so i had an engine fire last night...
 

So my little sister made a comment that my car smelled like gas. I have a weak sense of smell so i didnt notice it plus she's always saying every car smells like gas so i thought little of it.

I pulled up to a gas station to fill up when I saw the smoke. I popped the hood and saw flames jumping out from under the manifold.

I push the car away from the pumps and start calling out for an extinguisher. No one really reacts, by the way... so I yell louder. Finally get one and I put out the fire quickly.

then the fire fighters show up. lol


as you can see my car is stock. im not sure what to do next... are parts salvageable? i have plans to go single though. oh funny thing, an hour before this incident i was looking up fuel pulsation dampener to order online.

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I'm glad to see you caught it in time check the wiring to see wahts went bad you will prob need a new engine harness

definitely getting an extinguisher from sakegarage to keep in the car.

i was a bit annoyed when i turned my back and one of the firefighters decided to just drench the entire bay. i had already put it out before they even showed up on the scene.

That sucks, good thing the fire didn't get too big, might just need a new harness and lots of cleaning.

Same thing happened to me man. I know how you feel. I caught mine right away and had a fire extinguisher. The fire department still sprayed the engine bay because there were still glowing embers etc.
I replaced the injectors, FPR, PD, wire harness and the engine harness among other things. I went to start the car and it had zero compression on any rotor face. The seals seized over time from the engine being sprayed with the high pressure hose. Enough of the vacuum ports were exposed to allow water in.
Just something to look out for.

Clean it off quickly. Should be straight forward to fix, totalled if the insurance company takes a look at it.

already started cleaning. called my dad, who is a mechanic, and he is going to tear it down and inspect it ... doesnt know much about rotaries even though he used to own a RX4

im hoping the internals are ok

Oh No!

I am sorry to hear this. I hope all will be better for you after the tear down... Best of luck buddy.

-AzEKnightz

OH NOOOOOO!!!!! not cooollll!!!!
sorry for the loss.
I've always wondered.. so after an engine fire, are the engine internals still good for use? You can replace wires, hoses, stuff like that, and the motor will actually work again?

In my case, yes. Engine and everything else was intact. Needed new wiring harness and fuel injector O-rings. The injectors were sent to witchhunter for cleaning/balancing.

As for the OP, I dont think he would have any internal damage as the "fire" just started.

-AzeKnightz

The motor should be fine, it's the restoration process that can introduce problems. If it's not fully disassembled (doesn't usually need to be), the motor should be checked for water/fire extinguisher material that may have entered through damaged/burnt vacuum hoses. The wiring harness should be inspected and repaired/replaced as necessary. The injectors and sensors should also be checked for damage and replaced as necessary. It would be horrible to get it running again and have a faulty air temp sensor or injector cause the motor to blow up.

If you're lucky, you could just replace the wiring harness, some hoses and a sensor or two and have it running in no time. I believe the OP was pretty fortunate since he had a fire extinguisher close by but some of us learn the hard way: 500+ HP Mazda RX7 // The Ups & Downs. | Stance:Nation - Form > Function

-AzeKnightz

i still have the solenoid rack at home (awesome by the way!)... i never did install it but now i might as well go single... right? lol :nod:

crispy
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Hah, yes it's an excuse for you to go Single.

Too bad you didnt get a chance to try out the solenoids!!! Best of luck to you buddy!

-AzEKnightz

You're officially a man now

Hahaha!

Sorry to see this but happy that you caught it in time all things considered equal!

That sucks, sorry to hear that. On the plus side, it doesn't look like there is too much damage :icon_tup:

so what was the cause of the fire?? bad FPR?

looks like a fuel line, im not 100% sure

Wow! That just sucks. It's a good thing you were outside and not driving it at when it happened. It could have been a lot worse.

I will be selling my single turbo kit. I will also be selling a Greddy 2 row intercooler. The only reason I'm selling it is because I bought a bigger turbo kit and a Greddy 3 row.

Sorry to hear and see the loss. Recently I started to smell strong odor of gas after driving my CYM so it is parked in my shop waiting on a new FPR from Ray Crowe at Malloy.

Regarding your damage, it does not look too bad. I bought a car with a fire under the intake manifold that looked worse than yours. I ended up buying a motor/tranny pull out and doing a swap. That way I had a car to drive, and a spare motor/tranny to take time to rebuild. Once the motor was rebuilt, I just sold it -- and ended up selling the car back to the previous owner.

If as Jeff says your insurance company totals the car, just buy it back so you can put it back on the road.

Sorry dude. I got a whiff of fuel just recently as well. Turned out to be one of the o rings for a secondary fuel injector. There was a pool of gas on top of my block. Scary stuff.

Hopefully the resurrection goes well.

i only have liability insurance.
im driving a vr6 jetta (boring), as i take my time to save money and rebuild. i'll make a list of parts i need and then hit the "for sale" section and call ray at mazda :nod: