Red Shift almost went back to a 1 car team in a BLAZE of glory

[Daniel Allford]

Last night the Red Shift Racing Team met to finish some upgrades to the #82 car. Josh plans to run it in a Drivers Edge DE this weekend before his NASA comp class. One of the tasks was to weld up the floor pan. I had repaired the hole Josh made when he knocked it off the jacks and welded up a crack near the tunnel. Then I moved to a hole under the drivers left foot. I weld (a lot) on Orange. Grease fires are routine and summarily ignored. But this time the flames appeared to be a bit more serious. I guessed correctly that I must have melted the fuel line. Fortunately we keep fire extinguishers everywhere. I grabbed the one by the door a few feet away and put out the fire as it grew increasingly larger.

In case you ever need one: I have an extinguisher mounted on the door of my trailer and another on the left side of my tool box in my truck. And after last night there is a shiny new extinguisher by the door and a spare at the back of the race shop.

Lessons:
1. Don't let Josh knock the car off the jacks and punch holes in your floor, because really that was the root cause of the fire.

2. You cant have too many fire extinguishers.

Dan #47

[michaelmosty]

Holy cow!!! Glad it was able to be contained.
Good advice on the fire extinguishers!!!

[RichardP]

A story like that is no fun without pictures...

I didn't get any action shots. I know, lame. Anyway, the aftermath of using a fire extinguisher is a huge mess. That crap goes everywhere and it isn't all that happy about being cleaned up. It created a thick fog inside the shop that settled on everything. We set up fans to blow the stuff out and still couldn't go in there for quite a while without starting to gag on the stuff. And yet, way better than the alternative...


Richard P.

[Pranav]

Did the exact same thing a couple of years ago. Buddy and I were welding some floor pan cracks and hit the nylon line. Made a mess, repaired the line and ran it for one event before replumbing the whole fuel system.

Factory fuel line routing on the 4th gens is a hazard by design. The factory hard lines run in the trans tunnel, and all it takes is a bent torque arm to wipe them out. I say this, because earlier this year I had a bent torque arm rub hard into the trans tunnel where the factory hard lines used to be. It rubbed so hard that the factory mounting boss for the line retainer got ripped off and put a small hole there, can't imagine what would have happened if the factory lines were still there.

I ripped it all out, ran liquid-tite high temp conduit from the rear bulkhead, thru the cabin along the passenger side of the trans/dshaft tunnel, through the firewall. I then snake 6an PTFE (rated for >1000psi) through the conduit and assembled the fittings on each end. After that I cut the tube off of the factory fuel rail off and had a 6an bung TIGed on; the return rail had the the factory FPR replaced with an Aeromotive with screw-in 6AN fitting set to the factory FPR. I then had a new fuel pump get 6an steel bungs TIGed on the end. All in all I have a total of 6 fittings for my entire fuel system, all completely isolated from me along any undercar debris or rotating/moving parts.


I don't want to worry about burning to death in a early '90s pony car. There are better ways to go out in life.

[Sook]

Ahem... I learned several lessons while re-wiring Orange this month.

1. the CG of a 4 gen CMC Camaro is right behind the front wheels... pretty terrifying when she fell.
2. Nothing on orange is 'square' to anything else
3. However many fire extinguishers you have, get a few more.

Orange Crush lives up to her name. We cleaned the car at the shop, I cleaned it again today, probably going to clean it again tomorrow. That fire suppressant is nasty stuff, save yourself the trouble and don't have a fire. Hopefully everything goes well this weekend, then comp school at TWS!

- Josh

[liquidroam]

Ready to see you at comp school man!!!

[AllZWay]

Close call..glad it wasn't too bad. A few years ago several drag racing friends were sharing a shop had a shop fire from a fuel leak and the whole shop went up and all cars were lost except the car that started the fire. Only one exit and his car was last in the door. They lost tools and three cars. After that I put a large extinguisher at the door also.

[AI#97]

Factory fuel line routing on the 4th gens is a hazard by design.

Micheal Mosty can attest to that! Way back in 2004 or 2005 I got to watch him burn a white F-body at cresson due to ruptured fuel lines...right?!

[marshall_mosty]

Micheal Mosty can attest to that! Way back in 2004 or 2005 I got to watch him burn a white F-body at cresson due to ruptured fuel lines...right?!

That was my first day on a road course. March of 2004...

[AI#97]

That was my first day on a road course. March of 2004...

same for me. I think I have it on video tape somewhere around here. MSR Happy hour for $40 on a friday I think it was.