Dont know what caused the fire exactly but the car had a oil leak on the oil pan gasket above the starter.Car was running great,pulled up to a body to get a quote for body work from a friend.was standing behind the car chatting away and then noticed black thick smoke coming up from under the passenger side of the motor.took a few mins to get it out but here is the damage.Time to part out the old beast.

 

Well that truly sucks! Sorry for your loss. Is this a clean car, or a standard Canadian car with a few rot issues? Looks like you've got some good parts in there.

 

Sorry bud. That does suck.. just a reminder for everyone to carry an extinguisher. Even in the minivan or pickup.

 

Aside from under the hood.The car is fairly clean,it is a Canadian car.Has been hit in the rear quarter and been professionally fixed right back to factory specs and spot welds.frame is in good condition with 2 rust spots forming in the common door jam area on the underbelly.Interior is fairly good aswell with some slight changes like white face guages,4th gen console,custom A pillar guages and pods were in the works.Here are some more pics of the car literally hrs before the fire.

 

Yes thats a good reminder to everyone.Im sure glad one was handy in my ride..even though it was a big one it sure did its job.And I carry a blanket,battery cables,flashlight and a few simple tools in a bag in my car..and a small gas can..just incase.

Here are more pics of the damage.It is very repairable..but my funding doesnt support that at the moment :S

 

It looks like it still can be fixed

 

Fix it! C'mon...

 

Easily fixed for sure.

 

It just looks a little singed to me. No reason to part it out....

What exactly is the damage? What is keeping you from driving it?

Looks cosmetic to me.

 

Did you decide what youre doing with the car? Or what was insurance's take on it?

 

Im in the process of taking the motor and trans out in my spare time.So far Ive found the crack in the oil pan leaking all over the starter and headers and the wires down there.So the starter wires etc caught frm the heat and oil I think.Damage wise the flame came up high enough to start melting the heaterbox plastic and burned through some of my main harness.the underhood paint is destroyed along with the polishing of the TPI,valve covers,and strutbrace butnothing major yet.The car isnt insured..no fire and theft since its been parked for a while.So Im taking the motor out and having it freshend up and the trans rebuilt,patch my harness back together and figure out any other lil issues that i fought with before and get the car together with lil expense as possible

 

good to hear youre keeping it.The heater box are plenty at the junkywards.BTW if you still want the motor Ill throw in a tranny and starter with it.I have a few wiring harness pieces here from an 87 that I dont need if you want it also

 

Yeah I might still grab that motor in a week or 2.I dont need the trans.but if it has the proper starter than that would be great.the harness I can patch with all new wire..its about 6inch long burned wires.Just a pita to fix in that spot leaning over the fender lol.My only problem with getting that motor from you is that I got a fuel pump for TPI and braided lines..Id have to temporary configue it to work with carb and lower the pressure down alot

 

Do you want to keep the TPI or convert to carb?

If you want to convert to carb you can just drop the tank and take the pump off and put a pick up pipe then just hook the feed lines to the fuel pump.Not hard to do

You can also just buy a fuel pressure regulator to lower the pressure

If you want to keep the TPI then just take the intake off and put your TPI on top.Get a block off plate on the fuel pump and youre done.You still have to transfer your sensors though which is pretty straight forward

 

Yeah Id keep it carb for now,all my TPI stuff needs to be cleaned up really well from the fire and yeah ill get a regulator and dial it down for pressure

 

that means youre gonna need a distributor and coil too which I have. I was going to give it to this kid but he turned out to be not so nice so Ill just include it also

 

cool sounds like a plan.ill give ya a call on the weekend and work something out.maybe ill swing by and atleast give ya some kind of deposit in good faith.

i bought and engine stand and getting a cherry picker this weekend to yank everything out.my trans will be covered for warranty and the block will be sent in for a rebuild.

this time though when i do assemble the motor im going to use the hsr but i got a problem trying to find the rest of the parts i need to make it work,like the fuel rails and regulator.i want to have the fuel lines stay ran infront of the motor like the stock tpi.not comfortable to having 90 or 45 degree fuel bends that arent easy to reach under the hood..dont want a fire haha! but the car shall be fixed..very slowly since the wallet gods arent shining on me right now.but i dont have a credit card to order parts from jegs etc so im stuck there.

the stock tpi will be sent out for repolishing and ill list it up for sale for what is cost to polish clean which wont be much since i got a chrome shop in handy so anyone interested in that will be happy

 

Once you carb it why go back to FI ?

 

Its stock 350 carbed motor just temporary so i can move the car around on its own power while the other one is out for service.The car right now is tieing up a hoist all torn apart.I got a hsr sitting here that I kinda wanna use lol.

 

Pics of the motor!!!

 

well the swap went ok but ig ot 3 kinda major issues at the moment.car runs great,drives great,tranny was repaired.

the downside and its pure my fault for cheaping out in a pinch just to get the car driveable for a short run a few streets back n forth. the bottom of the oil pan pass side 2 bolts in from the corner has a seeping leak of oil.my power steering pump is just puking fluid and whining loud.time for a new unit.and lastly the dist and esc module and alternator began to severly corrode from the exstinguisher.i changed the alt already but the dist will be this weekend..maybe the ps pump aswell.the oil pan gasket however :S dont know what ill do about that one.

here it is now with all my crappy tpi once polished nice looking intake

 

The oil pan is probably my fault.I probably took it off and checked the inside.See if its just loose maybe you can just tighten it.

 

Nice thing about the 86 is that you don't have to worry about emissions. Those cars are getting harder to find since the Ontario government changed the drive clean rules.

 

*Update*

Hehe..took the car for a lil spin.Guess what happens this time...another massive oil bath under the hood.Just my luck..***k. Good thing I was on my street when this occured and I nurse the car into the driveway.Im taking a wild guess that the rear main seal blew out.All 5.7 litres of oil..gone,dripping for the back of the motor from what i can tell looking on the ground.Thing is..she runs stop on..no problems...and then when it happened..oil press just dropped and the motor shut off..i put it in neutral and fired right back up and parked the car.

now considering that the car is being parked for winter im tryint not to stress over fixin it right away but im glad i wasnt even driving it hard and seize the motor up.I did add oil to it and started it for a 2 mins just so that nothing was too dry.

I still have my 355 on a stand and i think instead of just fixing it and taking chances on some parts failing..im going to send the block out and get it stroked and nothing but new parts when i get it back.Time for a solid 383 hsr and lt4 cam combo.

 

NOOOO!!!

How did that happen?Did you tighten the pan bolts?Rear seal doesnt just blow like that!

 

yup,i did what i could on the pan bolts but its not a big deal.

 

you know over tightening could cause it to leak too right?

 

Yes Im aware of that.It was only one bolt that i saw visibly leaking so i only tightened it by maybe 1/4 turn.I dont think that would have caused the entire motor to dump oil.Also the bolt that was leaking was at the front of the motor,this massive dump appears at the very back :S