FE Power Forums
FE Power Forums => FE Technical Forum => Topic started by: blykins on October 09, 2020, 04:26:11 PM
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I was disassembling some old TP heads today. Had the heads laying deck surface down on the floor and since they haven't been ran in a long time, I took a dead blow and smacked the valve tips before disassembly. I hit one and when the valve opened, I think it hit the floor and broke. It made a cracking sound and then flames and sizzling sounds came out of the port. I had a shop towel in my hand and when I picked up the valve fragment the shop towel got hot.
Took me a second to realize what happened and then I remembered that sodium reacts with air and water.
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Sure. Almost as much fun as watching a magnesium wheel burn :o
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Don't hit the sodium valves. They can fly across the room with a little ball of flame. There used to be directions in the Ford box on how to dispose of old sodium valves........in the form of burying them in the ground! Obviously way before the EPA got serious. I have some of that literature somewhere that we kept for entertainment.
A punch bumped around the retainer lightly will usually peck the locks loose. There used to be a hole in a block wall at a head shop in Chattanooga from a Ford sodium valve being whacked on the stem.
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Well, to my credit, I didn't know they were sodium filled. Just a random pair of assembled TP heads with titanium retainers, etc. Just didn't think about them being sodium filled.
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Learned about sodium in 11th grade Chemistry class. There was a big chunk of sodium in a jar of oil in the Lab store room, and the teacher loved to show it off. This was one of those carbon-copy back East schools, all brick, big arched entryway, 11ft ceilings etc. The had put a single story addition on the back side for a cafeteria, and the Lab windows opened onto the flat roof of the cafeteria. Prof cuts off a pretty good chunk of the sodium, and it had rained the day before and there was a big puddle on the roof below. He tossed the sodium in the puddle (11AM) and KABOOM!!! Vaporized the puddle, rattled all the windows, and all the matronly cafeteria ladies in white ran screaming out the back door. Teacher had to go to the Principal's Office! My gramps was Prez of the School Board, and got ass-chewing calls that night from ALL the ladies- small town, and he knew all their farmer hubbies. He tried really, really hard to not laugh when I told him what happened...
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When i was in 8th-9th grade we stole a jar with two small lumps of sodium at school
We went down to the river and filled a coffee can with water from the river, dumped one
lump in the coffe can and nothing....one guy said maybe its to cold water. Another guy
got the splendid idea to piss in the coffe can to heat things up. KABOOOM it went of
and that guy running around screaming i got piss in my mouth, i got piss in my mouth
While the rest of almost died laughing ;D ;D ;D
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Many years ago we broke open a sodium valve and dug a small piece out and dropped it in some water. All it did was fizz and run around on top of the water till it was gone.
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As a wee lad, I always read Popular Science and Popular Mechanics cover to cover. They had a page on tips and tricks where they used a valve to sink nails that were hard to reach. I remembered the old man had a valve from his Mack laying on his work bench so I had to try this out. He saw me hitting the valve head with a hammer and freaked out. Said it was a sodium valve and they explode. With the crap I was always dicking with, I don't know how I survived my youth.
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Glad you weren’t hurt! It might’ve delayed the build! I’m happy I left that part of the disassembly to you, my luck it would have shot across the shop and through the side of a car!
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And sodium-filled valves aren't just old tech. They're still being used in modern tech. I have a car that uses sodium-filled valves.
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My chemistry teacher showed us calcium carbide instead of sodium. He spent a week shooting rubber stoppers through the drop ceiling tiles.
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I was a Chem E major until I figured out that I was too stupid to be a Chem E major, so I switched to an engineering field where I could *see* stuff.
I still remember my periodic tables and how the left side is pretty volatile stuff.....Sodium, Potassium, etc.
That was the last thought in my mind as I smacked the retainer on that valve yesterday LOL
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I had a 427 Medium Riser sodium exhaust valve roll off the swap meet table and break, the yellow sodium came oozing out for hours looking like that expanding spray foam.
I use a 9/16" socket to loosen keepers.
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This string of posts had me laugh so hard I cried!!!!!!!!!
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I've never seen that happen, but I have seen a machinist start a massive fire while working on titanium. I looked over, saw a pinwheel of bright sparks, and within seconds the entire work area was engulfed in flames. I was told it was due to improper cutting speed, and the fact that there was a pile of steel swarf next to the mill. Poof.
It also scares me that many auto manufacturers are using so much magnesium these days. I get it, it takes a lot of heat to ignite magnesium. Gas won't do it, but electricity can.
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Magnesium fires on automobiles provide entertainment when rookies hit it with a fire hose ;D
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Late model F150's have a magnesium radiator support.
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Got in good trouble back in high school for smuggling lab grade potassium out of the science lab and flinging small chunks in the pool. Way, way more reactive than sodium. Hooking 6 gas jets to a single bunsen burner was also a good time had by all.