Turbo Miata lit on fire while driving
 

Was doing a pull and a cloud comes from the engine bay. I quickly pull over and it is on fire. I have a blanket and extinguisher in the trunk. The blanket didn't put it out so had to use the extinguisher.

The eBay fitting adapter from the oil feed line to turbo snapped in half and sprayed oil all over the manifold.


https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1435723902


https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1435723902

the exhaust leak at the turbo probably didnt help either.

Wow that's a bummer. Glad it didn't burn to the ground

Why I carry an extinguisher in all my cars.

Exhaust leak?

Nothing was permanently damaged. Just a new fitting and it should be good to go.

Genius

This is also why I don't use any cheap AN fittings on my cars. Saving a few bucks to me is not worth the risk of having my car catch on fire.

Learned it the hard way. Vibrant fitting ordered.

Weirdly, I don't usually consider Holly / Earl's to be a source of "cheap" AN hardware- I've used a lot of their stuff in the past and never really had any quality issues.

Was this one of the cast & machined aluminum 90° AN-to-pipe-thread adapters? Any pictures of the failed part?

With real AN fittings (see aircraftspruce.com), you always get your choice of steel or aluminum. On aircraft engines (the ones with gigantic pistons that cause vibrations akin to Hustler's bike seat), steel is used for anything carrying combustibles that is screwed into the engine itself. This doesn't seem to be the rule with automotive engines, but it's something to consider and definitely offers more fatigue resistance to vibrations.

Oops, sorry. Edited it. Earls was used on my oil feed on the engine block. It was indeed a chinese fitting. Pics later today.

Makes sense. Hustler :rofl:

<p>+1 for steel fittings for oil lines.</p><p>I plan to go steel on the water fittings at the turbo as well.</p>

the black soot on your hood suggests a prolonged exhaust leak.

I bought Cheap Summit fittings on my build.

I'll never do it again. Next time I'll check out your link. I agree 100% for steel fittings, I now hate aluminum AN fittings big time....

I wondered why he thought that until I went back and looked. Once I noticed it, it was like finding the hidden object.

Very good observation, Braineak.

Aluminum is lightweight and perfectly fine for the other end of a typical flexible line though (the end mounted to a component on a chassis or firewall for instance). Everything has its place.

Or an engine fire resulting from large amounts of oil spraying onto the exhaust manifold under pressure.

You are right, but that black soot was already there. Before the turbo I had a severely cracked stock manifold. ^that too

There was no signs or smell of exhaust under the hood in the days prior.

I dunno this seems like normal operation to me