Soo my car burst into flames when i was backing out of my driveway today..
05-24-2007, 01:05 AM
#1
Three Wheelin'
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Soo my car burst into flames when i was backing out of my driveway today..
One of the things i had always feared when i started up a car that had just been worked on was having the thing catch on fire..
Well..
SOO MY PORSCHE WAS ALIVE TODAY!! For those of you who were following my 2 month head gasket fiasco..
I had finally finished everything up, jumped into the car, gritted my teeth and turned the ignition key. Woohoo!! The car started right up after a few seconds of cranking to get all of the fluids running..
The car did seem to be running a little lean though as the engine seemed to be idling a little faster and harder than normal. Extremely happy, i put the car into reverse and backed out of the driveway, then turned it around on the bottom and backed back up the driveway so i could wash it. Anyway, my driveway is somewhat steep on the bottom so i got into the somewhat high RPM's say.. around 4500 to 5000 then KABOOM!! Reddish brown smoke starts pouring out of the dash and flowing out from under the hood.
Of course this was my classic "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" moment when i came to the full realization that the engine was really on fire.
Thinking quickly i well.. Turned off the engine of course, jumped out of the car, grabbed my 5 gallon tool bucket, literall dumped its contents out all over the place on my way to the water spigot and getting there.. Oh yeah i have no hose.. Crap.. Ok whatever, fill the bucket, run back to the car, dump all of the water into basically every smoke spewing crack i could find, repeat this step about 5 times.. Once the smoke had finalyl subsided a bit i popped the hood and voila! FIRE! ..EVERYWHERE!! This time it was bad, finally found a hose and attached it to the faucet with the water still on and running everywhere.. Ran back to the car, put the nozzle on "Soak" and doused the engine.. About a minute later it was finally out. This whole ordeal had lasted only about 5 minutes but by now had the attention of just about the whole neighborhood.
What caused it? Well a vacuum hose of course! One of the vacuum hoses leading to the fuel pressure regulator broke. This vacuum hose is ESSENTIAL to maintaining a properly running engine. The hose connects to the throttle body and as the throttle opens a vacuum is created, the more open the throttle the more vacuum. This vacuum opens the fuel regulator. Basically your injectors just open and close, the regulator controls how much fuel is present when they open. Too much pressure, too much fuel, too much fuel, and you blow an o-ring, you blow an o-ring, fuel goes spraying everywhere and shorts accross the wires in the engine, thus causing a fire.
What caused this unneccesary amount of pressure? Well, it turns out i had hooked up the vacuum line to the wrong part of the throttle body, thus, instead of having variable vacuum pressure at the regulator i had constant pressure. Once the engine had gotten up to about 4.5 to 5k the injectors were already putting putting out too much fuel and the increased pressure caused by the increased RPM's blew the hose off of the regulator and KABOOM!
Well is the car fixed now? Yeah, everything is back to normal, i just have to get the fuel rail back on the engine after resealing all of the injectors and replacing all of the vacuum lines to their CORRECT positions thanks to John at EASY.
Sorry, no pictures, i was too busy trying to save myself to take them..
Good times..
Well..
SOO MY PORSCHE WAS ALIVE TODAY!! For those of you who were following my 2 month head gasket fiasco..
I had finally finished everything up, jumped into the car, gritted my teeth and turned the ignition key. Woohoo!! The car started right up after a few seconds of cranking to get all of the fluids running..
The car did seem to be running a little lean though as the engine seemed to be idling a little faster and harder than normal. Extremely happy, i put the car into reverse and backed out of the driveway, then turned it around on the bottom and backed back up the driveway so i could wash it. Anyway, my driveway is somewhat steep on the bottom so i got into the somewhat high RPM's say.. around 4500 to 5000 then KABOOM!! Reddish brown smoke starts pouring out of the dash and flowing out from under the hood.
Of course this was my classic "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" moment when i came to the full realization that the engine was really on fire.
Thinking quickly i well.. Turned off the engine of course, jumped out of the car, grabbed my 5 gallon tool bucket, literall dumped its contents out all over the place on my way to the water spigot and getting there.. Oh yeah i have no hose.. Crap.. Ok whatever, fill the bucket, run back to the car, dump all of the water into basically every smoke spewing crack i could find, repeat this step about 5 times.. Once the smoke had finalyl subsided a bit i popped the hood and voila! FIRE! ..EVERYWHERE!! This time it was bad, finally found a hose and attached it to the faucet with the water still on and running everywhere.. Ran back to the car, put the nozzle on "Soak" and doused the engine.. About a minute later it was finally out. This whole ordeal had lasted only about 5 minutes but by now had the attention of just about the whole neighborhood.
What caused it? Well a vacuum hose of course! One of the vacuum hoses leading to the fuel pressure regulator broke. This vacuum hose is ESSENTIAL to maintaining a properly running engine. The hose connects to the throttle body and as the throttle opens a vacuum is created, the more open the throttle the more vacuum. This vacuum opens the fuel regulator. Basically your injectors just open and close, the regulator controls how much fuel is present when they open. Too much pressure, too much fuel, too much fuel, and you blow an o-ring, you blow an o-ring, fuel goes spraying everywhere and shorts accross the wires in the engine, thus causing a fire.
What caused this unneccesary amount of pressure? Well, it turns out i had hooked up the vacuum line to the wrong part of the throttle body, thus, instead of having variable vacuum pressure at the regulator i had constant pressure. Once the engine had gotten up to about 4.5 to 5k the injectors were already putting putting out too much fuel and the increased pressure caused by the increased RPM's blew the hose off of the regulator and KABOOM!
Well is the car fixed now? Yeah, everything is back to normal, i just have to get the fuel rail back on the engine after resealing all of the injectors and replacing all of the vacuum lines to their CORRECT positions thanks to John at EASY.
Sorry, no pictures, i was too busy trying to save myself to take them..
Good times..
05-24-2007, 01:31 AM
#4
Three Wheelin'
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Nobody said anything really, kind of just peered out their windows or slowed down as they passed by.. Its funny, i almost wore my SF Fire Dept. shirt today, if someone had asked what was going on and i was wearing it i would have been tempted to calmly say something like "oh, just practicing.."
05-24-2007, 01:33 AM
#5
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You got lucky. YOu could have had a 100% scorched piece of scrap metal. I hope you get it back up and running normally. Sorry to hear about your ordeal.. Best of luck to you!
05-24-2007, 01:47 AM
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Sorry to hear that! Hope you have her up and running soon. Thank goodness you had a water source nearby!
Having said that…
If your fuel line was properly secured, it would not have popped off. If it was properly secured, then it was damaged and failed. In that case, it would have failed whether or not your vacuum lines were properly routed.
Having said that…
If your fuel line was properly secured, it would not have popped off. If it was properly secured, then it was damaged and failed. In that case, it would have failed whether or not your vacuum lines were properly routed.
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05-24-2007, 01:49 AM
#8
Three Wheelin'
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It actually wasn't the fuel line that went, the vacuum hose wasn't hooked up right so i guess it was sucking the living daylights out of the regulator. Either way, it was the regulator part of the fuel rail that had flames squirting out of it when i put everything out.
Gotta love that German engineering though.. and well luck.. everything's still good!
Gotta love that German engineering though.. and well luck.. everything's still good!
05-24-2007, 02:05 AM
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I tell ya, I live in fear of a flaming automotive catastrophe.
Glad this one turned out to be pretty mild. The potential for something like that is pretty damn scary! Imagine gunning down the highway, fuel gushing in to feed the fire ...
:: shudders ::
Glad this one turned out to be pretty mild. The potential for something like that is pretty damn scary! Imagine gunning down the highway, fuel gushing in to feed the fire ...
:: shudders ::
05-24-2007, 02:23 AM
#10
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Very glad to hear the damage was minimal, and that the car is running again. But make sure you learn what to watch for from this incident:
Vacuum lines, connected incorrectly or not at all, will never cause an engine fire.
A loose fuel line connection, or a missing o-ring, or improperly seated FPR or injector, spraying gas onto the exhaust manifold will cause an engine fire.
If you had fuel leaking from the FPR, its because the o-ring was missing, damaged, or not pushed all the into the fuel rail connection - or that the fuel line connection leaving the FPR was not tight.
Always re-inspect all the fuel rail connections after reassembly.
Vacuum lines, connected incorrectly or not at all, will never cause an engine fire.
A loose fuel line connection, or a missing o-ring, or improperly seated FPR or injector, spraying gas onto the exhaust manifold will cause an engine fire.
If you had fuel leaking from the FPR, its because the o-ring was missing, damaged, or not pushed all the into the fuel rail connection - or that the fuel line connection leaving the FPR was not tight.
Always re-inspect all the fuel rail connections after reassembly.
05-24-2007, 02:38 AM
#11
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Well, I wouldnt have laughed when it started happening, but once it was obvious you were going to get the fire out with minimal damage, I probably would have been rolling with laughter. Either way, you are really lucky! What a close call!
05-24-2007, 03:07 AM
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I'll post pics tommorow, i'm going to pick up my camera tonight and head up early tommorow morning to take pictures of whatever damage there is left. The engine is mostly okay, its just covered in that black fire retardant gunk that came off of the hood. Good stuff too.
After the fire was out i inspected every fuel line connection i could to rule out any and all possibilities. At first i thought it was oil leaking on to the exhaust that caught fire but the flames were coming from the wrong place, so i suspected the fuel rail. I just finished resealing the rail and putting new gaskets and o-rings on all of the injectors. Tommorow morning i am going to do a pressure test on the fuel rail to make sure nothing is leaking, then run the engine for about 5 minutes at varying RPMs to make sure everything's okay. I'll keep two 5 gallon buckets full of water, a hose with a flood nozzle on it and a fire extinguisher if things once again decide to get hairy.
After this though i'll be carrying a 5 gallon paint bucket full of water and a fire extinguisher in my car for life.
After the fire was out i inspected every fuel line connection i could to rule out any and all possibilities. At first i thought it was oil leaking on to the exhaust that caught fire but the flames were coming from the wrong place, so i suspected the fuel rail. I just finished resealing the rail and putting new gaskets and o-rings on all of the injectors. Tommorow morning i am going to do a pressure test on the fuel rail to make sure nothing is leaking, then run the engine for about 5 minutes at varying RPMs to make sure everything's okay. I'll keep two 5 gallon buckets full of water, a hose with a flood nozzle on it and a fire extinguisher if things once again decide to get hairy.
After this though i'll be carrying a 5 gallon paint bucket full of water and a fire extinguisher in my car for life.
05-24-2007, 03:24 AM
#15
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ok so here are some pictures i got with my camera phone after the fact..
better ones to come tommorow..
fuel rail - most of the fire was concentrated near the regulators as shown here
the car, covered in water..
it all cleaned up well though, i'll post pictures of the engine bay once im done.. notice the black splotch on the driveway to the bottom right in front of the car.. one big sign that your engine is on fire.. its leaking something and that something is on fire and burning right in front of the car..
better ones to come tommorow..
fuel rail - most of the fire was concentrated near the regulators as shown here
the car, covered in water..
it all cleaned up well though, i'll post pictures of the engine bay once im done.. notice the black splotch on the driveway to the bottom right in front of the car.. one big sign that your engine is on fire.. its leaking something and that something is on fire and burning right in front of the car..