flash_xx

Can Nitrous Oxide cause a car to burst up in flames after a crash?

I ask because there was an accident involving a new Camaro out here this sunday and the car blew up after the crash killing all three people on board, two 17 year old boys and the 31 year old driver. Apparently the car skidded off the road at high speed and hit a tree, it flipped over and as the driver was trying to get out of the seat belt the car burst into flames.

Witnesses said the car was modified with Nitrogen for racing, which I take it means NOS, because as far as I know the only use for nitrogen in a car is on the tires and it is not flammable.

jimkaray

Possibly, depends on what actually happened. Nitrous itself is not flammable or explosive its just an oxidizer. An oxidizer adds oxygen so if there was a fire and the bottle was ruptured, or open and line was ruptured I believe it could cause an existing fire to flare up.

nitrous_bob

what jim said is correct.

and so to answer your question... 100% NOT ABLE to cause an explosion or fire.

FEED an existing fire.... yes most assuredly, but it would have to be a pretty big fire already to burst the bottle. assuming the tank was completely full, if it was already hot and made 1000 psi, you'd have to double the temp of the tank twice to pop the burst disc (3000 psi) then it would only leak from there until the pressure died off. a 10lb nitrous tank only holds 60 cubic feet of air at 3000 psi, so probably 20 cubic ft of vaporized nitrous at 1000 psi. bottom line is..... those kids would have burned anyways, whether or not the nitrous bottle popped. and thats not even taking into consideration how bad the crash was to have caused a fire to begin with.

so yeah.....more BS stories that give nitrous a bad name.

nitrous_bob

and some FYI.... on the "nitrogen" comment...yes probably meant nitrous oxide.

since the air we breathe is 79% nitrogen anyways, and not flammable at all, nor does it do anything for performance