So went to my buddy Dave's place (BigIslandSeven's) yesterday. He has each
gen of RX7, and we were going to the mountains to pick up his FD. Just got tuned
for 15PSI. Anyways, we get in his $500 FB and roll up to the mountains. We go
and pick up the FD and start to head for the Blue Ridge Parkway. Start taking
some corners at a nice speed (or as nice as we can with a Toyota Sienna from
FLORIDA in front of us). His car is FAST! You hear the typical rotary
raaaaaaaaa*then boost*PSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHH. The FD would
pull away like I was in reverse! Well, we pull over cause the FB was getting a
little warm. The needle was hanging around the 2/3rd mark on the temp gauge.
Find a nice overlook and pull over.



Love the FD, Mazdaspeed front bumper I believe and flush lights, new rear tires
(obviously the old ones were bald... hmmm). After about 15 minutes we head
back out and the FB is nice and cool again. She stays cool and hangs around the
usual heat mark (about 1/3rd way up). Back to tearing up the mountain roads,
and I can smell some fuel in the air. Well, with his new tune I knew it would be
rich and just ignored it. Well Dave starts pointing to pull over, so we start looking
for a place, and find another overlook. We begin to slow down and at about
25ish mph (speedo bounces) a sudden WOOSH is heard.

ENGINE BAY ON FIRE.

We pull over quick and I pull the hood latch. Flames begin lapping out of the
hood, and the paint begins to bubble over the engine. There is a motorcycle
parked in front of us and we ask them if they have an extinguisher, they just say
no and snap pictures with their cell phone . JUST OUR LUCK, a park ranger in a
truck pulls up down the road, and the yellow flashing lights catches Dave's eyes.
No signal on the cell phone and he yells "CB FOR HELP!" I run up there trying to
grab a fire extinguisher and she hands me one. Begin running back to the car and
Dave grab's this huge gatoraid cooler (like football game coolers) that is full with
MAYBE a gallon of water. I get to the car, rip the tab off the extinguisher, and
shove it under the hood... squeeze the trigger....


Nothing.

It is full but NO PRESSURE. Dave gets there and lifts this scalding, bubbling hood
up with his bare hand (dude's a champ) and dumps the water on the engine.
Smell of burning plastic fills the air. The paint on the carb cover is bubbling like
bacon fat, flames coming out of the spout and what little water left goes into it,
dousing it. All in all, about a gallon of water and what was left of a few bottles of
water we had put out this fire! Thank the rotary gods, we didn't have to see the
FB burn to the ground!

After the fire is out, we start looking at the damage as the ranger calls for back
up. Melted brake booster, main harness pretty much gone, fuses look like cheese.
The newly painted engine bay... well... it's gonna need another coat, thats for
sure. It didn't look TOO bad for that kind of fire, but still... It was on fire! I will say this though, even though it was flaming, I still had to turn the car OFF. Even in the line of fire, the rotary wouldn't give up.

We ended up having to leave it there and picking it up later. Looks like another project is at hand.

 

Man dude that sucks donkey dick,i know how you feel. Been there myself but not as bad as yours....Good luck with the repairs

 

Just got back from picking it up.11:42 PM Left to get it at 3 PM Car was in the same shape and not vandilized by the bears. I'll snap some more pics tomorrow and post them if i remember.

Another winter resto on the FB again

Dave

 

Wow. that sucks major. Glad no one was hurt.

 

thats a bad day for sure. most importantly no one was hurt and you saved the 7.

 

Wow, I feel for you man. Now take the opportunity to build it better than before!

 

I'm going to go buy a fire extinguisher...

 

Sorry to see your misfortune. Glad no one got hurt.

 

It was such a pretty engine bay too, here's a photo from a couple months ago that I took when Dave was down for an OGTA meeting. I'm sure he'll have it back better than before:

 

Any ideas yet what caused the fire? It looks like most of the damage is on the drivers side.

 

I believe that the check valve in the return line clogged and caused a build up of pressure. Something had to give. I "think" the return line burst as the car was running fine until it was turned of with the key...Other than the flames it was running fine

All that is speculation as I haven't looked into it much yet. Gonna get to making a list this weekend hopefully. I think the reason for the main damage on the drivers side is due to the fact that once it was on fire, I "think" the brake fluid ignited when the resevoir was melted. Brake fluid is some flamable stuff. Had that not happened it would be less severe. I am happy none the less with the overall outcome.


thanks for the pics Ray. It looks like it did at the Mt. Mitchell overlook 5 miles earlier.

I will be sure to keep an updated report on resto progress. It will be a while though. Most likely the winter time.

Dave

 

That's a real drag man. Good luck with the rehab on it.






.

 

Engine Bay Fires Suck.

At one point way back when I had the stock exhaust, I had quickly fabbed up a hose from the air pump directly to the cat using two lengths of different diameter hose and a size-down adapter, because I had installed an ACV block-off plate. Anyway, I had to replace the main cat because it rusted through, and was too busy to do it myself so I took it to the garage. They unhooked the rubber tube I had used to connect the air pump to that metal line going to the cat, and when they reinstalled everything they forgot about it. It sat on top of my stock exhaust manifold for a good 30km of highway driving before the rubber hose caught fire. Some dude at a stop light drew my attention to it and I pulled into some random lady's driveway. She came out to see what was going on and I frantically yelled "My car's on fire, get water!". She came out with a Salad Bowl filled with water which I used to douse the fire. I was really lucky with that one, there was no damage to anything but it scared the bejeezus out of me.

Then a few months later I was driving my mum's Sunfire and one of the reverse bulbs caught fire. Luckily I was only going a few blocks to the computer store. When I got there and noticed smoke pouring out of the trunk I tried to pop it but the trunk release had been melted through. I dropped the back seat, crawled in and popped the latch by hand. At that point someone in the soda shop had noticed and filled a few of those metal cups they use on the milkshake machine with water, and we used that to douse the fire.

Suffice it to say, I hate car fires... So I wish you the best of luck in the restoration!

Jon

 

Soda shop??? What year is it in Canada?

 

Lol, I didn't know what else to call the place. I barely know anything about the place (only was there the one time) but it's not really a full blown restaurant, more like a coffee shop that sells milkshakes and ice cream too.

We don't even call it "soda" up here, it's "pop" but I figured that folks would know what I mean.

Jon

 

that what 1st thing in my mind when i read this...I NEED ONE TODAY!!!!!