of the Living Dead,
when the zombie did not die like the zombies in Night of
the Living Dead, the conversation went like this:
"It worked in the movie!"
"It's not working here."
"You mean the movie LIED?"

Mythbusters, machinegun collectors' shoot videos, etc.
bullets through car gas tanks = leaks. seldomn fire or
explosions. Holltwood is not reality: it is special effects.

 

[U.S.SFC_RET]

High explosive rounds would do it but you gotta join the military to use em.

 

[brickeyee]

Most of the Hollywood special effects use gasoline and flammable liquids to create enough ‘explosion’ to show in the film.
Real HE produces a flash so brief it is often no captured by a movie camera.
If the shutter is 1/1000 of a second and you are shooting 24 frames per second, the shutter is only open for 0.024 seconds/per second. That means 97.6% of the time the shutter is closed.
Even the guns are typically loaded with black powder to produce enough smoke and flash to be seen.

 

[rhubarb]

I had a car burn once.

The fire started under the hood and spread to the back. When it got as far as the tank, I stood way back and waited for the inevitable explosion. The fuel line, in all the designers' wisdom, was routed into and then out of the passenger compartment under the back seat and was rubber where it did so. After the rubber melted away, the pressure build-up in the tank from the heat caused the line to spew a steady stream of fuel into the interior of the car. And it burned and burned. There was nothing left but steel. Nothing. Melted the aluminum rims. Melted the transmission housing. There was not even a hint or shard of glass left in the car. I salvaged the recently rebuilt engine and even the gaskets were gone. Nothing but cast iron and steel survived. The flaming geyser had slowed to a burning trickle when the fire department showed up. Before the truck had even skidded to a halt, the driver was shouting to me, "GET AWAY FROM THE CAR! IT'S GONNA BLOW!" :banghead:

I reckon a little piece of lead ain't gonna make a gas tank blow up if that didn't.

 

[MechAg94]

The video Deadly Weapons did the same test. No ignition. They had to use an incendiary anti-tank rifle shot to ignite it.

 

[Dmack_901]

Yea, I remember that Mythbusters episode. They only tried tracer because they said that incindary was illegal...

 

[hso]

Tracers? No. Incendiary? Maybe.

No, No, NO!

Oxygen + Fuel + Ignition Source = Fire If, and only IF, the ratios of oxygen to fuel are right to support ignition. You can throw matches into the gas tank all day long and if the fuel air mixture is above the Upper Explosive Limit (and if unmodified it will be) it will only put the match out. Same for fuses, same for "incendiary" rounds, same for flaming piss out of some pin heads burning pizzler.:banghead:



I dispare for science education in this country when people as bright as we have on this forum can't get something as basic as this.

 

[loadedround]

Brickeyee: I am sorry to have to disagree with you, but I have personally seen vehicles burn and explode when hit with both 7.62 and 30-06 tracers. I served in SE Asia as active military and have professional training in use of explosives. If a tracer won't set a fuel tank on fire, why are the ragheads burning vehicles to a shell with IED's under the fuel tank. and why are we armoring the fuel tanks on our HUMVEES. If you are aware of the composition of a tracer round and the burning characteristics of said round, you would know that at that temperature, any flammable substance will burn in that environment.

 

[DontBurnMyFlag]

ok i should have read my thread recently. For the past two days Ive been shooting a metal BB gun at my car to no avail.



Thanks for the info.

 

[hso]

If a tracer won't set a fuel tank on fire, why are the ragheads burning vehicles to a shell with IED's under the fuel tank. and why are we armoring the fuel tanks on our HUMVEES. If you are aware of the composition of a tracer round and the burning characteristics of said round, you would know that at that temperature, any flammable substance will burn in that environment.

Gasoline flammability limits. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npg/npgd0299.html
UEL: 7.6%
LEL: 1.4%

If the gasoline vapors are above 7.6% inside the fuel tank you can't get it to burn or explode. The fuel vapor displaces the oxygen. Gas vapors in the fuel tanks are going to be above the UEL. The tank has to be ruptured and the fuel dispersed in the air and ignited to get the effects you're seeing. The explosive device does both of these very well and combines the energy of the explosive with the gas.

You're seeing fuel tanks being armored for the same reason that you see the tanks made out of thick enough material to keep road debris from puncturing them. In this case they're trying to upgrade the protection against bullets and schrapinel from explosives instead of standard road debris. If you prevent the fuel tank from rupturing you prevent the fuel from getting out where it can be set on fire.

On the other hand, if you set fire to the vehicle you can heat the fuel in the tank to a point where the tank ruptures if it's sealed or the pressure can not be relieved quickly enough. This is called a Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion. You've either got to build a fire under the kettle to boil the fuel or you've got to set a bomb off to blow the fuel tank apart and disperse the fuel to get an explosion.

If you are aware of the composition of a tracer round and the burning characteristics of said round, you would know that at that temperature, any flammable substance will burn in that environment.

I promiss you that what you think is going on is not. If you put an ignition source in the fuel tank, whether it's a tracer or a fuse, it will not cause the fuel to explode because there is not enough oxygen present for the fuel to burn. The vapors displace all the oxygen. This is one of the reason that cars don't just explode all the time. On the other hand, if you punch a bunch of holes in the tank and allow the fuel to escape all the fuel on the outside will burn if you get a source of ignition to the fuel.

If you want to demonstrate this to your own satisfaction there's a very easy test you can perform. Take a standard fuel can and fill it half full with gasoline. Mark off the line between the liquid and the vapor. Drive to a nice isolated place and shoot it below the fuel/vapor line with a tracer. Nothing will happen. No kaboom. Not even a fire. Now shoot it above the line. Still nothing unless some of the leaking fuel outside the can starts to burn.

Let us know what you see.

By the way, we don't use terms like "ragheads" on The High Road. It's part of the issue about being civil in our discussions. There are more rough and tumble sites where ethnic and racial slurs are common but we don't behave like that here.

 

[Alerion]

Ok ok, we see it everywhere, movies, TV, comics etc. However, will it work? I am under the impression that the bullet would pierce the tank and just cause it to have a steady leak? Would it depend on the ammo? Would you have to shoot at the leaking pool of gasoline like in some movies?

I know it seems like an odd question. But Im just trying to put some movie myths to bed.

I think there's something about movie cars that makes them explode every time you look at them funny. I mean, how else can you explain why every movie car that drives off a cliff explodes in midair?

Tom