Thread: My 71 Lincoln Coupe caught fire!!!

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The car was not destroyed, but I will have to check out the damage in the daylight tomorrow. I had been having an issue with a leaking valve cover and took it into the local shop to get it fixed. We got the car back this morning, and drove it to an appointment up in Portland.

No oil-smoke for almost the whole trip up, but as we were parking in the underground parking structure there was just a bit of oil-smoke venting from under the hood. Thinking that is was just a bit of left-over oil sludge burning off from the area of the exhaust manifold, I STUPIDLY didn't bother to check.

We went into our appointment. A few minutes later an assistant manager came into the room and asked who owned the big black car. Hmmmm, I wonder who that might be ? He said that he thought that the car was on fire. I followed the guy out of the room, but told him that it was probably just a little oil smoke. He grabbed my arm and said that he was sure this wasn't that.

I can't run anymore, but I certainly attempted to as we headed to the garage. I came out the emergency exit and saw that there was quite a bit more smoke coming out now then when we parked. I ran up and saw bubbling paint in a round spot on the hood. I knew that this was bad. I got the hood up, and whoosh!, there is a nice bonfire going next to the distributor cap.

The spark plug wires were all on fire on the drivers side, all the way down to the plugs. I yelled at the manager to get the fire department here right away! He flew back up the stairs. I tried to remember where in the damn trunk my fire extinguisher was, and realized that I had pulled it out to be recharged and recertified. That meant it was at home, in the garage.

I am getting a wee bit frantic now, because the fire is a little bigger and there is more smoke. I'm thinking that when the fire hits the fuel line coming into the carb, that will be all she wrote for the car. I just stood there for a second, and then saw the fluffy white pillow that my wife uses for her back laying on the rear seat. I almost tore the drivers door of the hinges trying to grab that pillow.

I stepped back in front of the car and started trying to beat the fire out. My wife was on the scene by then and I yelled at her to call 911, in case the manager didn't, or couldn't. The fire was smaller, but wasn't out. I rapidly unscrewed the battery isolator to cut electrical power to thruout the vehicle. Then I started pressing the pillow directly onto the burning plug wires, and trying to blow the other little flames out. And then, finally, it was over. Still smoking, but the fire was out.

I was now holding a filthy hot pillow and looking at a couple of small burns on my fingers when the manager reappeared. I let him know that the fire was now out, and asked him to call the Fire department and cancel. Just as I said that, I heard a siren as the fire department arrived. Just great. They checked the car to make sure that the fire was out and took my information down.
(the fire saga continues...)

Now I have to figure out how to get the Linc home, which was about 60 miles away. We have AAA+, so my wife got on the cell to get us a tow. After a short wait, the tow truck showed up. The driver got out and started scratching his head. This was a very small underground parking structure and I had had to wedge the Linc into the parking spot I had found.

He said that his truck was too long to get the Linc out of the structure, and up the steep ramp intact. It didn't help that the car is lowered. He called for another truck, a flatbed this time. I didn't think it would fit any better, and sure enough, there wasn't enough overhead room to tilt the bed. Now they called yet a third truck, while looking at all the angles and corners we were fighting.

The third truck shows up, and this was also the smallest of the three recovery vehicles. The driver gets out, a lanky russian guy, and they start conferring and brainstorming about how to get the Linc back into the sunlight. One of the drivers said that I would have to sign a damage waiver, because he was convinced that either the front or rear bumpers would be pulled off the car when they started dragging it. At this point, I just wanted to sit in the corner and cry awhile.

The Russian guy tells me to not sign anything yet, he can get the Linc out and up without a scratch. He hooked up, and with all of us spotting for him and a huge amount of jockeying back and forth, he got the Linc back up to the street. He got a big hug from the wife and I, and his boss is going to get a phone call from us tomorrow.

Long story short, we got the Linc loaded on the flatbed and we headed for home. I will check the car out tomorrow, and I will post some digital pics of what I find.

Please, please, please remember to keep a good extinguisher in your Linc(like I USUALLY do ) , and a lucky pillow doesn't hurt either. In fact, it can save your car! Thanks for listening to all this...

Here are some pics taken today...

Here you can see that the air cleaner element burned away a little.


The plug wires burned right up to the distributor cap. You can see that the fire was burning on top of the metal fuel line, and that the rubber fuel line is just an inch or two away. I had wanted to replace that section of metal line with new rubber line to clean up the looks a bit. Glad I didn't do it, I probably would've lost the car.


My toasted valve cover.

Sideview to the spark plugs.


I'm no fire expert, but I think that the fire started at the 3rd spark plug. I believe that the new valve gasket didn't seal, oil pumped on to the very hot exhaust manifold(driven 60 miles non-stop), and it finally caught on fire. The fire traveled from plug wire to plug wire, and flowed up them towards the distributor cap.


The valiant and heroic pillow that saved my Lincoln.


I think I will replace the valve covers, plug wires, plugs, air cleaner, power steering pump hose, distributor cap, and assorted wires and hoses as needed. All in all, I have to call myself very lucky to still have a car. Thanks for the condolences, and for looking at the pics.

couldn't you fire it up and limp it onto a truck with 4 cyl's just remove the driver side bank of wires? My dad had a '85 Merc lynx catch on fire on him from oil leaking on the manifold on the way to work, he stopped it in front of a farm and the farmer came out with a garden hose and put it out. drug it home that night and spent the next day putting it back togther and drove it for years after

how tall is your air filter? I like the looks and am dealing with a very low clearance situation, it looks like that might just tuck up into the hood bracing perfectly.

Sorry to hear about the fire, I'm glad it wasn't worse. If you want a good sealer for your next set of valve cover gaskets, use Permatex Super High Tack. That stuff works great!

Just wondering what your repair shop will say in the morning.

1 of my moms friends had her car catch fire coming up our hill 1 time. trans line burst onto the exhaust manifold and cought it on fire, that 1 did the car in, got so hot under the hood that it melted the dash, sompthing blew under the hood and way distorted it. it was a late 80's Chrysler 5th Avenue.

Wow, Rough luck. Hope you can figure out was caused it. Burning plug wires really seems odd to me like electric was trying to go to ground. I have had that happen before Check to see if the ground strap was left off when they worked on your valve covers, sometimes they run from the body to the valve cover bolt. And good luck getting it all back together

Pat

Matt, I considered the new plug wire idea. The problem was that I would have had to call a cab, try to find a parts store open at almost 8pm, and I already had the tow trucks there. That Russian driver saved the day. Also, since I don't know what truly started the fire, I am leery about doing a repair on the fly.

Diablo, that is just about the shortest air cleaner I could find. I have major clearance issues too because of the Weiand Stealth intake manifold on the car. I am NOT impressed with how thin the foam filter element is, there is just nothing there. Size is great, air filtration is bad.

Stu, I will bring that up to the mechanic. Thanks all...

Originally Posted by 71LincolnCoupe

Matt, I considered the new plug wire idea. The problem was that I would have had to call a cab, try to find a parts store open at almost 8pm, and I already had the tow trucks there. That Russian driver saved the day. Also, since I don't know what truly started the fire, I am leery about doing a repair on the fly.

Diablo, that is just about the shortest air cleaner I could find. I have major clearance issues too because of the Weiand Stealth intake manifold on the car. I am NOT impressed with how thin the foam filter element is, there is just nothing there. Size is great, air filtration is bad.

Stu, I will bring that up to the mechanic. Thanks all...

maby you could get 1 of those air cleaner adapters that drop a 14" standard chrome cleaner down over the carb a couple of ", get a 2" element for the 14
" filter and only about 1" would be above the carb. all they are is a new base for the air cleaner.