my car has died - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

Quicksilver300 · 06-16-2008, 01:45 AM

Haven't been here in a while but my car had been running great till it burst into flames tonight.

I was driving home from work at 12am this morning and went to pass somebody when boom, lots of metal noises, flames out the front of the car and about a 10ft plume of flames out the exhaust.

The car did stop burning before anything was really damaged, however and this a is a big however, there's a hole in my block. Looks like number 3 cylinder blew the on the crank and a hunk came out blowing oil all over the exhaust.

It's pretty dark right now, so I cannot really assess whether my tranny is shot as well, but any help you guys can think of would be great. I realize the motor is done, I also realize this wont be easy, but I'd like to save her. So any tips on getting this done cheaply would be great. I'll update the thread as I find out what happened.

here's some before pics.

Venom_5 · 06-16-2008, 01:50 AM

wtf? i dont think ive ever heard of this happening to a stock S-block not running some sort of forced induction or nitrous!

your transmission SHOULD be okay, so if you can afford it i would either find a crate motor or a parts car in good shape to swap....

now would be a good time to evaluate if its best for your personal needs to swap in a 5S-FE or 1MZ-FE ...

Quicksilver300 · 06-16-2008, 02:11 AM

thx for being here, if you stick around a few I'll have the pics up, I just went out with a flashlight. uploading

Quicksilver300 · 06-16-2008, 02:24 AM

Here they are, My tranny seems to have fluid, it's a bit blackish, but not terrible and definitely still full. Hope you can make out the hole.

You'll also love the blistered bumper from the flames.

***ASG14*** · 06-16-2008, 02:53 AM

Holy crap man. Sorry to see that.

Quicksilver300 · 06-16-2008, 03:04 AM

I'm completely in shock, I got home too late to buy beer(town law), so I broke out my vintage 10 yr old Ommegang Three philosophers beer. It is helping, I cant type to well anymore, I was saving this bottle for my first child, but as we know shit happens. At least I can say it wasn't my fault.

The scenario was I was doing 55mph, came up behind a truck, turned off O/D, hit the gas and bam. The guy I was trying to pass immediately stopped and was really cool about the situation. When it blew, I figure I was pushing 5.5k rpm's, nothing crazy, it was just down shift and boom.
On my normal commute this happens all the time. Luckily since I'm the head bellman at a fancy hotel, I had enough money for the tow, got it right in my driveway

***ASG14*** · 06-16-2008, 03:07 AM

Where in NY are ya anyway?

Quicksilver300 · 06-16-2008, 03:12 AM

oneonta, originally from poughkeepsie.

***ASG14*** · 06-16-2008, 03:17 AM

Damn. Too bad your not still in poughkeepsie or I would have lent a hand to fix it.

I'm going to guess if you take the valve cover off your going to see a lot of sludge. Thats the only thing I can think of that caused that.

Quicksilver300 · 06-16-2008, 03:32 AM

well, thanks though, I might be doing the engine swap in pk, thats where my parents live, papa's gotta lot of tools.

I guess I'll know more tomorrow, I should sleep, I spent the night bringing in the padres team, I'm pretty tired after all this.

94CoupeV6 · 06-16-2008, 03:45 AM

Ouch, I couldn't imagine how pissed I would be if that happened to my engine. Are those 5SFE's aluminum or iron blocks? Never even heard of this happening before on that motor. Sorry to see that, but I would definitely recommend the torque filled V6 since you need a replacement anyways. It will cost a bit more than the 5SFE, but it's worth it IMO even if the gas mileage isn't as good.

bigbird · 06-16-2008, 04:18 AM

yikes

. sorry to see man.

cykaaro · 06-16-2008, 04:30 AM

Sorry to hear. At least you're ok. A car can be fixed. You, only so much.

Maim Menu · 06-16-2008, 06:42 AM

Now here's something you don't see everyday....very sorry about what happened...

What was the mileage on that engine?

Quicksilver300 · 06-16-2008, 10:56 AM

I have no idea what the block's made out of, it had 133,000mi. I am glad to have not been on fire myself, but my fiance is going to miss having her car, because I kinda of need to use it now. I commute 56mi a day to work.

One funny note(if there can be) was I had no water in the car, all I had was a half can of NOS energy drink, which I poured on the manifold...felt odd pouring something named that on the engine. Hopefully the insurance man will be by soon, but I dont think it'll be covered under fire.