my car exploded

[biosehnsucht]

I had just gotten home, let it cool down for a minute, went inside, and about 3 seconds later there was a massive BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM and then my alarm went off

I'm like wtf, did someone just get murdered?? it can't be my car!!

run outside and I see clouds of smoke coming out of the hood, OMFGWTFBBQ!!!

I'm standing there for a moment thinking I'm going to have to just watch my car burn to the ground, and I notice the smoke seems to be lessening..

I run over to the car and its almost gone, I open the door and pop the hood, by the time I have it open its not smoking any more.

Took awhile to find a flashlight with enough power to see but first diagnosis is the oil and water have NOT left the engine, so I can only think it might be the AC line that was uncomfortably close to the turbo heat shield..

eventually get a working flashlight and yes, it was mad shanked, a huge 1" long flap cut and burst burst!

.... ****.

I was going to have a friend help me get the compressor pullies swapped so I didn't have to recharge the system this week, too.

So, I figure since it'll be about $100 more for R12 than R134a, and I need a new receiver drier now anyways as it's been exposed to air, I might as well retrofit. BUT, Nissan no longer makes the R134a S13 one apparently (at least according to Courtesy's website), but supposedly most R12 ones can work w/ R134a these days and my friend thinks there's a good chance it has been redesigned for that even tho it's still sold only as an R12 unit..

Gah. Oh well, I was surviving without AC so far, just hope there's not any HOT AND RAINY days anytime in the next 2 months as it'll be awhile before I can get this fixed.

[jjwilks240]

i have the ac compressor from my ca that i dont need if you need parts pm me, i dont have any lines though cause i cut em

[c-rad]

LOL, in a way thats kinda funny. Sucks when anything breaks, but I bet the look on your face was priceless when you saw smoke billowing out of your hood. ROFL....

[biosehnsucht]

I got two CA AC compressors ATM but don't know if either works

I wouldn't care as much if it wasn't startting to get hot enough to need AC

Anyone know if the DE AC lines are maybe longer? Cause the E lines are too short to get around the engine properly w/ the SR/KA mounts, hence this disaster.

[cadet]

I carry a big fire extinguished zip tied to the base of my pass. seat just in case... cause I'm the kind of guy who figures that I'm 75% water and I'll prolly heal so I could prolly smother it myself.

[pulsar gtr]

Dam, that would definitely have scared you lol.I am glade it is nothing major, especially after you put a good $$ in the engine.

I have to agree with cadet about carrying an extinguisher, I always carry a fire extinguisher in my Pulsar, with my luck the day I take the extinguisher out, is the day my car catchs on fire lol.

PULSAR GTRRafi

[float_6969]

I got two CA AC compressors ATM but don't know if either works

I wouldn't care as much if it wasn't startting to get hot enough to need AC

Anyone know if the DE AC lines are maybe longer? Cause the E lines are too short to get around the engine properly w/ the SR/KA mounts, hence this disaster.

Mine bolted up alright. They're off now, but I don't remember having any problems when I did have it installed before.

[biosehnsucht]

So I got new AC line for $6 from the junkyard.I also picked up a few other things such as some vacuum delay valves for the variable intake stuffs. (which made a nice difference in the powerband)I also fixed my speedo yesterday, swapped the sensors out, the CA one was dead..

And on my way home, I'm hearing a hissing sound, but the engine temp is normal, don't know what it is.. can't be AC obviously as that already blew away..

can't pull over right away, as I'm stuck in traffic (not standstill, just no shoulder to pull over on) to check on it.. after a minute steams starts pouring out of my engine bay and instantly the gauge jumps to maxed out hot. at this point I'm just reaching a place to pull over so I do, shut off the car, and pop the hood.

steam is coming out of somewhere under the back of the intake manifold where all those damn hoses are, could be heater core, turbo, oil cooler, or that stupid crap that goes to the back of the intake manifold.. I'm hoping its the turbo lines so I can just cap it and go on with life, as the turbo doesn't HAVE to be cooled.. but regardless its an impossible area to get to

will it ever end?
Modified by biosehnsucht at 10:05 PM 4/6/2005

[NeedCAforS13]

ouch, that sucks... I had a similar thing happen to me the other day. Bust one of those little coolant hoses under the back side of the intake manifold and overheated momentarily. Luckily it was such a small hole, I just refilled the radiator and drove it home allright. Took quite awhile to figure out exactly which hose was busted, and when I pulled it off it had a pin sized hole in it... Good luck locating the leak!

Sean

[biosehnsucht]

Fixed the problem today for the coolant..

it was one of the hoses to the heater core, looks like it was partially shanked by the original clamp (which was already replaced with a worm drive one) and eventually it just died from heat + pressure + time, ruptered along a ~1-2 mm line and steamed out of that.

Was going to top off the coolant and try to overheat the coolant to find where it was coming from but as soon as I topped it off I noticed it was already leaking

So we installed my Koyo 53mm radiator, haven't got the fans on yet, need to fab the brackets for them. A nice dual 11" SPAL setup very brute force build and quality, very OEM looking. The fans just BARELY fit between the evap canister and the inlet/outlet on the radiator.