I'm looking into doing a driver's event at a track here in Indy in November, and the organizer just sent this email to the S2K owners that are going. Has anyone experienced this? I did a search, but didn't come up with anything. Here's his email:

"Gentlemen,

"I was watching driver's ed event this past weekend at Putnam Park Road Course. The driver's ed was sponsored by Dave Schardt of Wheel Source (wheel store in Dayton OH, Kettering Blvd.). There were 3 black Honda S2000s driving in the same run group. One of the three black S2000s had an engine fire. The driver was ok, and unburned. Upon closer inspection of the car, the fire was apparently caused by very hot oil coming from somewhere in the engine bay. I talked to the driver/owner, and he said it was very unexpected (he was fairly sure the motor was broken in--the car had 7000+ miles on the motor). He wasn't pushing the car particularly hard, and ended up sliding his car from the oil his car was dropping. The fire then broke out of the engine bay. The entire session was red flagged, and the fire trucks came out with their extinguishers. Because the safety crew acted quickly, the exterior paint was undamaged.

"I advise you all to check out any of the Honda S2000 electronic bulletin boards and websites regarding these engine fires. After talking with the three S2000 owners, this has apparently happened to others S2000 owners who've taken their cars out on track.

"My humble suggestion for our driving event Nov 3, would be to ensure your motor is running as cool as possible--use a higher water content in the coolant, ie 65% distilled water, 35% anti-freeze coolant, along with a bottle of Redline Water Wetter (wetting agent that decreases water's surface tension). I also advise running the heater with the fan blowing on "hi" during your track sessions. As you know the heater core is another small radiator, the motor can use to help cool itself.

"Let me know what you all find on the bulletin boards regarding these engine fires, so I can send out that information to other S2000 owners who sign up for my Nov 3 event at Putnam Park."

Thanks,
Andrew

 

I have been to seven track events with S2000's and have never seen or heard of an engine fire. I don't remember any mentioned on this board or the previous board. In other words.. I think this is a rare occurrence.

All the stuff about changing the coolant and running the heater is not needed IMO.

Sometimes gee forces will be just right to get some oil burned in an S2000 so there will be a little smoke that means nothing. Have seen this three times.

 

Cool. Thanks.

I hadn't heard of it either, but wanted to check and make sure I didn't miss anything. This would be my first track event.

Take care,
Andrew

 

There's just something wrong about this.
Caught on fire because of oil? What ignited the oil, which is not very volatile?
Quick fire supression at a track event? That surprises me too.
Hand an engine fire with no paint damage? Not likely.
Check the boards? Other owners have noted the problem? I think it is probably safe to say we'd at least have heard of it.

If it was 4/1, I'd say someone was pulling your leg. Have "Andrew" join us, I think.

 

For what it's worth, we just had a track day up at New Hampshire Internationl Speedway this week with 4 S2000's participating. We were on the track for 4 half-hour sessions, and none of us had any issues like this. A couple of us spun out, and a couple of us noticed our brakes acting funny afterwards (prob. due to glazing), but certainly nothing major like this.

We had a tech day a couple weeks before the event, most of us changed to a racing brake fluid (ATE SuperBlue) and checked our pads, but that's the only special thing we did to the cars.

Good luck & have fun - we certainly had a blast and a half at the track day we went to!

-Matt

 

In the 5 drivers education events that I have attended, there have been no engine fires in S2000s (or any cars that I know of). There are several (2-7) S2000s at each of these events.

However, I have seen one car (and heard of several others on this board) lose their oil filler cap while driving on the street. The following is speculation, but if the oil filler cap was lost during a track event, the hot oil spitting out the opening may spray onto the exhaust manifold and ignite.

While it is important to run cool, I agree with cdelena that running the heater is unnecessary. Even in the Florida summer, my car never goes over 3 bars on the water temp guage, even on the track. The main concern should be diagnosing what happened to the car that caught fire! Do you know if the oil filler was in place on that car? If not, do you know the source of the oil?

 

I am not aware of any engine fires. However it has recently been reported here about the oil cap coming off. If this were to occur on the track and some oil spilled out on the exhaust manifold, you could get a fire.

 

I'm not confident about my knowledge on this subject, but I don't think raw oil on a clean manifold would ignite. It might combust (smoke off) but I don't think you'd see a flame.

 

It wouldn't surprise me if a small percentage of S2K owners had our oil filler caps falling off because one of our sacred duties as owners of this beautiful car (dictated by the owner's manual, no less) is that we must check the oil as often as we fill up on gas. I'm sure that sometimes some people have forgotten to tighten it back up fully or whatever.

 

At one DE here in Texas back in July or August last year, the temps were over 110F and there weren't any cases of an S2000 overheating, much less catching fire. At the most recent DE, there were 50+ S2000s, again with no issues.

It'll really require an autopsy to determine the cause of this issue. Anything else is speculation, since there have been no reports of a similar event.