Engine Fire

foinsnap said:
This looks interesting

Automatic Fire Extinguisher
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Wow, a lot of Chinglish in that listing. It looks like it's a similar mechanism to the Element fire extinguisher except with a thermal trigger and different form factor.

Early intervention is key to reducing damage so that could be helpful, but with its suggested location at the front of the hood, it might not trigger very early if the car is in motion. I had that type of engine fire while driving my first wife's car, a Ford Escort on the highway. Heat from the exhaust manifold had risen through an open warm air intake and melted some of the plastic air filter housing which dripped onto the exhaust manifold and caught fire. Airflow from the front pushed the flames backward burning the ignition wires. The resultant misfire was why I pulled off the road and opened the hood. Then the flames had a chance to spring up and grow larger. I was able to beat the flames out with a T-shirt.

Would this extinguisher be triggered by this event? Maybe. Had it been a gas fire things would have progressed much more quickly and this device could have made the difference between a repairable car and a write-off. But I'd want to see some reviews of this before trusting it to work when needed.
 
I found out about this BC extinguisher designed specifically for car/truck use. Apparently it uses an extinguishing agent which does not leave residue and does not damage the paint. Reading the reviews on Amazon, it sounds like a few people have actually used it to extinguish car fires with success. It’s pretty damn expensive at $370 (plus mounting hardware) but if it does what it says it does, it could be worth it

 
Bmachine said:
I found out about this BC extinguisher designed specifically for car/truck use. Apparently it uses an extinguishing agent which does not leave residue and does not damage the paint. Reading the reviews on Amazon, it sounds like a few people have actually used it to extinguish car fires with success. It’s pretty damn expensive at $370 (plus mounting hardware) but if it does what it says it does, it could be worth it

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Looks great, pricey indeed, here is a smaller version which may be enough:

 
There are a multiple choices of fire extinguishing things that don’t leave reside or damage the vehicle. These are fairly popular in the USA:

Novec1230
DuPont FE-36
Halguard
Halotron

All are avail for plumbed in and hand held. All are $$$. Marine and aviation shops shops usually have them as handheld. Summit racing also has some of these.
 
Stevehose said:
Looks great, pricey indeed, here is a smaller version which may be enough:

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One of the guys in the Amazon reviews who actually had to use his said that the 2.5lbs was in fact barely enough. He suggested that maybe the 5lbs one would be safer. No idea on how true that is, but he did not seem like he was on the sellers payroll
 
I have an old 5lbs Halon fire system bottle that I am considering jury rigging into a handheld. It’s a bit big though (double the size of a typical car handheld). The only trigger avail is a 1-shot ( no stopping until bottle is empty).

This kind of out of date halon bottle (still full of clean agent) can often be found at race car shops of any of you want to try something similar for little $.
 
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Hi,

Does anyone have an under hood light ? Mine was burnt up in the fire. I think it's part # 63311362711
 
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