On Saturday, my father and I put in a new dist. and carb on my camaro. Ran fine with no problems at all..up till today..I started it up like I usualy do. I let it warm up for about 2-3 minutes..then BOOM. The front tires came off the ground about 4 inches. I look at my hood and see flames coming out the side. I turn the car off, take my keys out, and pull the hood latch..but the cord already burnt..so it wouldnt open. I run to the house to call the fire dept...I'm not even 10 feet away from the car then a 2nd explosion happened, shaking all the houses on the block. I have my fiancee call 911 while I tell my 84 year old grandfather (whos on oxygen) that my car just blew up. My fiancee gets our 2 cats and dogs out of the house while another explosion happens which was even bigger than before. The fire dept. gets here about 10 minutes after..and about 15-20 minutes after they got it stopped..here are the pics of what happened..

 

1

 

2

 

Holy crap!! Sorry to hear about that.

 

3

 

wow that really sucks any idea what happened?

 

Now I have no car,..we are out over 3k in the motor alone..and talk about being depressed..We're thinking the dist. is the cause of this..but we cant prove it.

 

Any idea what happened? had you just done anything under the hood? rubber fuel line between the pump and the carb?

That sucks.

 

Remember me? I was the one asking about my 1/4 times and was puttin a new carb on

 

And the length of rubber line you used was...

(Agree, though - really tough luck.)

 

Sorry to hear about this.. I lost my last firebird to a fire.. I see you're in Kansas City, if there's anything I can do to help, let me know.

 

Thank you
I'm just trying to find another 3rd gen [85-88] to put the motor in. Its still usable, i think...

Everything has been going down hill tho. Monday I lost my job. Went to the dr. and found out some really bad news..today my car blew up and just noticed my face is a little burnt..what else could happen? Just glad our house didnt go up too..see how close it was to the house?

 

Not sure..think it was the same size off the old one.

 

Wow man, I feel for ya'. My car caught on fire, too. Not to that extent though. BUT, mine was in the garage. Which is built into the house. Just in front of the kitchen and just below my sisters room. When mine lit up, my sister said her floor was steaming.

Anyway, from experience, just be glad you're alive. It could always have been worse (I was in my car when it blew).

 

Yeah, I'm so glad to be alive. I was in mine too and didnt really think how close I was to gettin really hurt. I have a pic of the inside driver seat area...I would have been toast because its all burnt. The pic is too dark to see anything tho.

 

Holy **** man!! that sucks!!

 

Question for anyone:
Should the engine be salvageable? I know its not easy to tell by pics..

 

I had a friend whose car burnt in a fire but he decided to reuse the motor, you will more than likely have to replace the bearings in the motor, he had to, for some reason they just like melted. it would be worth a check before you re-use it and get a knock or mess up the crank.

 

At least the hood shocks still work Sorry for your loss

 

its the only thing under the hood not burnt...hm...

 

Mechanical fuel pump with a pusher in the tank?

 

i'm wondering how the air cleaner lid got over next to the battery, and the hood shocks are concealed by the hood hinge when the hood is closed.

 

what type of rubber line did you use?

 

Do you have insurance? I know my insurance will pay out if my car blows up minus the part that caused it or some werid thing like that.

I had my ICM catch fire on me several months ago i dont know why it did what it did but that could be a possible cause.

 

I had some experience with a fire last year.
Fortunately there was a fire exinguisher within 100 ft. I sprinted like I haven't since I was a teenager.
The hood was already open and the fire only burned for about 20 sec, but there was rubber fuel line in there that came very close to burning through.
This summer I changed all the fuel line to hard lines.
Sorry that happened to you.
This thread should be made a sticky.

 

If I had to guess, the same place the hole in the hood came from - The Fire Dept....

It's always sad seeing someone's project go up in flames like that. At least no one was seriously hurt. Hope you have better luck in future projects...

 

The fire dept took the cover off to look at what was under it, trying to get a general idea of what happened.

Insurance - only liability



Thank you everyone for commenting..I just gotta try to get my stuff together and get my mind off what happened. So much for having a nice car, huh...

 

The fire dept said this is where the fire started. They can tell by the color of the burn or whatever on the hood and how the dist. burned up.

Sorry about going over the limit of attachments.

 

That's odd....by the arrow you drew, it seems it started around the distributor area - electrical fire maybe?

 

only if someone could tell me for sure..

 

When my engine caught fire, it was around the dist. A loose fitting on my Holley sec side sprayed a mist of fuel onto the dissy.
A spark is a good ignition source for external combustion as well as internal. A loose fitting or hose clamp = fuel spray. Combine that with a coil that puts out a 50,000v spark... and POOF!

 

DANG, im crying with you man. that sucks.yea you probraly had a leaking hose clamp on the carb and fuel puddled up under your dizzy.i hope you find another one in great shape to make up for the loss. your engine should be ok provided you tear it open to make sure they didnt fill it with water or chemical putting the fire out.

sorry to here it.

 

That sucks bro. I hope it all works out in the end for you. One of these days you'll look back and bust a gut laughing while telling this story to your buds.

 

holy fcK!!! sounds like a fuel line blew that sucks man! big time fkcen crazy.. right in the damn driveway

 

That is EXACTLY how mine started. Fuel line to the carb burst, fuel went on the 50k volt Accel coil and poof.

 

what actually caused the explosion though?? wouldnt the leaking gas just catch fire, and if the dist. caused the explosion how come it kept doing it after the ignition was off??

 

must have been a serious gas leak to keep feeding it.

Sorry about the car man. I guess all you can say is **** happens.

Kyle

 

we had a 86 t/a we put a 350 in nothing special just swaped it in stock (305 had a rod knock) well I was welding up the y pipe on the hoist and I saw a dripping flame that was the fastest I ever got moving. so I find the steel line had rusted in a spot (near body clamp) fixed that.. then we were driving it impressed by how well this stock 350 moved (for a stock 350 ) then we got a back-fire while driving and poof stuff was on fire we were on the side of the road and all I could do was grab the foor mats and use those to put out the fire. it worked but, had we hesitated one second there would have been no car.

 

Gas vapors caused the explosion. Liquid gas burns, vapors explode. Once it starts burning it won't stop until fuel, oxygen or heat is removed. Gasoline is pretty stable, but vapors are not. I drive a gas tanker for a major oil company, and am very well trained on this subject.

 

do you get a discont on gas?

 

Looks like your hood got a peace of battery into it maybe. Sorry to hear about that - it sucks!

 

Yes I do

 

That sucks!
I live in overland park and have this in storage in louisberg (25 minuites away)
Let me know if you want any parts from my 84 Z28 parts car, I got it cheap, so I can be reasonable The parts are removed now so they could bolted on pretty quick. I also have many other used parts. Let me know if you need help,
Mark

 

What all is left in there? Enough to drop in my engine and run? I PMed you! Let me know bud! Thanks!

edit: woah..i just went to ur website, looks like an almost gutted out cammy lol Do you know anyone that has a 3rd gen camaro/firebird for sale thats in ok condt. ?

 

I replied to your PM. Sorry, I have been looking for a good car body myself. Yous looks fixable. You would have a big job ahead of you to swap parts to a new car or to fix that one, It would require a lot of work either way. It all depends on how handy you are

 

man sorry to see your car like that ...ouch....

 

what ****ty luck im sorry man...

 

We are thinking about parting out the *** end of the camaro. Any ideas on prices for parts? Hatch, light covers,...?

 

goto ebay and see what they are going for or check out the classifieds here and see what others are asking thatll give you a ballpark to start with ...

 

You asked if the car could be rebuilt. I am going to sugest asking Stekman he had the same thing happen to him and u should see what he has done to his Z. Its sweet. I am very sorry about what happened. If there is any hope for it ask Stekman.
I am dumping a ton of money in my rebuild now and I have nightmares about what could happen. thanks to your loss I will bedoulble checking my dist and fuel lines.

Sorry agin man