OK, I went to the auto hobby shop here on base, an adventure unto itself, to get the cat back installed. It goes up fine until I go to bolt the I-pipe to the cat. bolts are 1/2" too short. period. No other bolts in the place. I get a ride to advanced auto & pickup some longer ones. Everything goes smothly from there, until...... I 'm pulling out into the street & it sounds like I bottom out on the cat. not good. Since the car still nedds tuning it only goes about 20mph, but is perfect for running around on base. I also have a front exhaust leak, but I know how to fix it. Anyway, On the road between areas of the base, it gets going slower, & slower, & slower, hit hazzards, lots of what I think is exhaust gas flying around. I make it to the gate, do the one cheek sneak (show I.D.) and limp to the hospital parking lot where I notice the temp gauge is past 220 . Engine overheats. I pop the hood. Hey look, soome flames . And the pass side exhaust manifold is ORANGE .At this point I'm like, "This aint good " After the coolant stopped leaking , flames went out I did a quil assesment w/the flashlight. some evap hoses melted, one of the heater hoses was on fire, lower radiator hose is shot. A rope I used to clear the tranny coolant lines caught fire & flamed from underneath. EGR has melted--hose I think on it. I also notice the coolant fan isn't running I'm using an aftermarket one designed to kick in @ 175*. The power & ground are good, the pressure switch rig is good. Hey, check out the fuse, it blew . MOre to come later, as daylight will reveal more sh*t I 'm gonna have to fix.

 

As I was telling earlier on a different thread, the reman alternator in my Mom's Ford Aerostar caught fire at the top of my street. When I got back to the car with the extinguisher, I found it was empty.

 

Sounds like a typical F*rd? My old F*rd Thunderbird never caught fire bro. Sorry for the trouble though, hope you get it fixed.

 

maybe if you bought a real car you wouldnt have that problem

just kiddin' that sux man

 

I bought this as a project, but didn't expect any fire damage after I fixed it up

 

Sounds to me like that cat was clogged up. Either backwards, or bad, or something - but that engine was not flowing exhaust.

 

Pics of the carnage

 

Damn, do you have to replace that MSD?

 

you said your car was out of tune... then it was probably running really rich, or your timing was advanced really far.

Is the cat all burned up looking? if the cat looks fine or decent, then it was probably because of what i mentioned earlier.

 

Time for that 3.8l

While you got that camara out, snap me a pick of that one piece I'm wanting.

 

Car still runs. Gonna bring it back home using some duct tape & a bucket of water. Should be interesting

Dale, here is the bracket:


View 1

View 2

 

I've got that bracket, I need the plastic apperence one that goes over it. Held on with 2 screws.

Thanks anyway.

 

you lost me. I guess I've yet a 3.4 car w/it.

 

Here ya go project. The yellow (nasty painted at that) thing.

 

on the 3-4 3.4 Firebird/camaros I've seen, I've never seen that part. maybe there's a reason for that

 

I dunno why then. but being my truck is a show truck, I need it to look as nice as possible. I guess I need to quit being tight *** and fork over the 10-15 bux to gm for it.

 

Bump for TomP's benifit. & Dale, no response yet on the cover

 

mine did

several times as a matter of fact

that car was such a P.O.S.

this picture sums up the entire cars life (I never did get it running again after this picture, timing cover was cracked, waterpump shot, needed a timing chain anyways, leaked vac. at the intake, screw it... I knew I could buy an equivalent car for what it'd take to fix that one...)

 

wow, this is a necro post. i was thinking "oh no, it caught fire AGAIN!" untill i saw the date...

 

hey, 3800 never got a chance to flame on, and now w/the afpr I'm gonna use for the final swap, well, place your bets.