Since this is partly due to my turbo kit I figured I'd put it here. This past Saturday night around 3 A.M. I was heading home with a buddy of mine following me. I turned onto my road and decided the time was right for a fat burnout.... one burnout turned into about 3 until I was suddenly sitting on the rev limiter and not spinning anything. I let off the gas and came to a stop... at which point the engine shut off. I suddenly heard a loud "WHOOSH", a thick dense smoke began filling the cab. I jumped out of the truck and witnessed about 3 feet worth the flames coming out of my passenger fender well and fire everywhere under the truck. The plume of smoke was ridiculous.... as I stood there and could do absolutely nothing but watch my truck burn to the ground. Thankfully a higher power gave my truck one more chance and the fire slowly burnt itself out in what seemed like hours but was merely a few minutes.

While the fire was starting to slow down a friend of mine that lives about 3 miles from where all of this happened said he had heard the entire thing... he thought I had gotten stuck in mud and brought a chain. We used the chain to pull my truck the couple of miles home.... took about an hour and a half. I was EXTREMELY disappointed to say the least. I couldn't figure out what caused this massive fire.

I cranked the truck up the next day for a couple of seconds to make sure it would even turn over. It fired up and began dumping large amounts of ATF onto the ground. I haven't pulled the trans or anything but the fluid is coming from where the TC slides into the transmission so maybe that seal right in there? I'm not exactly sure. But this is obviously what caused the fire.... a crossover pipe that was probably at least 1800 degrees suddenly found itself covered in ATF which ignited quickly.... somehow the ATF had gotten everywhere under my truck, even into the engine bay so everything ignited all at once.

Lessons learned here?
1.) Don't be a ****** idiot trying to burn a tire up
2.) Carry a fire extinguisher in your truck. I saw people that had stuff like this happen and just knew it wouldn't happen to me
3.) ATF Lights up QUICK and INTENSE

I got really lucky and the damage has been minimal.
This point of this thread is to tell a story, to get advice on what might be wrong with the transmission, to get suggestions on what to do and how to prevent this from happening again.

I have no pictures of the truck before I thoroughly cleaned the engine bay / exterior. I just didn't want to see it.







Why the hell is there a hole in my overflow tank? I filled it all back up with water and it has held solid.... I don't think I blew a head gasket or anything...






Nice flat black paintjob for a 1,100 dollar TC





So list of parts to get...
1.) New O2 Sensor for passenger side
2.) Run new wires to electric cutout
3.) Verify that wideband wires are functioning properly
4.) Remove transmission, replace damaged seals
5.) New Coolant Overflow
6.) 2 New Coil Packs
7.) New plug wires
8.) New passenger fenderwell
9.) New air filter
10.) Add turbo blanket
11.) New Oil Cap
12.) New Engine Cover

 

Thats a heck of a war story

 

Wow you got lucky!!!
i carry 2 fire extinguishers in my truck.. ive had to use one at the track before on an idiots car.. ive also caught 5 gallon jug of gas on fire in the bed of my truck, could have been some kinda bad.
but 15 handy fire extinguishers laying around the shop come into play, but since the whole bed was engulfed in flames i couldnt get to the extinguisher in the toolbox
No damage but a melted cooler and third brake light kinda charred..


The pump seal went out and puked fluid?
sure it wasnt a cooler line?

 

Sorry to hear to man, at least it wasn't a fuel leak that kept burning...

 

This has inspired to me get an extinguisher

 

one inside the truck cab is the best idea!!

 

At first I thought it was the transmission cooler that busted... I mean there is fluid everywhere so pinpointing where it came from is difficult. What I am going off of now is how a large amount of fluid leaked from the front of the transmission when I cranked the vehicle up the next day. I didn't see fluid leak anywhere else but there. The fluid all over the road kinda says the same thing.

 

Kinda crazy that seal went out.. it shouldnt be under pressure.

 

Well I am up for suggestions.... what other seal could go out where it would come out the front of the trans?

Also... it doesn't leak with the truck off. It comes out with the truck started.

 

You got to some extremely high exhaust temps to get that hole in the reservoir! I know cuz that's EXACTLY what happened to my brothers truck. High boost and low timing did it on his! The exh housing is to close to the coolant reservoir and it melted a hole. This is why you need to run a turbo blanket. That exhaust housing is a think piece of iron that radiates alot of heat. Low timing also results in more fuel/burn in the exhaust.