I was lucky I have a little extinguisher in my car. It took me about 15 seconds to realize there was smoke coming out from under the hood. I popped it open and there was fire coming out of the air filter. I grabbed my extinguisher and had it out in about 20 seconds all together but it sure felt like a long time. The car won't start now so I had it towed to the shop. An unfortunate way to start what should have been a great weekend for driving. Still and all, I feel I got off easy in that I got the fire out before any major damage was done (I hope). From now on I will always keep a small fire extinguisher in my car and I encourage you to do the same.
If you get a backfire through the carb KEEP CRANKING. It will suck the fire back in where it is supposed to be.
The wrong kind. It is a custom filter that came with the car. It looks cool as all get out, but it does not mount correctly and allows air to enter below the filter. I was aware of the issue and swapping it out for a new one was my next project. I did not realize how dangerous it was.
Good point about having a extinguisher. I keep meaning to pick one up and keep it in my Acadian. I'm going to get one this weekend.
When I first started reading your thread I thought for sure you had one of those triangular aftermarket ones with foam inside. Those are notorious for the foam becoming gas soaked and going up in flames. But what kind of element is inside the one you have ? Sometimes that powder from the extinquisher is almost as bad as the fire itself. It really makes a mess and is hard to clean up. Don
That's one of those aftermarket ABS "cold air" air cleaners... Where's the ram tubes that came with the assembly???...
What you see is what I got. Someone had to cut holes in the mount to get it to fit... the whole thing needs to be tossed for something that works. As for the extinguisher powder, I really had no choice. I tried to use as little as possible but it did get everywhere.
So what if it made a mess,it will clean up. Better than loosing the whole car. Fire sucks! glad ya got it under control.
Halon extinguishers are super expensive now, but worth it for something like this. No residue, nothing left over. I found a few on K-mart shelves in dusty old boxes, clearanced for $5 a piece years after they were recalled, but I think the days of finding those deals are over. Now, the best way to find them is clearing out old computer rooms, but those big ones are usually too much extinguisher for most cars. They also make Halon replacements like Halotron, but I've never tried any of those.
Yep, halon has been banned as it depletes the ozone layer or something like that. But it really did work well. Years ago my Sons Olds convertible engine caught fire and I used a halon I had. One little shot and the fire was out with zero residue. Don
Sorry to hear you had a fire, I watched a friends OT street/strip car burn the front clip off until it could be put out during an impromptu test and tune gathering on a country road, I keep an extinguisher in everything now. The powder damage would have been much less than the whole front half of the car
Agree. My understanding: it converts burning hydrocarbons into something that won't burn, on a molecular level, & displaces oxygen. They pulled them because they are highly reactive chloralflorocarbons <sp?> like Freon R12, so they convert/deplete ozone just as effectively as they do burning hydrocarbons. ^^my understanding could be totally wrong, but either way, they work great & I keep one in each car, and a big one in the shop
Get that powder shit off your car NOW!!! it is extremely corrosive and will start rust everywhere. I had to do this with my off topic car. You have to clean every nook and cranny. It's a damn nightmare, but better than a charcoal briquette for a car, followed by a rusty hulk that used to be a car.
The Jalopy Journal
