long story with my 88 firebird, car stopped running back in December. I did a mess of work in the engine bay, replacing worn out things and tracking down the issue. The issue ended up being a jumped timing chain, and later the ICM. I also replaced the spark plugs and wires, alternator, upper and lower rad hoses, pcv valve and grommet, air filter, and a few other things. The timing chain replacement was cake compared to the spark plug change. Anyway the car started after the timing chain but ended up dying again, I tracked that down to the ICM having gone bad. car starts and runs fine after clearing up the spark plugs. I run the car down to the gas station to get air for the tires, and i notice it seems a bit off( im thinking timing needs to be adjusted at this point). Heading back home i notice ive lost a lot of power, i pull in to my driveway which is going uphill and work the car up when i notice that smoke has started coming out of the passenger side of the hood. I stop, place it in park, ebrake on, turn the car off and pop the hood, BAM fire on the passenger side right where all the sparkplug wires are. Does it sound plausible that the plastic clip that holds the wires may have come loose or broke and let the wire make contact with the exhaust manifold, causing it to melt and catch fire? 2 plugs were melted down to the wire, 1 was only slightly melted, and 1 was melted in half. i have to get someone to give me a hand pushing it back in the garage, because of the awful spark plug placement on these cars i cant get a fresh set of wires back on it to try and make it run. so im still kinda just looking at the car from the top and trying to see what was all damaged and what was the cause.

 

Here is my experience.
I've had two 1991 Camaros: a 3.1 V6 and the 5.7 Z28 I have now. I've had engine fires in BOTH.
The V6 caught fire while I was driving it and when I opened the hood, there was a blowtorch blasting straight up from around the rear of the intake on the passenger side. I had an MSD coil on a custom bracket mounted to the intake right in that area, so I thought perhaps it had overheated and cooked off?? Anyway, when I lowered the hood down to try and partially quench the fire while I tried to find an extinguisher, the hood latched and the release burned through before the fire department arrived and it burned to the ground.
I bought the Z28 to replace it, figuring I'd step up to a V8. I subsequently have had THREE fires in it, and in each case, I got the fire out(never go without an extinguisher EVER again) and saved the car! I could not for the life of me(actually, that's not a bad way of putting it!) figure out what was going on until one day, while I had the ignition on but no start, I spotted the Schraeder valve leaking on the fuel rail! The port where you attach a gauge to check fuel pressure. So now I had a fuel source. And then, in checking each of the plug wires, I found one that was cracked and arching. Boyah! Fuel source AND ignition equals FIRE. I immediately replaced the valve- get the RIGHT one, not one from a bicycle shop!- and put the proper cap on the port- hell, I even JB welded it on. That sucker is NOT leaking again! So, try turning the ignition key to ON, and check that port for leaking fuel...!

 

It might be helpful to see what you are seeing. Could you provide us some pictures?

 

Probably some kind of fuel leak. TPI? There's a lot of places for leaks on them.

GD

 

TBI engine, it was a small fire and i havent had a chance to clean the bay out, its still covered in extinguisher dust. The fire was small and looks to have only damaged the spark plug wires and the one sensor that sits up on the overhang from the cowl. ill double check the fuel system once i get it in my garage again. I have the tool for replacing the cores in the schraeder valves.

 

Clean off the extinguisher powder - it destroys paint and promotes rust. And in the future buy a Halon style unit.

GD