Date: 25 Oct 2001 11:30:12 -0700 From: ychennopsam30.net (Yaofeng) Subject: Re: Fire?
DanB <meld_bnopsamo.com> wrote in message news:<3BD5F7DE.E78CFA10nopsamo.com>... > Fire? so what happened? Was it the SAAB's fault? My neighbor's truck burst into flames a few > weeks back. When the tires blew out it got us neighbors looking around and someone called the > fire dept. It just kills me that he bought another Ford! Since everyone just said it was > "electrical" > > -Dan > No. It was my own stupidity, on hind sight. It was a '89 900S 5 speed at 155k miles. Rose Quartz in color, perfect body. Washed the engine one Saturday afternoon under the bright August sun. I do this at least once a year. Noticed the distributor and the block around it was particularly grimy. This is the area I used to ignore in the past. Also noticed there is a vent hole at the front of the block for the spark plugs on the 16v engine. Sprayed engine degreaser liberally and aimed the garden hose squarely at the hole to wash it. The car started right up after washing. I did not let it idle. Just backed it out of the driveway onto the street and then shut the engine off. Took the car out 2 hours later. It idled very rough about 500 yards from home. Thinking I'd got water in the system, I floored the gas pedal trying to get water out of the system. It still idled extremely rough with my foot on the floor for a mile and half. That's when I saw smoke coming out of the shift console. Stop the car on the side of the road and got out. I saw fire in the rear of the car near the passenger side wheel. When I realized the fire was near the gas tank, I immediately backed off to 50 feet away. Someone then called 911. Once fire started, there is not much I can do but to see it slowly burns. By the time fire department came, it was in full blaze. When I finishing dousing the engine using the garden hose, the spark plugs recess were likely fully immersed in water. The water then slowly seeped into the cylinders. By flooring the gas pedal all the way for about two miles, my guess is gas got ignited in the cat converter and made the exhaust extremely hot. The hot exhaust pipe set the rubber hangers ablaze.
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