How To Build Flame Thrower Exhaust!!! (Stand Alone Ignition System)

On this episode of Make It Kustom, I show you step by step how to build a stand alone ignition system for a flame thrower exhaust for your “BBQ” 😉
Materials needed:
1- toggle switch
3- 5 pin 30 amp relays (with holders)
1- 30 amp in-line fuse holder
2- ignition condensers (points ignition)
1- ballast resistor (1975/76 Chrysler)
2- ignition coils
2- spark plugs
2- spark plug wires
2- 14mm x 1.25 nuts (to weld in your pipes)
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[@TuckerCustomShop]

Yep. Puttin one on the lawn mower. Wife is going to hate it!

[@arichardofalltrades6770]

I am an electrical engineer, and I think your circuit is ideal. My only comment is you may be able to drive both coils from a single relay, making it a little simpler however. Also, as far as crimping goes, a ratchet style crimper is the only way to reliably crimp wires. The plastic insulators are great if you have one. That's the only way you could get UL approval, and also the way military aircraft are wired. That's because they don't release until the crimp is complete. Thanks for the great content!

[@MakeItKustom]

I have one of those crimping tools and find it a bit clunky maybe there are other ones out there that are better. I should start using it one of my crimps failed on the switch lol

[@georgeyoung2336]

@@MakeItKustom I did see that crimp pull out. But in your defense it did look like you pulled pretty hard. I was a CH46 mechanic and air crew for almost 20 years. The crimpers the above comment are referring to are pretty slim and they work great. I have never had a crimp fail. I will see if I can send you a pic of the ones I have.

[@aaronbuildsa]

@@georgeyoung2336 I don't suppose your crimpers have a part number? I've tried several low to mid price ratcheting crimpers and .. they're universally awful with weak crimps. I know good ones are out there, I just haven't found one yet (and now have a drawer full of crimpers I hate!) :)

[@georgeyoung2336]

@@aaronbuildsa I don't know but I will take a look for you.

[@aaronbuildsa]

@@georgeyoung2336 Thanks George! Appreciated :)

[@u1es]

Arguably one of the most underrated auto channels. Always informative, easy enough for anyone with half a wit understand.

[@BoostedCoupe]

Here in 2024 and this is still true. 👏

[@billnlori3149]

Came for the flame throwers...stayed for the nip clamp tutorial lol!! Our 55 Caddy will be getting a set of these for sure, thanks for the great video!!

[@zracer1099]

I have a 55 caddy too that I was thinking of doing this to! 😂

[@leoarteaga4219]

Thanks Karl. I am a visual learner and this was a great way to grasp the concept, especially with the overhead shot. Great job

[@mridaho7871]

Great system, really well explained. Thank you. You may want to put a manual ball valve between the solenoid valve and the tee to the exhausts. Solenoids are notorious for failing and you won’t know that one has failed until both do. With your set up, this would be extremely dangerous since the flames are right at the door. Some way to turn off the gas from inside would be better.

[@MakeItKustom]

That’s a really great observation and an I appreciate the suggestion a lot! Can’t be too careful

[@minnesotatomcat]

Great idea with the double fuel solenoid as a redundant system, safety first with raw fuel 👍

[@joseywales3789]

Informative and educational video, I was particularly interested in Christina's knowledge of crocodile clips and then you brought out the Big Guns on the end of the jump lead wires...... it nearly brought tears to my eyes! The electrical circuit was trick too! 😂😂😂😂😂✊👍✊

[@MakeItKustom]

Ha ha it was fun

[@philipburrows]

I was geeking out over the relay the clear case one, so cool seeing the internals moving. The flame thrower trick is so cool, the electrical side has a few uses some could be classified as illegal but a great way to safeguard yourself and your vehicle. Loving how Christine is quick with witty banter, like crocodile clips as nipple clips, I was giggling like hell with it especially when you brought out the heavy duty battery cable's with the heavy duty clamp clips, mega laughter. Loving the video's and learning something new, 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@RADIOACTIVEMASCULINITY]

I will probably never do this but it was a ton of fun to watch this system come together 💪🇺🇸

[@805ROADKING]

Good stuff Bud!! Try using two $5.00 Model T Buzz Coils and you could eliminate 99.99% of that stuff.

[@missioncapable4658]

I'm building one for my rat bike. Those model t coils look huge.

[@spadies8316]

Where are they 5$ lol

[@Tony7190GR]

3:1 is the shrink ratio, it means it shrinks 3x the original size, what you are using is just adhesive lined heat shrink

[@knonfs]

Was about to post this info! Adhesive lined shrinking tube could be found on and ratio, just like any ratio shrinking tube could be purchased without the adhesive.

[@athhud]

Came here to say this.

[@todayletsbuild2153]

@@knonfs you beat me to it. lol..

[@gafrers]

Great explanation and demonstration. Some mention a vented/Venturi in the exhaust to mix fresh air to aid and strengthen the flames

[@mikewood1421]

Awesome!, thanks for sharing ! Can't wait to play with this on my own BBQ....you know....after I finish a couple of years of sheetmetal and chassis fabrication XD

[@michaelosborne513]

My 49 Mercury needs these

[@rattlekankustoms]

What a great set up. Thanks a bunch for this! I'm going to put flame throwers in the lake pipes of my 49 Pontiac, for use at home... safely... in my driveway....

[@lazyhoundracing9621]

Great video. Washing the cylinder walls also fills your crankcase with gasoline. Game over. Thank you for your time.

[@speedbuggy16v]

very cool and simple, if no one has mentioned it yet, you can use a waste spark type coil, like from a points ignition Harley coil. then you only need one coil, one condenser/capacitor, two relays and no ballast resistor as those coils are a full 12V. you can use different value capacitors to vary the frequency of the spark.

[@tylerseabook9423]

So awesome. Now I’m putting this on my 64 Chevy shortbox rat rod

[@asharacic9426]

Another great episode. Really enjoy the in-depth explanation you give on all episodes👍🇦🇺

[@todayletsbuild2153]

The 3 to 1 heat shrink is the ratio it reduces the size so it goes down to 1/3rd the original size and 2 to 1 is half the original size. I used one of these "buzz coils" last year to fire a homemade high frequency on my buzz box welder for tig welding. Buzz coils were the way older cars used to fire the ignition, and if you look up an old Model T coil the relay was built into the side of the wooden coil box. Another fun video!

[@kdranch77]

Your show is 10x better than rust valley. No comparison

[@DobeyChru]

Yes! Thank you! I wasn't too keen on the ignition shut off/unburnt fuel thru the engine thing. I was thinking, "Can't you simply use an injector or something with your gasoline?" You helped answer that. Thanks for doing some foot work and showing an example. I'll likely do something like this.

[@backyardhotrods4726]

It worked great for me. Thanks to Karl for posting this video. I still need to "tune" the fuel flow, bit over all it's great! kzbin.infoIuNtXWK7Kl8?si=KvWDe0SACffCV_Y7

[@cuttersgoose]

Thank you for this..I always hesitated putting those flame kits on my 32 3 window, because I didn’t want to interrupt the engine power, I want to be able to bang thru the gears while throwing 10 foot flames out my shotgun exhaust.I knew there must be a way..thanks for showing me.

[@jenkinseric2]

This old man laughed out loud over the nipple clamp, jumper cables banter. YOu two together are terrific. Keep it up. Thank you.

[@frankb.9202]

Awesome, your right a lot of car guys are really secretive about there knowledge and when they go so does the knowledge. Thank you for the videos catch them when ever I can.

[@bkgaragerestorations]

You're not the only one who removes the plastic from connectors. I like to solder all my crimps before heat shrinking as well. Great explanation of how you set that system up.

[@robschaffer2189]

You basically made two Model T coils - which are self-exciting (nothing at all to do with nipple clamps, BTW ;P ). The first hot rod I ever built had a system like this with T coils. There is an aftermarket system that is smaller, like you said some EE would tell you at the beginning of the video, but it is nowhere as robust as this setup - and it's stupid expensive. DIN relays absolutely changed the way things work. I built a relay flame-thrower system based on what I knew about T coils in the mid 90s for a Kustom and as far as I know its still working. Thanks again for keeping the old-school stuff alive Karl. Best wishes.

[@willybones3890]

Nice job on explaining what a relay is for. Thanks. Mystery solved for me.

[@richardalvis4695]

I've seen bad flame thrower jobs! Some do wash the cylinders. Seen bad jobs mess up compression rings, gas in the oil and once bend valves. Seen it backfire through the intake after loading up the top end. People do crazy sh&t to their vehicles. Thank the good Lord for that! Anyway, flame throwers done right are a joy. Thanks for the vid

[@davidyates748]

Interesting video! My only comments would be that if you use a 12v coil you can do without the ballast resistor. Also if you're prepared to make a splitter HT lead or a wasted spark coil pack you can get away with a single coil.

[@jack002tuber]

Yeah, I thought that too. A coil on an engine is lighting 8 spark plugs

[@todayletsbuild2153]

A V8 coil only lights one sparkplug at a time via the rotor and cap but a parallel twin motorcycle coil will work with one relay setup. Splitting the HT lead the spark would likely only reliably travel path of least resistance. That being said both could spark but not reliably.

[@UnconventionalMetal]

Thanks for this. Even with classes, electrical has always been my week spot.

[@faspit95]

You are so good at explaining this stuff and keep it simple for all of us. There are many ways to build or work on stuff like this but to have someone openly show us how they do it gets our own creativity and skills thinking and working. Thanks for another great video.

[@herbertsaylor8912]

As I have come to expect from Make it Kustom, great video and I think I’m going to build one. CHRISTINA! Your camera work is the best of all of the automotive channels, and I am including the automotive channels on TV. Thanks to both of you.

[@AndyGeesGarage]

Hooligan!! I love it! Had a similar setup on my 55 Ford many years ago but instead of adding fuel I just held it at 2000 rpm and closed the choke. I had both coils fired by one relay and condenser though otherwise the same

[@jjohnson2553]

If you're looking to save space, 1 dual output Dyna motorcycle coil is about 1/4th the size of one of those coils and has dual output so only 1 coil is needed. And since they are high performance, that's 30k volts for each spark plug.

[@ttime893]

looks like a weekend project for the T Bucket. I'm sure it's going to impress the neighbors LOL Thks Karl

[@ShaunCWalters]

I have the same electrical pliers too, got them when I was in Canada in fact!

[@williamyeary9611]

I’ve always wanted to know how flame throwers worked. I am definitely doing this to my model a if I ever get it done.

[@georgeyoung2336]

This is brilliant. Definitely something I have been wanting to try on one of my bikes. Your video was extremely informative and as always entertaining. Thank you for posting this information in a way that was easy to follow.

[@jamiehadley8665]

Dude, this is the type of video I hoped to find. THANK YOU!!! I getting back into demolition derby after years of retirement and building a 65 Impala with 2 exhaust stacks coming out of the hood. This will be awesome for the crowd!!!

[@kevinwallis2194]

like all Mopars, you should keep an extra ballast resister in your glovebox. lol I remember when we used to have to make our own spark plug wires or at least adjust the lengths of ones from the stores. I could tell a couple stories about nipple clamp uses that ive seen. That relay is the modern version of the ones that old pinball machines had in them.

[@tsaints1115]

For crimping your connectors maybe try one of the jawed ratcheting pliers. They get the crimp perfect every time and it's so much easier on the hands.

[@MrLangleylad]

Karl , if you ever decide to have Saturday morning classes in whatever. Put me down for everyone. You are the ultimate teacher 👊.

[@MakeItKustom]

You got it mike! I’ll start figuring that out soon

[@roywhitman1775]

I'd seen videos of some vehicles shooting flames in the air for distance & I always wondered how they did it! This was some GREAT information!!👍

[@frodobaggins169]

Back we I was young We called that fuel jet a pill. Used on Hilborn injection system, on top of the engine with eight air stacks pointing up. It was before electronics it just had a pump and was only good for full throttle. We would adjust the mixture by changing the size of the pill. Needles to say it was for drag racing. You got a couple of my brain cell firing. Thanks Karl.

[@dennisnbrown]

I have wanted one of these set ups on my hot rod forever. Now it’s game on. Thanks

[@oswald35]

Thanks for sharing this! I have a tricked out Honda F6B and with this setup it became the frankenbike I knew it could be.

[@jeremyhanna3852]

This is much more elaborate than my spinning a hei with a cordless drill

[@laszlovona]

Electrical Engineer petrolhead here,. but not going smartss mode haha 😁 thanks for sharing the details 👍

[@leonhart2452]

You can find most of those parts in a car junk yard. Most cars use relays like those. Older cars have the ballist resistors. The relay connectors you will have to get on eBay or amazon.

[@HardCoreFab]

That video went south quick with the nipple clamps! Your best video yet! LOL

[@mannekokkonen9983]

I'm going to using my flamthrowers next time I'm passing by the bus stop. ..thanks for the tip!!

[@conover1978]

I just noticed, your camera man is your wife…u are by far one of the more lucky guys in the world because she’s into the shop stuff you are and cars as well. That’s a rare thing. I mean she would have to be,she stood there for 40 plus mins filming the mad Scientist work his Magic. I loved the video and always the work you do. Keep it up!

[@missioncapable4658]

Just finished doing brass knuckle shifter on my custom bobber. Going to do the flame thrower next. Thanks for doing this video 🤙

[@henryverrydt4943]

Awesome video. Channel lock has the best crimper.

[@digschopper9321]

A buddy had a similar setup with separate fuel tank. He tried all combinations,even mixing ATF with gas. I love the system you've got here,I'm going to make one for my bike. Thanks!

[@chrisallen9154]

I'm getting emotional thinking about your next video where all of the clamps get featured.

[@murdoc6501]

A-nother great tutorial! Love the engineering and explanation of the process. Thank you!

[@conover1978]

I have to agree with ya. That is the coolest relay I’ve ever seen.

[@mrpurcountry]

Somewhere in that garage there's got to be a red room, and Christina has been watching 50 shades, LOL

[@jacobellis9820]

Just thought I'd throw in a little here, for spark plug bungs I've used non foulers you can usually find in parts stores. Just cut them down and weld them in same a bung.

[@ToplessTattoo]

Doing it on a board with the wires screwed down is a great idea... Love it!. Your going to get in so much trouble!!!

[@boberickson1157]

Excellent tutorial. Thank you for doing it.

[@alexandrhrouz666]

Here in Czech Republic is every summer a Trabant meet. There is allways someone shooting flames. Well Trabant 601 is a 2-stroke and some fuel mixture allways gets into exhaust. So it is realy easy to shoot flames, all you need is a cig lighter. And basicaly any stock trabant can shoot flames without any tunning. Kinda interesting how diferent engines and cars work

[@theartman410]

Nice, glad you show it how you did. Makes it easy to follow along...Fabit

[@waynespiteri122]

Thanks Karl .

[@nealsmith7040]

Thanks for this video, perfect timing. I feel the same about the plastic on the connectors. I recently found a new style of connector called solder seal or something similar. The nice thing is the connector is solder and shrink wrap at once using a heat gun. I have tried a few test connection and tried to pull them apart without any failures. Give them a try, I am going to use them for my 65 El Camino rewire. Old Guys rule!

[@jmanlinc]

I used to use the bare connectors or solder and heat shrink but too many times I forgot to put the heat shrink on so I switched to the grote crimp with heat shrink built in. I worry that those solder and heat shrink connect could let go on high load circuits because the solder is so low temperature

[@nealsmith7040]

@@jmanlinc I have tested the connector that I bought and I haven't had any failures as of yet. I did do some pretty hard testing of the connection and had no failures, only time will tell I guess.

[@mikepelelo5657]

That's not a nipple clamp... THIS is a nipple clamp... Best episode ever, LOL!

[@timothymcfarland1307]

Simple. i wouldn't have figured that would work with no ground to the condenser. I been thinking how to do this with propane on my diesel stacks, just because i youse propane anyway on my diesel truck for more power . More food for thought. Thank you guys very much and she had me rolling with her niple clamps lol owch lol 😆

[@johnhutton7019]

You made me smile!

[@frankschwartz7405]

Hey Carl, You can get those relays by the handful from junkyard Chrysler products....under the hood fuse-box.

[@kevinkirk4285]

I dig your wiring techniques. I hate those plastic things too. I prefer the uninsulated crimp stuff. I'm an aircraft electrician and I bet you would geek out on some aircraft spec wiring. Some cool methods. When I wired up my Nissan Patrol project, I emulated the aircraft style splice points.

[@billarroo1]

Fun times at the Custom Shop !! Great Video, Thanks

[@derekchambers7015]

would you happen to have a part # for the clear relay. thanks for the episode!

[@MakeItKustom]

I don’t have a part number but it is a pico part

[@akumushikyo]

I do the same exact thing with the plastic on the connectors, always replace them with some heat shrink if they aren't already the heat shrink style.

[@justintimegraphics4316]

Forgot to mention the 2:1, 3:1, and 4:1 heat shrink refers to the size the heat shrink shrinks down compared to the size it starts out as. IE: 2:1 will shrink to half the original size. 3:1 will shrink down to 1/3 of the size. I’m sure you know this. 🙂 Just wanted those who read the comments to understand what it meant! Love all your videos!

[@Mryiyo209.]

I MADE THIS YEARS AGO COOL TO SEE A VIDEO AN I HAD ALL THESE SPARE PARTS IN MY GARAGE WIN

[@igobyscooter]

This was very informative for me, thank you Karl! I now want to do this to my Tacoma 🤣. I emailed you recently about seeing your truck in the movie Sonic. I was like OMGosh that's Karl's truck 😅.

[@marklopes2047]

Hell yea! Karl now that’s custom old school baby……

[@tstephens128]

Great stuff, thanks for sharing... also geeking out over the clear relay.. lol. also, only minecraft players will see this, and say.. it's a redstone clock.. 😂😂

[@Trikekid84]

Great video! Now I can finally get my BBQ to light! Will be doing this on a custom 67 Impala some day.

[@clydewatson7889]

Yes!!! Before even watching, thank you Karl

[@sdeadbeat]

Thanks for sharing this info! Ive run the classic flame throwers on a few of my cars. will give this a try on my current build.

[@ncode4296]

I have been looking for this info too! Thanks for the demo, great wiring skills!

[@heatherrigby7371]

Perfectly explained Brother. I am not sure if you can exchange 85 t0 86 connections. Normally on DC relays positive and negative connections are pre determined and not interchangeable. Please forgive me if something has changed. You are a good man. Thanks very much for the Brilliant content Donnie

[@minnesotatomcat]

I will never not think “nipple clamps” from here on out anytime I see an alligator clip. Sometimes it’s fun to see a woman’s interpretation on tools 🤣

[@kevinchastain727]

Nice work, I have used something like this on a ram jet for a RC plane.

[@angemayberry2648]

Your thought process man, I like it. You are a down to earth really good dude. I'm positive if you lived in Missouri USA we would be friends. Nothing better than like minded friends. Stay humble friend.

[@rulehardgarage9740]

Good stuff, love it. Working with controls I could see some different ways but as long as it works that's what matters. I've never made one this way, only dumping fuel on the rev down.

[@eddieschumock5997]

Genius idea with the resistors 👍

[@flatlinesup]

Very well done. Thank you for sharing.

[@kwikslvr73]

pretty sweet...might have to put that system on my 51 ford!!

[@johnjackett3138]

You Guys cracked Me up...fun video

[@rifleman7313]

Great video and explanation. I understand most cars. Except for the newer stuff as wiring gives me the heebie-jeebies. That's why I prefer pre 2000's cars and ratrods/hotrods.

[@davidnance9756]

Glad I came across your videos. They are great especially this one. Been researching flamethrowers for my volksrod I'm building. 🤘🤘🤘

[@j1m3by]

Nice vid. I've been wanting to put a flame thrower on my hot rod but like you couldn't find details. Just a nit here but the coil sparks when power is cut. That is when the points open. Oh and if those are the kind of nipple clamps you play with, then I want to party with you! LOL.

[@ogt92fromthe1step9]

Just made an igniter a couple months back cuz I was curious as to how the power up or test a coil. Newer coils to be exact but the same theory applies to both. I used a momentary switch hooked up to $3 signal generator from evil Bay but you could also use a pwm (pulse with modulator). The reason I went with a signal generator was once I set the frequency that I wanted I could use the potentiometer like a volume to raise or lower the amount of current going to that coil. Anyway I use the momentary switch through the signal generator powered from Milwaukee 12 volt battery to power the coil and bob's your auntie I had spark. It was really pretty neat to see that I had a spark gap well over an inch a couple thousand volts. I'm currently in the process of wiring this setup to my wife's bird feeder for squirrel protection because of how small and mobile a package it really is 🤣👌.

[@danielw7060]

Gonna make me smile with a flame throwin smoke stack on the nissan hardbody

[@geneyusko5975]

Love all of your videos. Really want to see how to build your bead roller . Had give back the one I was using 😩 bummer ,it was home built but I like your design better . Thank you.