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This isn't too old to drag up, but I have in fact seen what happens when those little plastic lines break. Happened on my buddy's '70 Buick Skylark, 502ci big block. Line was routed along the block, away from the headers (as much as possible, never was a problem before), but when the cam ground down on break in, the headers got red hot (cam timing was off a little....), melted the line (obviously it was too close to the header at this point :exnbp, after the line melted the oil started squirting out, right on to the header. Next thing you know, *poof* oil fire. Everybody running around like crazy :run: not knowing what to do, finally someone grabbed a fire extinguisher. By that time the fire had gotten 4-5 feet high out of the engine bay, and burned the distrubtor wiring enough that it grounded out, and killed the motor. Lucky that happened cause it just kept spewing oil out of that little broken tube, right onto the header. Funny part about it was it only lasted like 15 seconds, but seemed like 5 minutes, and you couldn't hear a damned thing over the sound of that 502 at 2k rpm! But hey we all made it out fine, and the car only lost the booster and some wiring, so all in all not a horrible day. :cheers:

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Of course this is the worst case scenario (except no one was cooked like cajun food), but hey, it does happen. After being there through that one, I can't fathom a reason not to spend a few extra bucks to get an electric gauge. But hey, I drink and have unprotected sex, so I guess we all take our chances right? I'd just rather not burn to death.