I was driving home and when I got there I noticed there was smoke coming from my engiine bay.

When I opened the hood I noticed smoke coming from the heat riser.

Shortly after, it caught on fire and luckily, I had the garden hose right there and ready to go.

Anyway the fire was very small. (About two inch flame) and lasted not 4 seconds.

I know there was no damage to any other components but, now I am afraid to drive the car without knowing what the heck happened there.

There is an oil burning smell to it everytime I shut off the car but so far there are no visible leaks anywhere.

I changed out the oil pan gasket which was the only leaky part in my engine.

I tried to take off the heat shield but broke off one of the studs already. I am afraid the rest are going to break as well.

Any suggestions on my next course of action.


The reason to ask if I can drive it with the cover off is mainly to determine what and where is the flaw.

Thanks

 

YOu talking the heat shield for the nikki or the exhaust?

 

I'm not using the heat shield right now. No problems here.

 

Yeh the exhaust.

Thanks

 

Any deformation on the electrical plgs above the reactor?

You probably don't have all that junk installed anymore right?

Juan

 

Nope, I don't. Actually everything stays very cool, though I imagine that's mostly because I've removed everything unnecessary from my engine bay. My wraparound sidedraft manifold doesn't even get warm most of the time.

 

Yeh mine has all that smog stuff on it still and \Im afraid to take it off and not been able to idl;e at 750 anymore.

I know some have succes removing the stuff but I wanted to keep mine as stock as possible.

Thanks

I will remove the shield tonight even if the bolts breakk off and I will run it and see.

 

You can idle at 750 just fine with no emissions junk. Heck, my first 12A could idle at 600 with no emissions after only 5 minutes of runtime on a fresh rebuild. But I can appreciate wanting to keep it original.

 

I had mine idling at 500 but itd stall on decel so i upped it a bit, with my emissions gone and fresh rebuild

 

Alrighty, guys thanks for the advice.

I think I found the leak and it is one to worry about.

I think is comming from the OMP and since before it had the mesh from the heat shield to soak on noone could notice it but guess what I have three drops afyter one minute.

Needless to say I will stop the car once againg to correct this problem.

BTW

I don't know if this is related or not but it is very much a coincidence that my car ran hot today.

Now I don't know if taking the heat shield off did that or the e-fan I put in yetserday that worked flawlessly(temp gauge is through the rad)

There are posts against these type of temp sending units.

I am inclined to think the gauge failed today.

When the ac is on it runs cool so I know the car with the fan is working fine is when i shut off the ac then it heats up to just over the midrange and then drops down when the fan kicks in.(yes the fan still turns on and off but I don't think is doing it at the 185 that it is supposed to)

Thanks for your comments