Engine fire aftermath...

[F34R]

Engine swap time!!!

[e30rapidic]

Andre'- if you're going to Greenville anyway, you can skip my place and take the trans straight to the guy who needs it. It'll save you some miles coming to my place first.
Let me know if that would work, and I'll confirm with him.

that is fine with me! let me know via e-mail early next week regarding the hood.

[jaywood]

Sorry to hear that man!

The FPR should just push in. There's a little rubber bushing on the bottom (like what fuel injectors have) that helps prevent leaks, check if you have that. There are also 2 bolts on either side of the FPR. Make sure they're tight

Good luck!

[glucklich21]

Me and friend had this happen as well. We were lucky that the hood was off when it did.

We had just finished putting on new intake seals, vacuum, and coolant hoses. We turned it on to start the bleeding process. Fuel squirted out of the FPR, upon inspection the o ring had stayed inside of the housing and when I went to reinstall it, I didn't notice. So we fixed that and started it up. Fuel squirted again, so I signaled him to kill it, when he did, the bay went up in flames.

Luckily we had water sitting around for the bleeding and we able to put it out before any real damage was done.

The cause was a cracked fuel line and a loose clamp I had over looked. Lesson learn and life goes on. It's a shame yours ended so badly though. :(

[BoxDriver86]

Me and friend had this happen as well. We were lucky that the hood was off when it did.

We had just finished putting on new intake seals, vacuum, and coolant hoses. We turned it on to start the bleeding process. Fuel squirted out of the FPR, upon inspection the o ring had stayed inside of the housing and when I went to reinstall it, I didn't notice. So we fixed that and started it up. Fuel squirted again, so I signaled him to kill it, when he did, the bay went up in flames.

Luckily we had water sitting around for the bleeding and we able to put it out before any real damage was done.

The cause was a cracked fuel line and a loose clamp I had over looked. Lesson learn and life goes on. It's a shame yours ended so badly though. :(

I had the FPR bolts super tight as that was the only way I could get it to seat. I now officially have all the parts to get it back together so I'll start work tomorrow evening.

I was looking at the bay tonight and writing up my plan of attack and I noticed that I used standard fuel hose on the return line instead of the high pressure hose. I am going to assume that it failed under pressure and that's the reason the fire occurred. I am going to replace all of the hoses with high pressure line while I'm in there.

Quick question although I will find out tomorrow. Will I need to open the harness up at the ECU side to splice in wires for the 12 button OBC since the donor car only had a 6 button or is that all wired independent from the main wiring harness? Any help on that would be great as I am low on solder and heatshrink and would need to get some before I start tearing it down tomorrow.

Thanks in advance!

[evandael]

Damn, where did that kid swoop in from? That's a lucky turn of events, it could have been much worse.


In any case, I say M52 swap and turn it into a HPDE car.. good use for salvage titles. Unless you still have your Lotus.. which, by the way, pics?

And you win at marriage.

[bloodshot-e30]

I'm not sure if it's in all states but if a car is in a fire in any way the VIN is recorded so the car cannot be resold. The fire department records this and sends the information to the DMV. It's a great practice since so many cars are brought back from engine fires and sold to unknowing owners. This information will appear from DMV records and also any Carfax. The car will have to be put on an "R" or "Salvage" title if resold meaning there will be limitations for any future owner as far as title, license and insurance is concerned.

Another neat note on this, in the event that your insurance company is notified of this it is possible that comprehensive and collision insurance will no longer be available for the car, just liability.

Good news. I am keeping my e30 forever. Get used to me R3v.

so what happens when a new motor is put in?

[Eric]

what happened to the lotus?

[Turd]

Bummer.

Same thing happened to my best friend.

Culprit was a stale fuel line that burst. In the same fashion, his hood latch was botched so he popped it with a flat head in the middle of an intersection where the car lit. Having a fire extinguisher handy in the car saved him from having a pile of charcoal to speak of. The incident was taken care of before the fire department was even on site.



Good luck on your repairs. Its doable. :up:

[BoxDriver86]

In any case, I say M52 swap and turn it into a HPDE car.. good use for salvage titles. Unless you still have your Lotus.. which, by the way, pics

what happened to the lotus?

I bought the e30 to use as a company car and it will stay that way. I have it worked out with the insurance company that I can keep it, I just can't sell it which is fine. I'm an independent sales rep which means that my company pays me to use my car for work (about 1500 miles/week). I would rather have my e30 as a daily and the Lotus is my track car.


Even better than pictures and yeah, I did win ASP that day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOs5fHjzVw4&NR=1

This on posted because my girl hates the BOV sound...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILh9OCrAEDo&feature=related

Lotus has fully adjustable Gaz coilovers, Everest chip, Azenis 215-40s and a handful of Lotus performance goodies like intake, exhaust and charge pipe upgrade.

On a related note, work will start this evening and I hope to have it wrapped up and running by tomorrow based on how much splicing I have to do for the OBC.

[browntown]

I have an eta afm, starter, and coil that you can have for just shipping cost considering the circumstances. Let me know, it can go in the mail today.

[Commendatore]

Wow. I've thought about putting an extinguisher in everything I have that's highly modified or irreplaceable. Maybe I need to get on that. Glad to see it wasn't a total loss.

[BoxDriver86]

Wow. I've thought about putting an extinguisher in everything I have that's highly modified or irreplaceable. Maybe I need to get on that. Glad to see it wasn't a total loss.

You do. I bought a new one for the garage and another for the car the same day.

[browntown]

The local place I get all my fire extinguishers serviced tells me NOT to use an ABC one on an engine fire. Instead to use a BC or halon type. In my garage I have the BC extinguisher clearly labeled "Car Fire". I can't remember the science behind it but they warned me that abc all purpose extinguishers will ruin your engine and might make an insurance company not pay.

[N2MYE30]

The local place I get all my fire extinguishers serviced tells me NOT to use an ABC one on an engine fire. Instead to use a BC or halon type. In my garage I have the BC extinguisher clearly labeled "Car Fire". I can't remember the science behind it but they warned me that abc all purpose extinguishers will ruin your engine and might make an insurance company not pay.

Geez...even fire extinguishers gets complicated! Is there a fire extinguisher forum?...j/k

Did you get it running?