P38 on fire

[Hammer H]

Well just a small one which we caught in time. We were doing some heavy beach sand driving in low range at high revs and smoke appears under the drivers side dash and accompanying smell, we pulled over quickly turned it off and pooped the bonnet to find it alight between the drivers side firewall and manifold/cat. A splash of water from my water bottle put it out.

It was the breather hose in pic that caught fire, can anyone tell me what it is for?

I will get some pics in the morning of where it caught alight

Paul

[LandyAndy]

Looks like coolant.
Only Land Rover could design an engine that burns coolant along with ECUs that leak oil.
The white stains look like OAT coolant spill.
Andrew

[P38 4.6 Timmy]

G'day Paul. Glad you got the fire out quickly!

Leaky rocker cover gaskets will leak oil onto the exhaust manifold in the exact area you describe, which can start a fire, particularly when they're extra hot, like when doing some heavy sand driving

Mine were leaking a bit a while back, and I could smell the oil smoking & see the oil on the manifold. I nipped up the rocker cover bolts and that seems to have sorted it...for now...silly me, I should've replaced the gaskets when I had the plenum off fitting the gen 3 injectors

I don't know what that open hose is in your pic, as far as I know it shouldn't be there. Only thing I can think of is the PCV hose that goes from the rocker cover to the intake plenum, looks about the right size hose. Maybe it came off and ended up stuck back there??

Have you fitted the new water pump?

Cheers, Timmy.

[Keithy P38]

Good catch there mate! Very lucky! While I can speculate on the fire, and I will, I'm not entirely sure as to what started it! If I were to guess, that looks like the front diff breather hose, but I'm guessing the fire was started by a fine mist of coolant spraying from one of the nearby hoses.

Most P38 fires are started from a coolant leak. That stuff burns like crazy!

Cheers
Keithy

[p38arover]

And why did you put it out?

[daf11e]

Probably same reason I put out the coolant fire in mine..'P38 INSANITY '
...glad your ok!

[p38arover]

Probably same reason I put out the coolant fire in mine..'P38 INSANITY '
...glad your ok!

Me, too.

[Hammer H]

It looks to me the breather pipe has caught alight where it is close to the manifold, missing heat sheild, and traveling about the same speed and direction as the wind (little air flow cooling) under load for several minutes, all likely played their part. Watchdog engine temp was 88. And the engine bay did not seem hot, I'd say the exhaust manifold and cats were very hot.

[p38arover]

The thumbnail is a different pic to the one that loads when you click the thumbnail.

EDIT: You've just changed them both!

[Hammer H]

G'day Paul. Glad you got the fire out quickly!

Leaky rocker cover gaskets will leak oil onto the exhaust manifold in the exact area you describe, which can start a fire, particularly when they're extra hot, like when doing some heavy sand driving

Mine were leaking a bit a while back, and I could smell the oil smoking & see the oil on the manifold. I nipped up the rocker cover bolts and that seems to have sorted it...for now...silly me, I should've replaced the gaskets when I had the plenum off fitting the gen 3 injectors

I don't know what that open hose is in your pic, as far as I know it shouldn't be there. Only thing I can think of is the PCV hose that goes from the rocker cover to the intake plenum, looks about the right size hose. Maybe it came off and ended up stuck back there??

Have you fitted the new water pump?

Cheers, Timmy.

Hi Timmy, think I might have found the problem, did not have time to fit the pump, but will when I get the time. I think the hose it meant to be their although I have not noticed it before. Looks like a gearbox breather.

Cheers Paul