I wrapped my passengers side header with fiberglass wrap to protect the starter and some wires, also a section of the driverr header was wrapped.

I went to break In my cam today and after a minute or two i noticed a small flame on the drivers side so i put it out wit a small aerosol fire extinguisher. It kept coming back and I kept putting it out. A normal person would stop and asses the situation but I thought "I'm no quitter I have this under control. Then a few minutes later the passenger side went up in flames. As soon as I looked up, a radiator hose i forgot to secure on the water pump all the way came off and blasted my face. Luckily I don't think the engine was heated up all the way because I still have skin on my face haha but dang it was hot, i stumbled backwards and tripped on some crap laying on the ground. I got up andturned off the ignition, then I tried spraying my little can at it but it was basically useless. Luckilly my dad walked in at this time, he went and got the big extinguisher and got it out. All the starter wires burned up and so did a few other wires. The spark plug boots were fine because i put protective sleeves on them. Oh yeah and my brake line melted. Anyone else have any fire stories?

No car fire stories here but glad you're alright!

No fire stories, but I do have one involving a wall.....sheep....a tree...a ditch....AND a nun

Almost had a fire last year. After changing my oil pan and lowering the engine back into the car, it cut the positive battery cable. Needless to say, when we were reconnecting the battery there were a lot of sparks.

Then I was doing plenum work and one of the runner bolts were being a pain. The ratchet extension slipped and grounded the battery wire at the alternator to the valve cover. Started a nice fire- electrical fire. Had to stick my hand into that to grab the extension so the fire would stop.

Sounds exciting! Care to share the details?

Dang. Did anything else catch? I bet you have some nice marks I that valve cover haha!

When trying to fire my new engine for the first time the carburetor had a blue jet shooting straight up from one of the bowl vents. In a panic I dove across the engine and put it out with my body. There was a different carburetor on it five minutes later.

Yikes! good thing your ok!

I had the something similar happen with header wrap on my first 3rd gen, 86 camaro. I was changing the cam and valve train when i was 18 (not a lot of brains back then) and bumping it to turn the engine over. oil squirted out of one of the pushrods like a fountain (weird right?) and got on some of the header wrap, so i figured it might smoke for a bit while it burnt off, no biggie... well it smoked all right, alongside some flames. no real damage aside from the wrap because i had an extinguisher in the garage, thankfully. I was smart enough to have an extinguisher but not smart enough to prevent an easy accident like that... oh to be young and dumb again...

When I was a kid, I remember adjusting the rocker arms on my brother's 78 Z28. Did it while it was running and I didn't have any oil deflectors. I wasn't worried about the oil squirting on the exhaust manifolds, it was just smoking a bit so I just kept on going. Since my attention was focused on listening to the lifters clacking, I ignored the thickening smoke. Until the exhaust manifold burst into flames. Doused it with the garden hose.