Car caught on fire. Oil fire and HUGE slick

I appreciate the towing offer. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gifI had it towed home last night with AAA. Will be diving into the car later tonight as I have some items that need attending to. I also appreciate the offer for a 90 OFH, howver I already have one and will be working on getting it installed. Thanks Alan!

Thank you as well to everyone for offering help, parts, knowledge, support, and advice. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/applause.gif

 

Finally had some time to look at the car and the oil filter seal blew. Mark had some excellent diagnostic accuracy. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif I'm hoping to replace the filter and refill with oil. 90 OFH will come when I change the oil next as it will leave me time to get the lines and adapter fittings. Anything I should check before firing her back up? The fire cinged the exhaust wrap on my downpipe and exhaust manifold but didn't burn all the way through. Replace? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif

 

[turbowop]

Make sure the oil pressure relief valve moves freely when you install the new OFH. If it's stuck, you'll just blow another filter seal. You may have just had a shitty oil filter seal.

BTW, what happened has nothing to do with the pancake oil cooler. That could have just as easily happened with a '90 OFH. The pancake housing gets a bad rap because of issues people have with it, yet the problem usually is with a housing that's been on the car for 17years. At some point, it needs to be pulled off, cleaned, and the stud loctite'd to the housing to protect it from loosening.

People also tend to blame Mitsu for 17 year old coolant hoses failing. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

I see. Well I popped a new oil filter on there and filled it with oil. Pulled my MPI fuse and cranked a few times. Got some pressure. Checked everything out and no leaks. Replaced the fuse and grabbed my fire extinguisher. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif Crank crank START. Good pressure. I have let it run for about 20 minutes while it burns the excess oil off the wrap. Time for a test run. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hsugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

good to hear /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/applause.gif

 

same thing happened to my car while tuning it. My bearings were shot though. Good luck

 

[ktmrider]

Quoting turbowop:
BTW, what happened has nothing to do with the pancake oil cooler. That could have just as easily happened with a '90 OFH. The pancake housing gets a bad rap because of issues people have with it, yet the problem usually is with a housing that's been on the car for 17years. At some point, it needs to be pulled off, cleaned, and the stud loctite'd to the housing to protect it from loosening.

People also tend to blame Mitsu for 17 year old coolant hoses failing. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Glad to hear she's back on the road.
I wanted to +1 Mark above, I was on the anti-sandwich bandwagon when I first got the GVR4. After following his advice the water cooled OFH is rock-solid with no leaks or backing out of the center bolt.
I will tho make sure to replace the o-ring gasket on occasion, easy to do and fairly cheap insurance.

 

[mitsuturbo]

Cool. So, no damage or at least no odd noises. That's great news, man!

 

No knocking noises. I shut her down quickly enough apparently. Still smoking like a chimney though..... Think i will rewrap it for good measure. A weird thing is going on though. I usually get 13 psi of oil pressure fully warm and at idle. Under boost it was around 80 to 85. Now it is 25 at idle and even blipping the throttle to 4k it sees 100 psi.... I went from a mobil one to an amsoil filter and dyno oil to synthetic. Same weight oil.

 

[ktmrider]

^^ Sounds like the bypass valve is sticking like Whopper mentioned. Did you check the piston movement before re-installing and/or port it?!?

 

Never even touched the OFH. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif

 

[turbowop]

I remember back in '03 when I pulled the head off 1051 to fix a burned valve and also removed the balance shafts and did a *lot* of work over the winter to the car. By the time I put everything back together in spring, the oil pressure relief valve piston was stuck in the closed position after running it through a parts washer and forgetting to take it apart and lube it up.

Upon first startup, I dumped out four quarts of Mobil 1 out of a blown filter seal and onto the garage floor. I didn't even rev the motor. Thinking it was a crappy filter, I replaced it and filled the motor up with another four quarts of Mobil 1 only to fire up the car and empty that oil out onto the floor also. Besides the fact that my expensive oil kept being wasted, it also sprayed all over the engine bay that I'd worked on all winter cleaning up. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif That sucked, but all was better once I figured out it was the pressure relief valve and fixed the problem.

 

Wow... That had to be a serious PITA to clean and then re-clean. I turned an engine upside down on my work bench and dumped out a couple quarts and that was a bitch to clean. But havin to clean 8, forget about it.

 

[turbowop]

That was also before I owned my house.
A buddy of mine had just bought a brand new home with a large three car garage and let me do the work there. I felt bad that the first liquid spill on that nice garage floor was eight quarts of oil. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hsugh.gif

If you look at this pic from back then, you can still see some of the white on the floor under my car from the kittah litter. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rofl.gif

Cleanup:

Then I had to go in and pull off the timing belt covers again to get at the relief valve /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif :

I wasn't a happy camper that weekend. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

how much did you port the relief valve to?

 

[turbowop]

I never ported mine, as I don't have an issue with excessively high oil pressure. My issue was just a stuck valve.

 

Replaced the entire OFH and same problem. I didn't port the relief valve because the pressure BEFORE the incident was 13psi at idle. I assumed the problem would go away and figured that if I ported the relief valve, I would have too little pressure. I am so tired of headaches... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif


Now to replace the transfer case seal, yoke, exhaust wrap, manifold wrap, and my empty wallet.


Anyone want a VR4? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif

 

[Brianawd]

Quote:
I never ported mine, as I don't have an issue with excessively high oil pressure. My issue was just a stuck valve.



How do you know you don't have excessively high oil pressure /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif? You don't have a oil pressure gauge to tell you.

 

I actually do. I had 13psi of oil pressure at idle and maxed out around 85-90psi at full WOT. Now I am seeing 25psi at idle and near 100psi just driving around.

 

Quoting Shiskibob:
No knocking noises. I shut her down quickly enough apparently. Still smoking like a chimney though..... Think i will rewrap it for good measure. A weird thing is going on though. I usually get 13 psi of oil pressure fully warm and at idle. Under boost it was around 80 to 85. Now it is 25 at idle and even blipping the throttle to 4k it sees 100 psi.... I went from a mobil one to an amsoil filter and dyno oil to synthetic. Same weight oil.



^ Brian.