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My car caught fire...got lucky *PICS*

R

Rob3800

New member
Also posted this on the "other" forum, but figured i'd post this here as well since not everyone frequents both.

Add another to the gp engine fire list. Around 6PM today, i got back from taking my dad to pickup his new car (67 lemans, very nice car btw). About 5 minutes later as we are checking out his new car my mom tells me she sees smoke coming from under the hood of my car (99 GT). I look over and sure enough smoke is coming out pretty good. I run over and pop the hood and the engine cover is on fire and melting. I ran in the house and got a big container and filled it with water, ran out and poured it one the engine and pulled the engine cover off. As i was doing that my mom ran and asked the neighbor if they had a fire extinguisher since we don't (they did). And the neighbor came out and sprayed it with the cover off so it got everything.

Got VERY lucky that i caught it when i did. The plug wires are gone, the oil dipstick melted off, coolant reservoir cap melted some along with that red piece on the fuse box cover, oil cap has melted engine cover all over it but doesn't look like it melted down. The wires and everything appear intact, surprisingly. The fire appears to have started above the front valve cover between it and the UIM. Probably one of the injector o-rings on one of the front three injectors? My front valve cover gasket did have a small leak which i planned to fix this weekend, but it doesn't appear that any oil that leaked on the manifold caused the fire as i guess is the case with some gtps?

Very glad the fire was spotted and put out early before any major damage is done. Will try to have pics up tomorrow, the only pictures i have right now are crappy cell phone pics (which im not even sure how u get cell phone pics on a computer).
 
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Re: My car caught fire...got lucky

aaahhhhhh not cool im glad u saved her when you did though man plastics can be bought again at your local yard.
 
Re: My car caught fire...got lucky

Mine caught fire. Its ok though. No damage. TAKE IT FROM ME if you can fix that gasket yourself, DO IT!!!
 
Re: My car caught fire...got lucky

That is terrible. Definitely glad you got to it in time. Doesnt sound like there is a ton of damage and glad you are okay.
 
Re: My car caught fire...got lucky

good thing every gasket on mine is nearly brand new since i break my car every few months. :D
 


Re: My car caught fire...got lucky

Damn dude... take some pictures, document what happened, and send it to GM with your make model, and mileage.

I have said it over and over again...its not just dedicated to the supercharged models. GM needs to see this, and know it. They do, but wont own up to it.

~F~
 
Re: My car caught fire...got lucky

Not only do i think they need to add the N/A 3.8 cars to the list of recalls, but i also don't think the valve cover gaskets are to blame for a lot of them.
 
Re: My car caught fire...got lucky

Ok finally got some pictures. Hope i do this right.

Engine cover
1003564yg2.jpg


Few of the engine
1003566uf1.jpg


1003567er9.jpg


1003569ua8.jpg


Manifold, oil dipstick, or lack there of
1003570pc9.jpg


1003571ai0.jpg


Hood insulation
1003572ld3.jpg


Edit: Fixed pic size.

Also, there was not oil and whatever all over the fuel lines and stuff. That is all a result of the fire and probably splashed around more by the water.
 


I'm pretty sure there is no internal damage. Like stated above though the plug wires are melted through, the oil cap actually isn't melted much it just looks that way because it has melted engine cover all over it. The valve cover is actually fine, the fire didn't get hot enough to damage it i don't think. I guess maybe the heat could have warped it some though so it may be wise just to get a new one. The wiring harness appears to be just fine actually which has me leaning toward the valve cover gasket causing it. Not to mention the way the oil dipstick handle was completely gone yet the engine cover had just started on fire. The plug wires are fine where they go over the UIM but burned up down by the exhaust manifold. Seems like the fire was hotter there than it was up be the injectors, wiring harness ect. So the valve cover gasket is my guess right now, but i'm no expert. I know a fireman so if i'm going to see if he can come take a look for me.
 
I know these valve covers are pretty tough, shoot, we have even tested powder coating a few of them to see what happened. Were still working on getting that right too BTW.

Good thing you had your beer with you, or that could of been much worse. Burning plastic is pretty hard to put up anyway.

Thats a good idea having your fireman friend come take a look at it, they are around that stuff all the time and have the eyes to see where or what started it most the time. Let him look, then tell him what the recall parts were on other vehicles, and hear what he has to say he thinks it was.

~F~
 
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