Car caught on fire. Oil fire and HUGE slick

Getting onto I-405 and was pushing a LOT of boost. I check out my oil pressure gauge and it reads about 5 psi. I turn off the car immediately and pull over. Smoke starts pouring out the hood slits and I tell my girl to bail out. We jump out and I flag down a couple cars but no fire extinguisher. My mom is following me to visit my Great Grandma who is terminally ill in the hospital. She pulls over and I grab her extinguisher. Pop the hood and there is a small embering fire on the exhaust manifold. It is heat wrapped and will need to be redone. Put it out and check out the engine bay. OIL EVERYWHERE!!

Gonna try to fix it up on the side of the road and drive it home. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif

Dipstick didn't pop. Couldn't source the cause of the leak but it happened after it went to 18psi (T61). I have the boost set to 10psi to keep it on the safe side but something overrode the manual boost controller. Ugh. Thoughts?

 

[mitsuturbo]

Oil feed line? Oil cooler?
Dude, that totally sucks. I hope the bottom end is okay. Otherwise yours will be sounding like mine. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bawling.gif

 

I checked out the oil feed line. Looks intact. The oil cooler looks okay as well but I dunno. If it is all good then I might just clean her up and drive her home. I want to be sure that the oil does not ignite again though.

 

[BoostedAWD91]

man thats horrible, im glad that u got it out before any major damage was done.
dumb question but was the oil cap and everything on tight? i had that happen once to me beofre.
had a buddy put some oil in at the gas station and he never put the cap on or wasnt
tight and it blew off and coated the engine bay with oil luckily i caught it right away before anything happened

 

I did put some oil in the car before taking it out but distinctly remember tightening the cap. The oil was coming from around the OFH. I'm wondering if the filter could have come loose. The thing that confuses me is that it blew after the boost went up. The turbo shouldn't pressurize the bottom end that must. My compression was good. I will have to recheck.

 

[mitsuturbo]

You don't still have that POS pancake cooler, do you? Man, i've seen more engines lost to that stud backing out than any other reason. (i actually lost an engine 2 days after buying a car because of this)

 

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hsugh.gif Yes I do. I tightened that castle nut before I put everything back together. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif

 

[mooserage]

Sorry to hear that man, hope you get it fixed soon. From the second I put my first performance mod on my car there was a fire extinguisher in it. Seatbelts for my safety and the extinguisher for the car's safety.

 

[mitsuturbo]

That reminds me, i need to replace my fire extinguisher. I had one but had to use it once... best $8 i ever spent at home depot. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

Good idea Shamus. Will pick that up along with oil. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[mooserage]

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif hope the car feels better

 

[Ian M]

At least one exhaust manifold stud goes into a oil gallery in the head. Not exactly the same situation,but I had a lower exhaust manifold stud come out on the highway once,and spewed oil all over the bottom of the manifold and top of the turbo,causing a small fire and a oily mess.

 

I appreciate the insight. I will check into these when I get out there and post an update on my phone. Still at the hospital and things are looking really really bad.

 

[turbowop]

That lower exhaust manifold stud wouldn't cause what happened to your car. It just threads into the oil return, which isn't pressurized enough to lose all oil pressure as fast as you did.

Check the oil filter, it's possible you blew the seal.

 

[fivestardsm]

^^+1, with addition.

On the pancake coolers, what usually happens to them is overtightening. Either of the Engine oilcooler bolt, or of the filter itself. When you over tighten them, you will actually difor, or crush the Pancake which leads to failure. Basically the sealing surface will be warped so the oilring wont seal. I have seen this several times because of exsessive torquing on them. Honestly, and some say that it is a no-no, I will threadlock the hollow bolt when I put them together.

Other than that, I have seen a few people actually leave the old filter oilring seal on when they change the filter just because they didn't realize it had stuck to the housing. I have actually done this myself, but caught it insatantly when I noticed it didn't feel quite right when I tighten it up .

Next in line if you rule those out, is to check the oil supply and return line for the turbo. Both have a bad tendency to crack and break from vibration after being so old.

Hope this helps.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
Also, hope everything turns out for the best at the hospital.

 

[prove_it]

I envy you. My oil filter came loose once and sprayed oil everywhere, caught fire and pretty much destroyed my engine harness. I had to rewire the whole engine.

Only times I've seen a 4g63 spit oil out really bad where from a loose filter, a popped dipstick, and a cracked block.

I hoping for the best for ya.

 

[curtis]

If the bottom exhaust manifold stud backs out there could be enough oil get into the header wrap and after boosting could have been hot enough to ignite. Another possibility could be you lifted the head and sprayed oil out under boost but since your pressure dropped to nothing I'm betting on the factory BS pancake cooler as well.

 

[3rdstrikedsm]

Wow man, That really sucks. I hope everything is ok for you and here I thought my problems were bad /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif
Like stated above, I would be willing to bet it was the ofh or the oil feed which is what makes the most logical sense but then again what about a gvr4 makes logical sense? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif

 

Oil feed is secure. I lost ALL of the oil so it couldn't have just been a small squirt of a manifold stud dripping. I will be cleaning it up and replacing the OFH with a 90 style with cooler.

 

Wow, what a nightmare! I just read this post and its probably too late to help, but Jason if you still need towing services, I'd be happy to lend my truck and a tow strap to get your car home. I've got two spare '90 OFH, consider one yours if you still need one. Give me a call if you need a tow.

-Alan C.