Giovanni

Shane, I am very sorry about the loss. The bright side, cars can be rebuilt or replaced, people can't! I had 2 engine fire and it is one the worst feeling in my life. The 1st fire was coming from undernead the intake. After 10 secs I realized the fire ext was in the back of the car. So I got it and put most of the fire off before emptying it. My wife came with a big extinguisher and I put the fire out. Damage: NONE. But those 15 seconds seemed like an eternity. So the next day I went to walmart and bought 2 extinguishers (one for the car and the other for the house).
Second fire: A week later I finished cleaning the engine bay and I forgot to connect hose #24 on Tony's site (side connecting to the intake). The flame was so big it melted the hood padding and damaged some wires but nothing major. I grabbed the fire extinguisher (yeah, the new one in the car) and it just made a pufff noise, nothing came out. My wife, again, came running with the other extinguisher. Meanless to say, the next day I went to walmart and got 3 extinguishers. Two for the 928 and the other for the house. And, after cleaning the engine bay I bypassed the fuelpump relay to make sure I did not leave anything loose. Before turning the key my legs were shaking of fear of another fire.

Moral of the story, get 2 extinguisher! The don't have to be nice or pretty, they just need to do their job and about $10 a pop, its good insurance.

Warren928

Sorry to hear that shane. Your shark suffered greatly, but you have plenty of passion in reserves to put her back to better than new condition. And thanks for the FYI on doing this obvious yet overlooked maintenance item.

It sounds like some shark owners are using aftermarket lines? I think someone said they are using stainless braided lines, nice!
What I.D. is used for fuel lines?
Anyone using aircraft style compression hose fittings with their braided lines?
What thread pitch and size works on the 928? How many are needed?

I had a fire under my hood once, my LT1 Z car had a custom PS hose burst onto the exhaust manifold. My uncle who was a fireman used to tell me to shut the car down immediately, don't forget in the middle of the panic! Otherwise you will be pumping fuel and whatever else onto the flames. I also left the hood shut and the fire died in about 15-20 seconds, with almost no damage. Sprayed a fire extinguisher into a vent and under the cars engine compartment. You definately don't want tot feed a fire with oxygen. Naturally, if it seems as though after a while that the suffocation and extinguishers arent working to kill the flame you do the best you can.

Shane

Yeah Tom! When Heidi gets put back together I'll install an on board system with Halotron (Halon is not enviro freindly). This could be set up to discharge on driver command, while leaving the hood down to minimize air flow. Just hit the discharge lever, bail out of the car and pull the ground strap.

H2

Shane, you may need a parachute brake too.

Harvey

sharkmeister85

Over on the 951 Forum they have a group buy going on for a fire suppression system. Sounds like it will be closing soon if anyone is interested. Maybe we need this.Here's the link https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...ight=group+buy
Glenn

Shane

Cool thanks for the link, Glenn!

goliver

That stinks. Glad to read you and the boy are okay and that you are going to rebuild.

Cheers,

Carl Fausett

Always sad to see another 928 go. Sorry it happened to you, Shane.

I do not know how to say this without sounding like a capitalist: but we have found that the factory fuel lines have too low of a burst strength for cars fitted with FMU's - and imported this hose hear for supercharged cars:

http://www.928motorsports.com/parts/hipressfuelline.php

It has a working pressure rating of 215 psi, a test pressure rating of 430 psi, and a burst pressure rating of 850 psi

Also: if you become as concerned as I have about the woeful inadequacy of the typical dry powder B,C extinguisher, I recommend HALON. Twice as powerful, same size bottle. Expensive and worth it. Nothing to clean up. See this:

http://www.928motorsports.com/parts/extinguisher.php

Again, sorry Shane. My heart is with you.

Shane

Not at all Carl, and I really appreciate that you are letting us know about another alternate source for a better product. Thank You!!

James-man

Anyone know what the shelf life of a halon extinguisher is? How long until replacement or refill (if possible)?

Thanks.

SharkSkin

AFAIK the only issue is with seals aging and the gas leaking out, unlike dry chem where the powder gets packed down and won't dispense. So long as there is adequate pressure & weight it should be fine. More info here

Jim bailey - 928 International

Carl please correct me if I am mistaken but the fuel RETURN line is AFTER the pressure regulator and as such sees little pressure. The return is open all the way to the fuel tank. A bit like a garden hose with no nozzle. Bumping the pressure in the fuel rails and feed lines has little effect on the RETURN pressure. Perhaps old brittle hoses do not like being moved around and that might explain the fact that the hoses let go.

Imo000

I’ve been thinking of what might have cause this fire. Here is my theory:

The car is SC’ed and an FMU was used to boost fuel pressure under boost. Now since the fuel lines were old and a bit weakened from age, the added pressure of an FMU at full boost caused the lines to slowly start to crack and eventually fail. An FMU usually boosts the fuel pressure to around 100psi at full boost. This is more than double of what a N/A engine uses. For most of it’s life the fuel lines were only subjected to less than 50psi. Now, when they are old, hard and brittle, a boost of 100psi would greatly accelerate the probability of failure.

I have a feeling that the cause of fuel line failure was caused by the combination of age and extreme pressure created by theFMU.

Is this a logical theory?

Shane

From page one.

Not really going beyond what a stock S4 puts through the same type of hose. But you are correct in a sense. It was 20 year old lines that are hard and brittle, had been moved and were having to handle an increase in flow and pressure. But nothing near a 100psi, I couldn't shove enough air into the engine to run 100 psi with 30# injectors.

heinrich

Logical and most common theory yes. But I doubt it. I think this was possibly a massive explosion under pressure of something .. what, I can't say. We'll have to inspect the damper. It is CRYSTAL CLEAR that something (fuel) ran under the car and burnt from the ground. Look at the driver's nose. Nothing there to emit fuel.

But more baffling is why the heater fan box was anywhere near on fire. Everything in that separate compartment was burnt out heavily.