olderguy

iTrader: (19)

Water in the gas tank?

DrewOH816

Well, proved there was a short anyway. I was setting up to wave the Cam Position Sensor around to see if it's wiring was functional (was the Squirt seeing it), I setup the laptop getting ready to record, turned the key to the first notch (Accessory?) of course not turning the engine over (coils are disconnected anyway) and FFFOOOOOFFFF; fire in the engine bay. Gas fumes, not sure exactly, the errant fuel injectors did dump some fuel yesterday but were buttoned up, the leaking wasn't active. I didn't smell anything unusual when I opened the hood and got the CPS bolt removed and ready... However, always "having a fire extinguisher on hand" finally paid off. Went thru my Halon extinguisher on the top end of the car, and then ran and grabbed the chemical unit that was in the trunk of the Miata and got the fire out. First time for everything I guess, this was certainly not what I was expecting.

At this point I'm exhausted by this whole endeavor. This whole setup seems flaky as ****, unstable and unreliable. How many miles do you guys get in between breakdowns, issues, weird maintenance or whatever? A good/proper setup maybe stable as heck for all I know and I just bought a car that's a forking mess! But man...

Do I get another wiring harness and start over, setting it up properly step by step or am I for more of this insanity? Is it time to admit I am out of my depth and have a fire sale? Man I love this car, this just crushes me... Maybe time to get the loss, and get a Spec Miata and move on but that WOOOSSHHH of power, arrghhh!

curly

iTrader: (25)

It really depends on the quality of the build. Mine is not my daily driver, I spend a lot of time on it, and the result is a very reliable setup. If yours is catching fire, I can almost guarantee there were signs of issues before the fires, you just learned the hard way where the issue was. It could be as small as a $1 clamp, a 20 year old $.20 o-ring, or a $8 piece of fuel hose too close to a sharp edge. But no, all of our turbo builds are not catching fire on the regular.