Hand me the marshmellows

and bring me the hot dogs while you're at it; I've got a bonfire under my hood :(

Yes, it caught on fire.

No, it's not extensive damage.

Yes, I will need some wiring.

No, I am not happy.

Yes, I will keep you posted.

No, I'm not selling off allthe parts, you turbo-craving vultures :mrgreen:

LOL Way to cover all your bases. :wink:

Sorry to hear about the misfortune though. At least it wasn't worse. How did you stop the fire? I carry a fire extinguisher in all my vehicles. Luckily, I've never had to use them.

I used to carry a nice ricey chrome one up until I moved, then it somehow got misplaced. I didn't worry about it and now I wish I had worried, located, and shoved it in the car.

I went to get a bucket of water from a lady in a fast food... by the time I got to the car with it and had someone at the hood, it was already damaged. I needed someone at the hood because any car guy knows you don't open the hood unless you have water at the ready. Opening hood on a bay fire wil turn it into an inferno.

Silicone wires can kiss off... once silicone starts to burn, putting it out is a PITA.

I figure that is what FU CKING caught on fire, old wires.
f u c king pieces of shi t. So I ordered some Magnecore 8.5MM wires. They should be here by Friday. Right around the same time as the VDO Vision 30-0-25 Turbo and VDO Vision EGT gauges arrive.

I'm gonna tow the car this evening back home. I was going to tow it to a shop but not anymore. I've slept on the issue now and realize it's minor damage. a few hoses, one of my ground wires from my ground wire kit, my PCV breather, my fan shroud, my over-the-valvecover airpipe (a fine motivation to go CA20E intake if I say so myself), and a handful of wires got crisped up (sheaths shrunk/partially melted, a connector or two melted).

I need to get it here and start going over everything. Then labelling everything. Then taking some of the wiring off. Then cutting and replacing the few pieces that need to be replaced. Then putting it all back together.

Say, one of my ground wire kit leads was bolted to the topmost adjustor nut for the distributor. You don't think one of the cheapo plug wires I had on there arced over to that and started a fire, do you? Was there some kind of risk associated with where I located that ground wire? Just trying to figure it out.

Have you searched for fuel leaks are anything like that? It would take a lot of arcing to start a fire without some kind of accelerant. I don't think your ground wire location would have mattered. You grounded it to metal, so whether it was there or not, it would have arced to that location anyway. I would seriously check out your fuel lines to make sure nothing is leaking.

i think it was the ground wire kit myself. like i said i ended up chunking one just kike you got due to crappy construction and the wires heating up...

Damn... thats too bad. Anymore Damage?

btw... you still need those Marshmellows and Hot Dogs? :)

well you know what u need to do.... think about the prestigue of having it and making some sweet hp #'s

At least it doesn't sound like there is really really bad damage. How bad is the hood??

Not too bad.. the hoodliner is still in fair shape, only singed a bit, so that should tell you something.

I'm pretty sure it was the ground now... the plug wires were old on the exhaust side. I had a ground mounted to the distributor adjustor. The old wires arced to the easiest ground: a nice, thick, braided copper wire, only a couple inches away. The heat from the exhaust made it easier to combust. I know this happened because that single ground wire is toas about eight inches from the mount point, like it burned from the INSIDE.

Ground wire kits work TOO well! :( So lesson to you guys, don't run those ground wire kits near your plug wires. Run one lead to the alternator housing, one to the throttle body, one to the firewall, one to the headlamp housing, one to the block, to the tranny, to whever, so long as it's not near the plug wires!

I have a set of Magnecor wires on the way (8.5mm).

ANyways I should have her up and running within a week. Doesn't look as bad as I thought in the daylight, but some things did indeed get melted. The thing that is the most upsetting is it caked onto the VIN plate. I can't seem to get it clean and already the inked on parts rubbed off. Oh well :(

The little crankcase breather is missing. Presumably on the freeway somewhere. Whatever, I got an identical chrome replacement today. I also picked up one of those nice chrome APC fire extinguishers. Not even a couple years ago I had one, and I gave it away, thought I was being too rice. How wrong was I! It would have prevented much of the damage. So it's been replaced.

Amazingly, the cone filter and plastic "chrome" painted heat shield are fine, covered in a thin laer of ash but it comes off with the barest of wiping. The heat shield actually seems to have protected the filter element completely (or significantly so).

I'm going CA20E intake in either case. I'll run the CA20E airpipe (it runs along the radiator, on top of the fan shroud) and just rig a pipe section from where the CA20E airbox is to the turbo inlet. The fan shroud actually melted, but I have all that stuff off the '85 and out of some feat of psychic ability went and pulled that stuff a couple weeks ago "just because".

My cutesie NISMO radiator cap is ruined. Looks normal now. $7 + $2 shipping&handling gone down the drain.

I had placed a red dot sticker (used at work for marking boxes) over the NISMO foil medallion on my ground wire distribution disc. It saved it.

The valvecover, which has always looked amazing, with original paint, miraculously looks fine.

So some of my cheesy bling survived. Most of my wiring survived. Some elbow grease should get it going. While I am at it, I'll be wiring in the two gauges and a fuel pump upgrade (since I'm 95% sure now the pump was my tuning problem). I have a new fuel filter and some new NGK's waiting too. Plus the wires.

So we'll see. I know what Bart wants me to do, and it's tempting, but I don't think it's going to take a whole heck of alot to get it going with the present engine, this after looking at it better in the daylight.

The funny thing is, there's a 36x42" full heght wall cabinet in the hatch area.

So today I was driving the Z to work, and accidentally (read as: stupidly) left the ignition on for eight hours. Came out, loaded up the back, went to start it up, and guess what? NOPE!

And IT has a cabinet in the back, too! :lol:

Hillarious. Two dead cars with cabinets filling up the back.