ANyone ever burn the car to the ground? I did...

[mustang347]

Well, my Talon is dead. Not blown trans dead, or even motor and turbo dead, ALL DEAD. Nothing left! Just a frame, everything that wasnt semi thick steel is gone. No plastic, no cloth, no windows, no dash, no gauges etc. NOTHING! Even the paint is all gone, the car is a really nice shade of white now, instead of blue.

Now, why did this happen? I was having fun in a field doing doughnuts and practicing rally driving. Everything was going fine, temp was OK, no other signs to what was about to happen.

I went to turn around, and I ran into some weeds like i have many other times on this small track we have. As soon as I hit them, a huge clowd of thick white smoke came pouring from under the hood. I jumped out of the car, and opened the hood. Smoke everywhere (thick white stuff) and flames right above the turbo. My buddy ran to get an extinguisher, but it was too little too late. The fire dept. around this area is not so great and the location of the car made it just that much worse. I could do nothing but watch my car go up in flames. I did manage to get all my stuff out of it... but the car is now just a shell.

Question is, why did this happen? (Please dont tell me cause I was abusing my car, these things make great rally cars, and race cars in general. I understand the risks involved, so just try and help me out) Could the turbo combust from all the heat? Could I have poped an oil line off?

Any help is appreciated...

BTW, I have some parts for sale cheap like wheels, and maybe the borla muffler!

 

[dyezak]

I have only seen one other car (DSM) do what happend to yours...but his was GROSS user abuse. What probably happened was you were driving it hard making the Exhaust Mani, Turbine Housing and o2 Housing roughly 1500deg F, and the cat was probably right up there. I see you hitting the weeds and possibly harming your oil return line...or a fuel line. Dry weeds and 1500F equals fire...and a constant source of fuel (ie. oil or gas) would burn you to the ground. On the other car I saw it was fuel.

 

[smokehouse_83]

Another reason these cars burn to the ground is the wiring harness that goes to the coil ignites and starts the car on fire there has been a big discussion on dsmtalk about this and they have found to stop this you need to put fire resistant wrap on this part of the wiring harness so if it ignites it will only burn that little bit of the wiring harness.

Drew

 

[BoostinAWD]

Why didn't you have a fire extinguisher(sp?) in the car?

Have you ever stuck a paper towel on a heatshield? It turns black and starts smoking within seconds and that is on the heatshield not the manifold.

The oil return line isnt very strong either, I had a friend whos cracked from normal driving.

Lets see a bunch of weeds with a super hot engine on top, perfect for a fire if you ask me. Especially when the fuel lines start burning.

 

[GRNDSM]

There is one very common and dangerous condition that afflicts most DSMs. Our dipstick tends to pop up due to increased crankcase pressure. This pressure can be due to some major blow-by, bad PCV valve or a clogged up PCV filter. Whatever the reason, the cause is almost always the same, you coat your manifold, turbo and O2 housing with oil.

Granted, most of the time, it does not start fire, but I have heard of it before.

I have been using a carburetor spring to make sure that my dipstick can not pop out.

Have you addressed this issue in past? If you haven't, it is a likely reason for your fire .

In ether case, sorry about your loss

Leon
RR

 

[L2RTSiAWD]

Explain using carb spray. My dipstick has started to pop out recently since I had some boost leaks fixed. I'm replacing the PCV valve but interested in this carb cleaner thing.

PS.

AWDKitkat's car caught on fire.

 

[GRNDSM]

IMHO, all DSMs need some sort of mechanical interlock to make sure that their dipstick can not pop-out! There is just too much riding it and solution is SOO simple!

I used to use a piece of coat hanger, which I would bend in and out of dipstick finger hole. But that was clumsy to use and did not look good.

Instead I switched to a carburetor spring, which is an old trick that existed for decades. Basically, take a long carburetor spring (4”-6”), find a place to attach it below the dipstick (I used hard water line that went to the oil filter and bend it such that it could not fall off) and then put the upper hook through the dipstick hole. It is a simple as that!

Leon
RR

 

[L2RTSiAWD]

Thanks alot! I will go looking for one.

 

[Maestr0]

Great Idea! I'll also hafta check that out. I also will be keeping a fire extinguisher in my car for safety

 

[BoostinAWD]

Mine doesn't

 

[L2RTSiAWD]

Originally posted by BoostinAWD
Mine doesn't

Be lucky then.

 

[highpsi93tsi]

Mine always pops up. Never really put 2 and 2 together. Thank god for the internet ! j/k lmmfao

 

[mustang347]

Hey guys, thanks for the help. I forgot to add, as soon as the smoke first came billowing from under the hood in a huge cloud, the engine stalled. I am thinking that maybe the turbo exploded, or came apart, blowing oil over everything, and opening the intake system to the atmosphere, causing the stall.

The way that the smoke first appeared, makes me thing that oil was directly being poured onto something hot. It wasn’t a gradual smoke, it was all of the sudden, POOF, and a HUGE cloud of smoke coming from under my hood, and it was flaming as soon as I got the hood open.

My Mustang has en extinguisher in it, and believe me, my GTI and the next daily driver will have on in it too. I never would have guessed that the Talon would actually blow up! I was only playing around today for about 5-7 minutes before this happened too. I think if I would have had a fire bottle in my car, I would have been able to control the fire. It took about 2 minutes from when it started, to when I got the fire extinguisher on it, and by then it was too little to late, the front of the engine was totally inflames. EVERYONE PUT A FIRE EXTUINGUISHER IN YOUR CARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will have some pics of that skeleton soon...

 

[jretta91]

yeah mine always popped up on my gsx too... i just grabbed one out of a junkyard off a 1g talon and never had a problem with it again.

 

[BoostinAWD]

I won't even take my extinguisher out of my car to do 1/4 runs. It's a good sized one too.

 

[mustang347]

Yea, I think I have learned my lesson... Always, Always have a fire bottle in the car, any car, all the time, forever.

Now the search to find a new car assuming insurance is gonna help me out.

 

[larryd]

my dipstick has a habit of popping out from time to time as well.. I usualy zip tie it down.

 

[larryd]

Originally posted by got traction?
congrats man, your the moron of the year!!

seriously, this type of attitude isnt welcome here on tuners..

 

[Ian M]

I know a guy whos GVR4 burned to the ground because of a dipstick popping out. It was a high mileage car,and it had popped out many times before and blew oil out. He was flogging the car on the highway (as usual),saw smoke and pulled over. He didnt have a extiguisher either,there was nothing left of the car.
An easy way to attach a spring is to get a mini fuel line hose clamp and clamp it to the dipstick tube and hook the carb spring to the clamp.

 

[mustang347]

My dipstick did pop out once, but I just stuck it back in and never saw it poped out again. This could have been the cause, but it would seem to me that it wouldnt be such a quick and fast cloud of smoke. Unless it poured a ton of oil out in a real hurry, which under boost is possible with an older engine.

After it was all said and done, the dipstick was still in the tube, but the plastic was gone, so I dont know if that was the cause of the fire. I do know that if I get another DSM, I will have a spring or something to hold that dipstick in place!

 

[turboholic]

Originally posted by GRNDSM
Instead I switched to a carburetor spring, which is an old trick that existed for decades. Basically, take a long carburetor spring (4”-6”), find a place to attach it below the dipstick (I used hard water line that went to the oil filter and bend it such that it could not fall off) and then put the upper hook through the dipstick hole. It is a simple as that!

-I add 3 tight fitting O-rings on to the groove of the rubber section of my 180k miles dip-stick, haven't pop out since.