S13 is toast...literally

[timtiminy]

So my car went up in flames today...actually about 20 minutes ago. so I take a trip to walmart to take my little sister to use a gift card she got on her birthday while i was there I bought some R134a to recharge my a/c system that i had just finished putting together with new compressor and belt. I go ahead and recharge my car before heading back home and then on my way. I get home and then the ac line that i had a friend weld a fitting on blows, so Im like dang that sucks now i'm going to have to get a new line. I dont think anything of it and come inside. After coming inside and telling my dad that the line blew i look outside to see a bunch of smoke. At this point i am thinking wow there is no way all that smoke is from the refigerant so i go outside to take a further look. when i get out there i see smoke billowing out from under my hood and some small flames under it. So I run back inside into the garage and grab the fire extinguisher and run back outside. I open my door and try popping the hood and the hood release doesnt open the hood. so i start shooting the extinguisher under the car and get the hose unravelled to soak everthing that i can reach. So basically Fire:1- S13:0. Looks like everything plastic under the hood is melted. Thank God It didn't start on fire while on the road with me and my sister in it. And thank God I caught the fire before the car really went up in flames. I have another S13 that I bought for building up and it looks like I may have to try to scavenge everything off of the burnt one to get this one on the road sooner. Its a bummer but hey what am i suppose to do?? I'll just take life one step at a time. Its all good. So here are a few pics for your enjoyment.
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/timtiminy/0609071629a.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/timtiminy/0609071628.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/timtiminy/0609071628a.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/timtiminy/0609071629.jpg

[mr_240sx]

dammm dude that sucks...... hope everything works out for you

[Matej]

Do you know what started the fire?

[FinalDrive]

ouch
so the hood release cable must have melted and kept you from popping the hood
that blows, sorry man

[mrmephistopheles]

in terms of car fires, you can consider yourself lucky.
Certainly there's quite a bit of plastic components, wiring, etc to be replaced, but the car isn't a total loss.

[mRclARK1]

Scavenge what you can off this one... get your other one running, and shift the burnt one to your build car if you can?

[timtiminy]

all i can think of is the venting refrigerant blowing up against the exhaust downpipe maybe started it but i dont think r134a is flamable so it could have been something entirely different. the thing that sux is that I'm leaving for school in the next few weeks...good thing i bought a bike.

[Ricks15]

Fuck it dude as long as you and you're sister are ok thats more important.

[RurouniMidnight]

sorry to hear about that, it sucks but at least you have the right additude about it, like you said these things happen.

[sr240dett3]

WOW, that sucks !!!

Good luck with what ever you do !!

[timtiminy]

yeah for sure, I'm glad its just a car. material things can be replaced. I dont have the money to now but itll eventually get replaced..

[MURPHY]

daaamn man. pull all that shit out. and pretty much start over. good thing is you and your sis are safe

[drift freaq]

man that totally sucks. Well at least you guys are okay thats the important part. try and salvage the chassis sounds like you just need a engine bay harness and engine harness. Sand that bay down and repaint. Put something good in there. May your future hold brightness because of this.

[DOOK]

wow, what's the smell, no, not the charred aroma, I smell a swap :D

[Grendel]

Damn dude, that sucks :(

Good luck getting one back on the road :)

[n2motorsports]

sohc are notorious for fuel injector leaks and catching fire.

glad you and you sister are okay though.

[tr4c3]

Damn, at least you have the backup car.

[kdashy]

Wow that looks like a huge headache.

[jim1234664]

friends dont let friends drive kae...

[locodrftr]

wow that sucks man, glad to hear everyone is alright except the car....hmmm dont suppose u were running a electric fan? that would be my guess but its hard to tell...good luck

[JDMS1lv1a]

the same thing happened to my buddys 92' fastback a while ago.He went inside his house,then minutes later he found his car on fire with huge flames coming up from under his hood and under the car(similar to timtiminy case)and immediatly called the fire department to put out the fire.

good to hear u and ur sister are ok though

[A. Fujimori]

ouch, glad nothing happened while you and your sis were on the road. GL on getting your other car up and running soon:bigok:

[timtiminy]

mech fan. looks like it started on the fuel filter side...i wonder if its a decently common problem on older 240's?

[GoodOl'S13]

Not too bad for a car fire. Glad to hear you and your sister are ok.

[topsecretgold]

really sorry to hear that...im pretty sure i would jump off the nearest bridge if my 14 went up in smoke

[bmx22]

i always carry a fire extingisher in my car it happend to me while drifting catch can hoses touched my mani smoke and flames when i opened the hood was like back draft and all i had was water in a coolent container and i wasent about to let my sr be destroyed so i put it out with water ended up crack ing my megan maniphold,but just had to cut and shorten som vacume lines and kept drifting with a huge exhaust leak...dont loose hope beter things to come..

[jrocslider]

damn sorry to hear about that man.... better things will come from this though believe me.. i wrecked my first clean red hatch against a tree 4 years ago, my last car was t boned in dec. and the car i ended up gettin after that which is what i drive now was an original owner 70 yr old lady and she took care of it like it was one of her 43 cats and i got it for a steal.... just lettin u know that hopefully good things will come fom this. thank god u and ur little sister were alright.

[redsuns3838]

really sorry to hear that...im pretty sure i would jump off the nearest bridge if my 14 went up in smoke
Assuming thats your car in your sig, if I was you, I would too...thats a nice ride.


anyways to OP, glad you arent hurt, car-fires can be really bad. And hope you find a good chassis to transfer parts over to.

[longdy]

wow... this sucks to have your car catch on fire but this is one of the lucky ones that barely gets out with that kind of burn... dude i have seen some where the car is reconizable anymore...

good luck on everything man.. i wanna see you put something really nice in this engine bay!! ^_^ gl again

[C. Senor]

thats really sucks bro. and those pics really werent any enjoyment for me.

[bo2o]

its weird because it looks like ur car started to fires.


it woudlnt burn from left to right.


kould of started from teh battery.

becarefull..


lucky no 1 got hurt.


time to take off that sock, and add another cam. haha

[deadpirate]

dang. that sucks. glad to know you and your sister were ok tho

[timtiminy]

or it started in the center and worked its way to either side. looks like it... the fuel rail is the only place where there is white like the fire was the hottest there, it could have started from an injector leaking for all i know.

[opponheimer]

I would like to know what happened... Maybe the R134 had an adverse effect on injector seals causing them to shrink up and gas to leak out quickly?? Just a theory..

[drifting_changed_mylife]

good thing you caught it in time! or your would have been showing us pics of a charded frame! cars are pretty flamible! sorry about that bro! i guess its back to the drawing board! good luck

[slownslurious]

on the bright side (get it?) it was only a ka24e.

[alexkosheck]

I thought your car literally turned into toast
http://blogs.venturacountystar.com/vcs/dennert/archives/toast.jpg
Or you had a peice of toast shaped like an S13

[axiomatik]

yikes. glad you're ok. good luck with rebuilding.

[koukikat180sx]

You and your sister got lucky. Sorry to hear about your car. Good luck building a new one.

[s14dude]

dang...sorry to see this man. had a friend of mine with SOHC catch on fire cause of faulty wiring....

hope all works out for you.

[Lordrandall]

Glad you and your sister are OK dude. Good luck with repairs.