Well today my dad went to start his 2000 SS and it back fired and broak the pletem and started a fire. I was just wondering if this is some thing thats common with these engine or some thing. I have heard of engine fires with these engines but I think it was with the L67 not the L36 but I could be wrong. Can this be fixed he put snow on it to get the fire out so there would be some water down in the engine and some burnt stuff too. But would this be worth fixing or would it be better to just replace the engine just to be safe?

 

first time i've heard of this happening... pretty crazy.

alot of people on this forum have had crazy problems lately....

 

That's a new one; I'll bet. I've had cars backfire through the Throttle Butterfly and blow-off the connecting hose form the Air Cleaner ... but, that happened on a car with a 4-Barrel Carb ... not a Fuel Injected situation.

I guess it all depends on how bad the fire was. If you fried most of the electrical and emissions components before getting the fire out ... it might be a whole lot easier dropping in a used Engine with all those components intact.
It's when you start adding-up the prices of individual parts and wiring, plus a new or used Plenum that's going to tip the scales toward big bucks. You might find a decent motor all ready to be dropped right in there for less dough if your timing is right and you find a place that wants to move a complete engine.

Sorry you even have to consider what to do.
That was a stroke of bad luck.
Whatever you do; I hope it works out and you're back-in-action; soon!

 

First I've ever heard of a fuel injection engine doing this.

 

me too..

i know its somewhat common on carbureted engines because the fuel left in the carburetor will detonate.. but with fuel injection this simply shoudln't happen.

 

I would agree that a new/used engine and a engine harness would more than likely be needed.. Have full coverage insurance? the cost of the replacement parts and labor would be high and fires usually total a car. Or replace everything on top of the engine like injectors, rail , upper/lower intake, misc sensors and harness and you might be ok .. but still high cost.. not impossible to fix though, just maybe not worth that much money.

 

A former co-worker of mine had this happen on their Tempo.
She and her husband had it fixed and the car was fine afterwards.

That was back in '95 though, so take it for what it's worth.

I'm with Rick. It really depends on how much is damaged.

 

I see this as a great reason (excuse?!) to get in there and do some engine work.

Gotta be optimistic!

 

He finds out tomorrow if they are going to total it or not. IF they do hes going to find out how much its going to be to buy it back from them. I think the wires are all fine but like my dad said he though a lot of snow on there and he doesnt know how much dirt and burnt stuff got into the intake. But I told him that he should just buy a new plenum and drive it untell the engine goes. I think it has like 130xxx miles on her so it should have a lot of life left in her. He owned a buick lasaber and that thing had the 3800 too and it almost had 400000 and didnt even burn a drop of oil.

 

Actually last summer I watched a 2000+ Grand Prix burst into flames at a gas station. I saw it first happen and it was coming from the engine. But i know that this was a L67 engine. It was some pretty crazy stuff, but i just figured that the guy was an idiot and had done some half *** modifications.