Well, sad to report, but the Great White suffered a catastrophic engine fire tonight at 10:15pm CST.

Thanks to the neighbors for spotting it, my Corvettes were saved from the same fate that my 8 suffered.

I guess I will be trying to get it back together (hopefully that will be possible). I have to find some parts cars now - how ironic!

Going to get drunk now!

Sorry to hear that, and no disrespect in this, but you should part your car and move on to another one.

I have a friend who is in the body shop business and said stay away from fire damage it can become a safety issue down the road.

Dang S..... truly sorry to hear that. Let us know what the prognosis for recovery is and hopefully the parts process will improve. ;)

already spoke with SSC and will be starting the restoration tomorrow.

CRAP.
Sorry to hear.
Will raise a beer tonight to the fallen 8.

Dude WTF? That really sucks man :-( Let me know if I can be of any help....

Tx... really sorry to hear that bro. Speechless
Wish you the best.

Yo,
Rod

wow dude, I totally feel for you on that. I'm surprised you're handling it so well :o.

Let us know if we can do something to help bro.

Sorry to hear that :(

Do you have any idea what caused the fire?

Sorry to hear about your problems Tx - I hope you don't post pics, it might make me cry :(. After all the help you've given me I wish I could help you out. All I can think of is getting you any euro parts, let me know if I can help at all. Nick

Sorry to hear your sad news, if there's anything I can do from over the pond just let me know.

I am very sorry for your loss! At least no one was hurt. :(

Thanks goes out to all for your commetns and concerns. I will be surveying the damage later this morning and will be posting pics later. Preliminary investigation point to wire chaffing. The Fire Chief believes the ignition point to be the positive terminal block under the hood, we will see.

SSC will be getting the car in Abilene, where he assured me we will be able to rebuild her - he has the parts, we have the knowledge. More info to come...

Damn, Sorry to hear about your car. Are you gonna try something different as far as the rebuild, color (?), etc..?

going back to original - at 1 of only 16 automatics in that color combo, I am NOT ready to reduce that number by 1. It looks worse than it really is, but no life was lost and my prized 63 Corvette is still saafe and sound (it was parked about 12 feet away - talk about some luck!!)

Nice 1 Tx, I love the 8 in white

Well, looking at it it appears the damage is to the fresh air intake cowl, the fuse box, the left side plug wires, Master Cylinder reservoir, windshield, windshield wiper, drivers side wiring harness, Positive terminal block and the secondary/auxillary fuse box.

Tx,
I agree with the back to original. Your interior as well as the rest of the car was gorgeous. I have no doubts that you and SSC will restore her back... even better.

I don't want to sound gory Tx, but alot can be learned from the process you're about to embark upon. I for one hope you share that process with us. Again, best of luck Bro. You know, all of us will help in any way we can.

Yo,
Rod

Tx,

Curious... I don't see any residue from fire extinguishing agent... what did they use to put her out?

Yo,
Rod

oh :eek: is the bonet ok

Well, TX just sent me a couple of pics. Ouch! We were going to do a motor swap on the car this month or next. Looks like it will go back together just fine. We have every part needed on hand, including a new bonnet. Rod:"I don't want to sound gory Tx, but alot can be learned from the process you're about to embark upon.", we have both dismantled parts cars so there is not much new area to learn!! Biggest pita with this repair is the fusebox/harness. Other than that, piece of cake! This way TX ends up with a brand new painted motor compartment and motor. Not the best way to go about it, but!!! The good luck of this is it didn't happen in a rest area somewhere on the way home from Florida.

Really sorry to hear about your loss.....

Just a temporary glitch, no permanent loss. That car will be back up in a few weeks. Only reason it will take that long is TX and I live 200 miles apart and that limits our efforts to weekends only. I've already got the entire harness/fusebox almost removed from parts car. The car will go back together with no evidence this ever happened. The harness is the only pita of this ordeal, the rest is easy once we pull the motor out of the way. This might have been a loss beyond recovery for most, we're lucky to have the resources we do. I think TX wanted to repaint the motor compartment anyway!!

Tx,

Curious... I don't see any residue from fire extinguishing agent... what did they use to put her out?

Yo,
Rod


Garden Hose - the fire department didn't show up for 15 minutes (the station is a mile away)

Yeow, 15 minutes after the call was put in? Gosh I hope it was because they were on another call or something...might want to inquire. Could be a much bigger deal if its your house or medical emergency................

how efar are u willing ot travel for a parts car? there is an 8 series by my house. looks like someone drove it into a ditch. just a sugestion.

Garden Hose - the fire department didn't show up for 15 minutes (the station is a mile away)

Well ... that part may have been a blessing IMO. On an electrical fire they may have used a caustic agent to put it out. I don't know what they use nowadays, but when I went to Firefighting, way back when, in the Navy, that's what I was told about (aircraft) electrical fires.

Yo,
Rod

how efar are u willing ot travel for a parts car? there is an 8 series by my house. looks like someone drove it into a ditch. just a sugestion.
might come in handy, is it for sale? Any pics?

Any idea of the cause, now I am wondering about mine, its still in Ohio sitting at my parents house, the batteries are dead .

Damn man, I just read this thread. Sorry to hear the news.

Best regards

Greg, I'm in Ohio now for a project for Abercrombie Corporate..... No prob to have a firsthand look and let you know what's up. May help us both.

I just saw this thread and the one on RF. Glad to see this thread is friendly compared to the other.

Stefen, I am sorry to see the pictures of your car. I hope you and Greg can get it back to working shape. If you need any help, let me know since I am in Texas and quite handy with wiring and electrical issues.

I will be interested in finding what caused the fire. I hope all of our wiring does not break down like that is the headlight buckets. I have a 91 E32, on which I have done a bunch of electrical work, and have not see the wiring insulation issues. I hope we are all not driving ticking fire bombs.

-Douglas

Sorry about your car Tx, Been watching your car since the first time i've seen it, Hope it all comes back together, I know theres lots of work involved in that car, It is no where near a parts car, IMO!

Okay here to answer some of your questions:

I knew I needed to put the fire out BEFORE the Fire Dept. showed up so as not to cause more damage.
Fire seems to have been caused by a chaffed positive power supply cable that was rubbing on the intake manifold, and eventually caused the short.
The power cable is located right above the brake master cylider reservoir - brake fluid is flammable: put 2 and 2 together.
As for the RF post, it seems that even after being banned there, their problems still exist with a few a-holes (not to mention any Robert names). But hey, some people are just born unhappy.
The front end has been removed and is back in Dallas, along with a new hood (thanks Greg for the Silver Hood). They will be going to the painter on Monday. Work is already progressing.
Car will be back - better than before!
I want to thank you all for your concerns and words of encouragement, means alot to me.


8's forever!

I'm really happy you're deciding to put her back the way you had her. I REALLY love the 8 in white although I'm extremely biased. I'm also glad to hear you and SSC are going to have no problem at all fixing her back up, god speed!

Cheers bro,
Thomas

Can we all just get along :-) Drink beer , make no war :-) Is Wuffer too old for a hug? cuz I will give the dude a hug, I swear :-)


Okay here to answer some of your questions:

As for the RF post, it seems that even after being banned there, their problems still exist with a few a-holes (not to mention any Robert names). But hey, some people are just born unhappy

8's forever!

IF this is common, what about a kill switch in the positive line? Not only piece of mind, but also a bit safer and harder to steal if you hide the switch.

Sorry to hear. If you want someone to be moral support, I'm about 20 mins away. Good to hear you're getting her back on the road though.

:eek:Man, I'm off the thread for a week and people are burning their cars! REALLY sorry to hear about your fire. Bring on the parts car! Nothing that insurance wont cover I'm sure.
I gotta 1000 miles since doing the head bolts and it is running strong with no issues so my hat goes off to you guys again.

Take care and keep us posted on your progress, Karl

I remember a while ago Faisal did take pictures of a wire harness that was behind the manifolds, below the cabin filter, he shielded the wires to prevent such a thing.

Since I ams till new to the e31, can any of the experts suggest how we can prevent this from happening to our cars?

I wonder if you can rebuild the engine harness, keep the oem ends but maybe use better wire?

I know the wires on my head lights are brittle, I changed the bulbs and saw this I wonder if there is a solution to fix this problem?

Hi Tx

sorry to hear about the car, thank God not one was hurt and all is well.

Good luck for the restoration

Kind regards

Prit

Hey Tx,

You interested in buying my 850 :)

Now that I drove it for a bit I'm not too crazy about it. Not to put the car down or anything it's an amazing ride but older cars are just not for me :(

I've gotten use to driving 07 BMW's racing them is in my blood. I have the 335 and am getting the m3 this summer. The 850 just isn't a racing kind of car :)

Let me know.

Ado

I waited 50 minutes for the fire department to show up for a car fire in a parking lot. The fire department was 2 blocks from the parking lot. When the owner of the car questioned them about why it took so long, they responded that they arrived 6 minutes after the call was made. LIARS!
I made the call and looked at my watch. Fifty minutes to watch a car burn is a long time. The car was toast.

Call me a scary cat! This will be mounted on the front of my driver seat wednesday! Some bmw's have them mounted in the same place, If it doesn't save me one day, I might be able to help another motorist.

Hey Tx,

You interested in buying my 850 :)

Now that I drove it for a bit I'm not too crazy about it. Not to put the car down or anything it's an amazing ride but older cars are just not for me :(

I've gotten use to driving 07 BMW's racing them is in my blood. I have the 335 and am getting the m3 this summer. The 850 just isn't a racing kind of car :)

Let me know.

Ado

Thanks for the offer, only two things wrong:

Car is in Canada, don't know about the importing hassles.
Not in the market - mine is on it's way to being whole again.
850's were NEVER meant as racing kinds of cars (that's why I bought a Z06)

Call me a scary cat! This will be mounted on the front of my driver seat wednesday! Some bmw's have them mounted in the same place, If it doesn't save me one day, I might be able to help another motorist.


Had an extiguisher in hand (bought it about 3 months ago), and although the needle clearly showed it being in the green "full" area, the extinguisher was dead! Had better results from the garden hose. When the fire department came and made sure everything was under control, I asked about what I might have done wrong with the extinguisher. The fire captain said that they sometimes come like that from the factory - very reassuring to know!

here are some pics - getting it cleaned and sorted out...

After so much preventive maintenance, That is hard to look at.

I would definitely agree 8eights. Keep with it TX, wish you the best bro.

Thomas

Wow, bummer! Glad to see it's only a temp thing.

Anyone with older cars should keep a few Fire Ext's around, I keep one in the M's trunk and one in the Garage. Cheap protection from a Carbicue.....

Thanks for the offer, only two things wrong:

Car is in Canada, don't know about the importing hassles.
Not in the market - mine is on it's way to being whole again.
850's were NEVER meant as racing kinds of cars (that's why I bought a Z06)




n/p, good luck with getting your's restored.

I actually thought the 850 would be a rocket with the Dinan Twin Turbo's :) but I guess I was wrong, these things are real damn heavy :)

A have thought about a few things to try and make it faster but it involves a lot of work, I was thinking about swapping the engine with the new M5 engine and doing some work to it. I think it would cost me around $25 to $30K for the complete swap. (Still waiting for quote from the mechanics)

If I end up doing that my current engine would be up for sale if anyone is interested. It's got 50K miles (with all paperwork) from BMW & Dinan.

Anyway sorry about jacking your thread, I wish you the best with the restore.

Ado

sorry to hear about this man, its a sad sight to see.
but just remember it could have been worse

Hey Tx - just catching up with the threads and saw your signature had changed and was wondering what the heck happened. Glad to hear it's a repairable situation (we can't afford to lose any more car's). Nice to have neighbors that watch out for you and you got to it before anything else got damaged. I had a 65 Corvette convert (another car I wished I could have kept along with a 67 Porsche 911) before I got the 8 and would have hated to see it melt due to a fire.

I am sorry this happened to your car Tx. looks like it is gonna be lots of work to restore it, but it is gonna always be an 8 whatever happens as long as it is fixable.

It is on its way to being better than it was before. Many thanks to SSC for his Herculean effort in getting the Great White back on the road. Front end and hood will be painted this weekend and hopefully an engine/tranny pull as well.
It is mostly labor that will get this car back together again as all the parts are on hand, and as soon as the "magic box" arrives from GAULT, we will be good to go.

Better than waiting for Christmas Day to roll around...

Awesome! I'm loving the good news.

Awesome! I'm loving the good news.

:buttrock

damn...good thing everything else is ok

UPDATE: Almost all of the parts are in hand, the body parts are going to the painter tomorrow, will be final assembling the engine this coming week, and then it is on to the reconstruction party!
I want to send out a special thanks to Greg for the help he has given me, without him this car would not be back on the road so quickly

Great news man :).

Super happy to hear it!

Hey where can we send the wine :-) I am serious? What does Greg likes? He really deserves a group hug of some fashion.... How can we acknowledge our gratitude for all his help and hard work?


UPDATE: Almost all of the parts are in hand, the body parts are going to the painter tomorrow, will be final assembling the engine this coming week, and then it is on to the reconstruction party!
I want to send out a special thanks to Greg for the help he has given me, without him this car would not be back on the road so quickly

Great news, best of luck with the reassembly. I honestly think it will come through the resurrection better than ever.

Yo,
Rod

Here is a quick update:
After placing an incredibly huge order with GAULT and purchasing more stuff locally, almost all the necessary parts are now in hand. Just got done pulling engine and transmission (as one unit - works better that way) and cleaned everything up. Greg and I, with the help of Rod "Milk & Cookies" Hester, did more disassembly and started getting the engine bay prepped for paint. We have run into one snag that may bring this train to a screeching halt (Greg is way nore optimistic than me at this point), the donor harness is from a 1991 Silver 850 and it needs to go into a 1993 850. Problem #1 is that the DMW and EML connectors are DIFFERENT and there is a diferent number of wires -UGGHHHH!

So there it is for this week, pics attached

I don't know about you but my body hurts today! Lots of progress, we hit our target for this weekend plus some. Now I can proceed with refinish/paint of motor compartment, yes the entire thing, not just where it burned. It WILL look brand new, actually better with a higher gloss- easier to keep clean. Steffen will proceed with the complete refurb/gasketing of the new motor. Everyone cross your fingers on the harness splice- prelim observations are it should be ok. Lots of reading and color coding to go thru and verify. With our schedules it looks like this puppy will be running just short of 30days from now. Did I say we love a challenge?!

Holy sh1t... talk about surgery... wow
Good luck with the harness...

Before you know it you'll be screaming ... "IT LIVES!!!"

Yo,
Rod

i just found another thing to check.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj219/ceedeefl/pressureswitchleak001.jpg
and since someone said that brakefluid is flameable, i post here
had quite a leak on my pressure switch. it ran into the protection cap
of the lower pressure switch and flipping f**ed up the paint on the frame
below. grrrrrr
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj219/ceedeefl/pressureswitchleak002.jpg
got the parts ordered already. and i'll take the chance to change the
break fluid and get some stainless brake lines.
just thought you might wanna check that, in case you guys get bored in your
garages.

Your gonna like the feel of the SS Brake lines, Less foot pressure needed to stop.

awesome, because right now, i fear most of the pressure goes
toward kingdom come.
how much super blue will i need? 2 quart will be enough?

I went through almost a gallon to get the system flushed and bled.

Hey,

Sorry to hear about you fire! :( e31 is such a beautiful car! Glad to see your getting it back on the road so quickly!

I don't have an 8 :( (Just a little e46) But I wish I did! I am amazed at how supportive and close this forum is! It reminds me of the Scottish Off-Road Club but they meet up often in person! Do you guys ever meet up in person?

It's really nice to see such dedicated car fanatics :)

Anyway, hope it all goes well with you re-build mate!

Sean

ps. Are there any 8 owners on here in East Central Scotland? I'd love to have a closer look at one!

Good luck with your rebuild will look great when finished

got the valve covers back from powder coating...

247672

:redspot

Tx,

Valve covers look great bro, the whole engine does.
Curious, what are your valve covers made of, aluminum ... titanium or what? Is it true the M62's are titanium? Sounds pretty expensive to me, so I have my doubts. What I have been told by the local powder coat folks is that they they require a cold tank to clean and that the material would be eaten up in a hot tank. Any truth to this?

Yo,
Rod

Valve covers are steel on the M70 and I would imagine they are the same on the V8's. I bead blasted them (plastic media) to get the silver paint off and then had them done in matte black. They turned out really nice and for $50 for the pair, I can't complain. Powder coating has the advantage that if your fuel lines start leaking (they all do at some point), it won't ruin a normal paint job.
The black looks great because it makes the glass-beaded aluminum intakes really pop-out.
I will have additional pics after this weekend.

The V8's definitely aren't steel... I had my daughter's off of her 3.0 V8 and I would say aluminum. They are cast. Titanium would be way to expensive, especially in today's market , aircraft companies are scooping it up.
I should be doing my valve covers soon... maybe the week after the 4th.

Yo,
Rod

got the valve covers back from powder coating...

247672

:redspotThey look fantastic...As does the rest of the engine..

...more pics sunday

The V8's definitely aren't steel... I had my daughter's off of her 3.0 V8 and I would say aluminum. They are cast. Titanium would be way to expensive, especially in today's market , aircraft companies are scooping it up.
I should be doing my valve covers soon... maybe the week after the 4th.

Yo,
Rod

Let the rest of us 840 owners know the results of your valve cover strip/paint. I would like to do the same but have concern with another opinion that having them powder coated the curing heat would warp them.

Just spoke with my powder coating guy here in Dallas. There is NO problem in powder coating aluminum valve covers. He showed me some Ferrari Pieces he was doing and I asked him about the danger of warping due to heat.
The powder coating oven runs at 350-375 degrees, aluminum starts to act up around 550-600 degrees - you should be real safe with the 840 covers. Powder Coat away!!