2geclipse565
15+ Year Contributor
- 250
- 9
- Dec 23, 2006
-
Menifee,
California
hey everybody, not new to the site but I just got another new toy and figured this spot was the most appropriate to post on. If your wondering yes it did catch on fire within the first 12 hours of owning it. Iv had the car for a few months now and haven't had a chance to talk about it until now. I found this car originally for my girlfriend which has gone surprisingly good considering just yesterday I said to her "you do understand this stuff doesn't happen to most peoples cars right?" she agreed and said "I love it though". I originally found this ad on craigslist and figured it was a fake but e-mailed him anyway. The ad stated it was 97 gsx with 66,000 original miles, 6 bolt motor, evoIII 16g, ngr blow-off, 3" turbo back exhaust, evo fuel pump, 750cc injectors. Gm maft, and a built auto trans (which my girlfriend was more comfortable with anyway) I literally and lazily copy pasted the craigslist ad and put it into my current profile. The guy finally gives me a call back and me and her immediately pick up our crap and drive 5 hours to go see this car. I drive it, she drives it, it boosts fine, and runs great we take it. He was asking $5300 we got the car for $4800. The guy was a real stand up guy real cool and friendly. Its about 6:00 at night and it had been raining all day we weren’t to excited about driving home but we leave anyway. We jump on the freeway she steps on the accelerator and BOOM! the car just turned off she dives over like a nascar driver that I never knew I was dating. calls me needles to say more then upset. I turn around look under the hood five hours away from home like f
k and dont really see anything wrong. So I called the guy I bought it from. Remember when I called him a stand up guy. This guy and his friend comes to our rescue like superman and a sidekick, tool box in hand and everything. We were diagnosing it in the rain on the side of the freeway and CHP shows up to come take a look at this HIGHLY modified broken car. CHP is like the grim reaper here in california. I think I pissed myself a little but again it was raining I honestly dont know. The cop walks up and we saw that the Intercooler piping had come apart (dont know how I missed that) so he says fix it and go. We put it together clamp it as tight as we could get it. We all jump in our cars and take off. Because the cars were on the side of this narrow busy freeway I was told to take off first we all go and get a mile. im looking in my rear view and see her dive to the side of the road AGAIN but this time in front of the cop. I pulled over as soon as I could but couldnt see whats going on because the freeway had turned. Im freaking out because Im not seeing her pass me not sure what happened. I couldnt reverse and I would have to go back miles to turn around on the freeway. I call and her her SCREAMING at the top of her lungs and hangs up. Reliving that moment even typing it right, still scares me to say the least. This all happened to quick. I looked over my shoulder and the cop pushing her car with his at I swear to god 50 miles an hour. He is screaming at her over his loud speaker all I hear is "NO YOUR STEERING IT WRONG I SWEAR I WILL SPIN YOU OUT" I follow them on to the nearest off ramp I run up and he starts yelling at me she doesn’t know how to drive, calling her stupid, the works. The cop tells me to push the vehicle by hand to a safe place. With past experiences Iv learned to keep my mouth closed and nod my head. I pushed the car a good 150 yards to a mcdonalds parking lot while he followed me in his car for some reason instead of just pushing it and then drove off. End of his shift maybe, I dont know? My girlfriend was crying at this point because he was a dick, but she had done everything possible right, I saw it all unfold, and she handled it extremely well. I called the seller and he came back again and offered to get us a hotel, ($4800+ a $70 hotel) we gratefully accepted. We popped the hood and saw it was the same pipe. We clamped it together again and said lets try to figure this out. I jumped in the car and boosted that bad boy The gauge went 5 . . . 10 . 15-20-25psi! and I let off. The car had been in storage and I guess he had forgot to turn down the boost last time they were playing with it. I turned the boost down to 12 for the 5 hour drive home the next day. The only thing I could think that night, this being my third eclipse was Welcome back to the life
. The next day we hit the rode and drove for a solid 3 and 1/2 hours before the car decided to catch on fire. I knew the directions home so she was close behind me when I saw the car start smoking. We both pulled over immediately I scream pop the hood and see a small fire right next to battery. I WAS NOT ABOUT TO LOSE THIS CAR. I pulled my di@% out and pissed on the fire. Just kidding I ran back to my car and got a water bottle I had and put it out. What had happened was the guy was using radiator fans out a chrysler Sebring which one: was rubbing on the J pipe causing the ic piping to blow the night before.(see below) and two: the radiator fan originally had came with 10 gauge wire which had been spliced down to probably a 14 gauge wire which went to a rocker switch inside the cabin and surprise straight to battery. no fuse, needles to say the entire wire had burnt up now, probably because it had not been turned on for that long before. The battery was fine, the fan wire had disintegrated but everything else was ok. Im not much of a religious man but at this point I figured god was saying to actually piss on the vehicle and buy a honda or tow it home. So I towed it the rest of the 200 miles home. A few weeks later, after working out the kinks I remembered why I loved these cars in the first place and I remembered why I fell for my keeper girlfriend in the first place and yes she is still in love with the car.
.
This is where the intercooler pipe was blowing. The j-pipe was cut because to work with the intercooler and the ridiculously oversized fans. This pic was taken after I had already installed slim fans by the way. The pipe however had no groove because it was cut, so it would just blow apart with a good amount of boost. I welded a bead around the end of so the hose clamp can grip and it its ran fine since.
Heres how she sits today, four months later with 67,00 original miles on her.
k and dont really see anything wrong. So I called the guy I bought it from. Remember when I called him a stand up guy. This guy and his friend comes to our rescue like superman and a sidekick, tool box in hand and everything. We were diagnosing it in the rain on the side of the freeway and CHP shows up to come take a look at this HIGHLY modified broken car. CHP is like the grim reaper here in california. I think I pissed myself a little but again it was raining I honestly dont know. The cop walks up and we saw that the Intercooler piping had come apart (dont know how I missed that) so he says fix it and go. We put it together clamp it as tight as we could get it. We all jump in our cars and take off. Because the cars were on the side of this narrow busy freeway I was told to take off first we all go and get a mile. im looking in my rear view and see her dive to the side of the road AGAIN but this time in front of the cop. I pulled over as soon as I could but couldnt see whats going on because the freeway had turned. Im freaking out because Im not seeing her pass me not sure what happened. I couldnt reverse and I would have to go back miles to turn around on the freeway. I call and her her SCREAMING at the top of her lungs and hangs up. Reliving that moment even typing it right, still scares me to say the least. This all happened to quick. I looked over my shoulder and the cop pushing her car with his at I swear to god 50 miles an hour. He is screaming at her over his loud speaker all I hear is "NO YOUR STEERING IT WRONG I SWEAR I WILL SPIN YOU OUT" I follow them on to the nearest off ramp I run up and he starts yelling at me she doesn’t know how to drive, calling her stupid, the works. The cop tells me to push the vehicle by hand to a safe place. With past experiences Iv learned to keep my mouth closed and nod my head. I pushed the car a good 150 yards to a mcdonalds parking lot while he followed me in his car for some reason instead of just pushing it and then drove off. End of his shift maybe, I dont know? My girlfriend was crying at this point because he was a dick, but she had done everything possible right, I saw it all unfold, and she handled it extremely well. I called the seller and he came back again and offered to get us a hotel, ($4800+ a $70 hotel) we gratefully accepted. We popped the hood and saw it was the same pipe. We clamped it together again and said lets try to figure this out. I jumped in the car and boosted that bad boy The gauge went 5 . . . 10 . 15-20-25psi! and I let off. The car had been in storage and I guess he had forgot to turn down the boost last time they were playing with it. I turned the boost down to 12 for the 5 hour drive home the next day. The only thing I could think that night, this being my third eclipse was Welcome back to the life. The next day we hit the rode and drove for a solid 3 and 1/2 hours before the car decided to catch on fire. I knew the directions home so she was close behind me when I saw the car start smoking. We both pulled over immediately I scream pop the hood and see a small fire right next to battery. I WAS NOT ABOUT TO LOSE THIS CAR. I pulled my di@% out and pissed on the fire. Just kidding I ran back to my car and got a water bottle I had and put it out. What had happened was the guy was using radiator fans out a chrysler Sebring which one: was rubbing on the J pipe causing the ic piping to blow the night before.(see below) and two: the radiator fan originally had came with 10 gauge wire which had been spliced down to probably a 14 gauge wire which went to a rocker switch inside the cabin and surprise straight to battery. no fuse, needles to say the entire wire had burnt up now, probably because it had not been turned on for that long before. The battery was fine, the fan wire had disintegrated but everything else was ok. Im not much of a religious man but at this point I figured god was saying to actually piss on the vehicle and buy a honda or tow it home. So I towed it the rest of the 200 miles home. A few weeks later, after working out the kinks I remembered why I loved these cars in the first place and I remembered why I fell for my keeper girlfriend in the first place and yes she is still in love with the car..
This is where the intercooler pipe was blowing. The j-pipe was cut because to work with the intercooler and the ridiculously oversized fans. This pic was taken after I had already installed slim fans by the way. The pipe however had no groove because it was cut, so it would just blow apart with a good amount of boost. I welded a bead around the end of so the hose clamp can grip and it its ran fine since.
Heres how she sits today, four months later with 67,00 original miles on her.
your gsx looks just like mine a damb monster truck.
