recently my car caught on fire and was a total loss

[D_Roc1320]

So recently my car caught on fire and was pretty much declared a total loss by the insurance company. It only burned for like a couple minutes.. like 2-3 mins at tops and then was put out. And I have a couple questions for the members here, see when I was looking around under the hood to see what was damaged I noticed that the timing belt was cut. Im not sure if it broke or snapped or if it broke because of the heat and flames that were shooting out of my hood at the time. So I was wondering if there would be anyway to see if it bent any of my valves or did any damage to the internals in the engine. The engine was completely built from head to toe... forged pistons and rods..springs..retainers, cams, cam gears, ported polished the whole nine. Thats why its important to me to see if anything bad could have happened to the actual engine itself. The parts that were messed up were the following... valve cover, plugs, plug wires, fuel rail, injectors, alternator, hood, driver side headlight, O2 sensor, timing belt. and both serpentine belts were completely off the car and broke (like the timing belt), the power steering is pretty much gone as in Id have to replace the hoses and everything, and the clutch & brake fluid reservoirs were destroyed, the headlight harness on the driver side, and one of the main things were the injector harnesses were destroyed. I might be looking to just rebuild from what I have cause it was pretty awesome what I had. Im also wondering that since the injector harness is destroyed would be best if I got a new wiring harness or would there be some kind of way to splce in the wiring harness to install new injector harnesses. Cause thats the only part of the actual wiring harness that it damaged. Id really appreciate any info anyone would be able to give me..given that its not bashing and actual good advice or opinion. Any way without taking the engine out, or starting the car to see if any internal damage was done to anything and if I can splice into the wiring harness and how much of a pain in the ass it would be or if it would even be worth it. The car is worth rebuilding to me at least and just need a lil advice.. thanks.. later.

 

[antiheroX]

The easiest way to determine if there is any internal damage is to open it up.
I know thats not what you wanted to hear.

 

[lAsErfWd]

most likely if the car ran while the timing belt broke the valve got hit. so you would need to take it apart and check. the head will have to go to a machine shop because even though it might not look like they are bent the valves could be slightly off.

 

[1gDSM4g63]

The only way you can tell is by opening up the block.

 

[D_Roc1320]

The easiest way to determine if there is any internal damage is to open it up.
I know thats not what you wanted to hear.

yeah that is what I was afraid was gonna be said. That lil voice in my head knew the answer I guess Im too stubborn to listen to it and need people people to tell me. Thanks for all the help though, appreciate it..

 

[1gcrazy]

Well I know the first thing I did when my car started smoking from under the hood was turn it off. I coasted to a stop and wouldn't the spark plug wires, fuel injector harness and such burn first basically disableing the motor? If the motor stopped before the belt broek, then the valves should be fine.
Not sure about the 2-3 minutes it was burning. I would take off the valve cover and visually inspect it. Then rebuild from there if everythings good. Whats the worst that could happen? You get it all back together and have to take the motor out? if it looks like it warped the top of the head then I would probably rebuild it.

 

[Talonracn50]

you can always pull the valve cover and check for loose followers (things under the cams) If a valve got killed, you should have some loose ones.

The only true way to tell is to take it all the way apart, but the followers should give you a sign of whether to go further or not.

Splicing the wires is no big deal, but you cant just paint over where the car burned in the engine bay -- the paint wont stick very well.

Any pictures of just how bad it is?

 

[D_Roc1320]

you can always pull the valve cover and check for loose followers (things under the cams) If a valve got killed, you should have some loose ones.

The only true way to tell is to take it all the way apart, but the followers should give you a sign of whether to go further or not.

Splicing the wires is no big deal, but you cant just paint over where the car burned in the engine bay -- the paint wont stick very well.

Any pictures of just how bad it is?

Alright good thank you... I was really worried about splicing the wires. Wasnt sure if it could be done or not. The only thing that got burned like cosmetically was the hood and hte headlight. And those 2 things can be replaced, cause I was gonna replace them anyways. And the car is black anyways.. so I guess I lucked out on that one. I always knew I loved that color . Ill have to pull the valve cover off here soon and check things out. Thanks again for the advice.

 

[D_Roc1320]

Well I know the first thing I did when my car started smoking from under the hood was turn it off. I coasted to a stop and wouldn't the spark plug wires, fuel injector harness and such burn first basically disableing the motor? If the motor stopped before the belt broek, then the valves should be fine.
Not sure about the 2-3 minutes it was burning. I would take off the valve cover and visually inspect it. Then rebuild from there if everythings good. Whats the worst that could happen? You get it all back together and have to take the motor out? if it looks like it warped the top of the head then I would probably rebuild it.

Yeah I didnt have the option of shutting the car off .. cause it completely shut off on me. And I was really confused what was happening considering I wasnt even going that fast..my gauges started blinking and I pulled over to the side of the road and popped the hood. Yeah thats what I was thinking and hoping to about the plug wires and injector harness burning first. I figured thats why it died on me. Ill take the valve cover off soon and check everything over. We're see what the damage is.

 

[zimfro]

What caused the fire? You may want to figure that out before too long.

 

[D_Roc1320]

What caused the fire? You may want to figure that out before too long.[/QUOTE

Well the car had a oil leak and there was oil all over the valve cover and either it got really hot inside the engine bay and it caught on fire.. or oil dripped onto the manifold and thats what caused it. Those are the only things I could come up with.

 

[D_Roc1320]

Ok so Ive been thinking... about the current situation and ran over the facts. I have a 98 Eclipse GS-T with 28,499 orginial miles and 2k on a completely built engine and a bunch of other expensive go fast goodies. Waited 9 months to get the car and had it for a month and it catches on fire. Now other than my extremely bad luck what is one to do. I calculated up everything that I think would need to be fixed... and it came out to 5500.00 for everything. Ya know given that the actual engine is ok and not damaged which I dont think it is. The list of things that were damaged were the hood, valve cover, injectors, injector harness, driver side headlight, headlight harness, AEM UEGO Wideband, Alternator, Power Steering is completely gone, fuel rail, all the reservoirs for the fluids, the plug wires & ###### the plugs to, all the belts (timing & all serpentine belts), and the oil catch can. I know what a lot of people are gonna say, turn it into the insurance people. Ive let them know about it and have had 2 estimators come out and look at it. Ive gotten the vibe and one of the dudes even told me that it was ###### gonna be totalled out. I dont wanna see this car get totalled cause of all the money thats been thrown into it. And for the fact that in the month I did have it... it was a ####ing blast. Am I over looking the obvious because I love the car or do I have a legitiment rebuild here? What would some of you guys do if you were in the same situation? Let me know... thanks in advance.

 

[bwild97]

Well, I would do every thing in my power to keep the insurance company form totaling the car. Once the title gets branded its value drops to less than half of wholesale (trade-in value)

 

[Defiant]

Sometimes the cards just don't make a hand. You can keep chasing it, or cut your losses and start over with another deal.
Parts of life suck. You missed the part of third-degree burns.

For $5500, you should be able to find another car, perhaps a better one.

 

[Talonracn50]

I have been there and done that. I fixed a 1995 from a burn under the hood. It didnt look so bad at first, but once I really got into it, what a pain.

The paint wont look at good as original, you will have a ton of time invested again in it, and even if you get EVERYTHING fixed, it will still smell like a burned marshmellow.

Take the insurance money, buy back the car from them if you really want the engine. Strip it down, take out the engine and tranny and let them haul the rest to the junkyard.

I swear I worked a year getting mine finished -- and it never was back to what it had been. I am not telling you that you cant do it, just that after having done it myself, I would never tell anyone that I liked to try it.

I know you love the car, but you will love the next one too.