I thought you guys might want to hear about this. I pulled my engine 3 months ago because it had 147,000mi on it, and it was starting to go. I had to do a "senior project" for my school as well, so I thought I would kill two birds with one stone and do my swap for my project.

So I bought Rotary Aviation's R&R video, and pulled my engine. I then stripped it down to the block, and sent it off to Kevin Landers who runs Rotary Resurrection. I got a rebuild and large street port. During that time I cleaned parts and bought misc. performance parts. Such as, pettit unlimited ecu, dp, intakes, new twins, new clutch, flywheel, etc...

I got my engine back from Kevin about 2months later, and begin putting it back together. I got it all ready to be dropped in in about 4 days after I woud get home from school. Then this last saturday, some friends and I reinstalled the block into the car. Everything went smooth, and we hooked up all the wiring connections, vacuum lines, and filled up the fluids.

So late saturday night it was time for the initial start-up. We did the whole start up process, and I let her rip. She started right up with ease. I had to keep my foot on the gas a little bit to keep it alive till we re-adjusted the idle screw. It was just sitting and idling strong for a good 15min. I was just about to take it for a test drive up and down my neighborhood, when out of nowhere flames errupted out from under the UIM. I started freaking out, turned off the car, ran and got my hose and drenched the engine, and surrounding areas until the fire was put out.

That was one of the worst feelingings ive experienced. My beautiful car....With flames shooting out of the engine. Well, I pushed my car into my garage for the night. The next morning I tore upper part of the engine apart to get to where the fire was comming from. It seems to be a fuel leak right around the primary injectors. More twards the rear of the car. I was amazed at how little the fire damaged. If you didnt see the actual fire you would have no idea there was one. The only kick in the pants was it scortched a OMP line...and I just had to buy those from the dealer, and theyre $40.00 a piece. But I guess thats a small price to pay for what potentially could have happened.

I just have to finish diagnosing my fuel leak, and hopefully Ill have my car on the road in the next few days. Sorry for the huge post, I just have to let fellow owners know about my problems.

 

Damn, you were VERY lucky. Hope things turn out better once you fix that problem.

 

prolly the fuel pulsation dampner started leaking thats what it sounds like

 

wow glad u got that sorted out

mike

 

wow all the money for a street port man and it almost ruined huh, glad to hear nothing major happened

 

Pulsation dampner man, get a new one.

At least the block works good, even if the rest doesnt

 

A great example of why a $20 fire extinguisher should be purchased by everyone! What would you have done if you were 5 blocks out and couldn't get to your hose?

 

Yea, I hooked up an air compressor to the fuel inlet line, limited the psi of course, and I spayed soapy water all around every connection on the fuel rails and lines. Of course nothing reared its ugly face. I think it may have been the primary injector seals. I pulled the primary rail and those seemed to have a little bit of liquid near the top of them. So Im going to get some new seals, and clean the injectors themselves real good so it has a nice surface to seal up on.

The fuel pulsation dampner seemed to be alright. When there was air in the lines, and i was spraying the soapy water all on and around it, it didnt create any bubbles or anything. So I think thats fine.

If I wasnt at my house I would have probably killed myself. Just to have to get out and watch it burn to the ground. I have a extinguisher, but of course I didnt have it in my car at the time. It is definetly in there now.

Once again, thanks Kevin, the engine was suprisingly easy to start, and it held a constant smooth idle at around 1300 after it was running for about 10min. No excessive smoke or anything.

 

If you didn't replace your pulsation dampener, replace it now! At 147K miles, it is *long* overdue. Most last less than 100K. Also, as a way to test for fuel leaks, you can jump a connection in the diagnostic box near the battery to run the fuel pump without starting the engine (this is generally how you prime the fuel system). This is a great way to test for leaks before bolting everything back together.

 

Also, I'm not sure where you bought your parts and if the prices have changed a lot or not, but I bought the 2 OMP oil lines from Mazdaformance for less than $20 each. The pulsation dampener was less than $100, if I recall. That was a about 2 or 3 years ago, though.

 

Prices have gone up at least 20% since 2 years ago. Sucks, huh?

I agree with the other strongly - replace the FPD regardless of if it passes 'tests'.

Dave

 

When hooking up the fuel system, it's always a good idea to jumper the diagnostic box to check the fuel system before running the car. That way you can check for leaks without spark.

 

Agreed. When I reinstalled my engine, I forgot to tighten one of the hose clamps on the fuel line. A quicker jumper, and I was able to detect the problem and fix it before I even attempted to start it.

 

Thanks for the heads up on the fuel pressure dampener. Ill definetly replace that while im in there. You guys keep talking about putting a jumper on the diagnostics box. Which ports would you do to make the fuel system to pump? Thanks again. Ill call Ray Crowe and get his prices for the fuel FPD and the OMP line.

 

place a jumper wire between the F/P and GND terminals in the daignostics box. Then turn the ignition "on" (but don't "start").

-Rob

 

Awesome. Thanks a lot. Ill do that when I get home from school todayl.