how i went from a pantera to a FIREcat...for 30 seconds...the adventures continue... - Snowmobile Forum: Your #1 Snowmobile Forum

fr0st · 01-05-2006, 03:00 PM

hi,

as always, nothing happens like planned.. murphy's law is always around to show you that even though you got everyt hing planned out, something out of nowere will fall and hit you in the head...THAT happened to me yesterday.

i got this pantera for the last 3 years. never had any troubles other than maintenance and repair du to high jumping.. but hey, that i can understand... oh and ok, there was the teflon tape incident but y'all know about it and it was a longshot....anyways.. here goes..

i was with a coworker riding in his neck of the woods.. they have alot of trails over there and he invited me to go up to his cabin with a firend of his for lunch and a cold one.. he has a super jag 1992 longtrack and his friend has a skandic 500 24 inch widetrack. so were going down the trail and its not a used trail so it was FRESH powder and i was third since my sled does not have the capability to open a trail like that.. so i play follow the leader with occasionnal going to a side in the deep snow and come back into the tracks they made.. just for fun.. then we get to a opened and frequently used trail thats 2 sleds wide and from there we go faster.. a few minutes in that trail, behind the 2 others, i can smell something.. like a belt burning and slipping hard.. im thinking "must be that skandic with he big 24 inch track that doesn't like high speed or something"... then the smells goes away, later on it comes back.. then again goes away, then, in a split second, the cab of the pantera fills with big black smoke and it comes out from the exaust side like an old war plan going down when hit.. i hit the brakes and kill the engine and hurry myself to open the hood, and then i see it and back away, as i open the hood, a fire rises out of the cab and im going "WTF!!!" the fire is about 3 feet high and is on the left side of the cab, near the oil tank and exaust... i get down on my knees and shove snow in the hood as fast i can and put it out... then i look a the damage done...it wasnt THAT bad... the fire started on the foam that prolly made contact with the exaust... my question is, why, in 3 years of riding this sled, did the fire start NOW? i mean why not last week? why not last year? i didn't mod the shape of the exaust neither the hood ... strange... anyways..

i put enough snow in it to make sure no fire would come back and ripped out all the f*cking foam with tools and we were on our way... the rest of the the day was flawless.. .. we had a good laugh with a cold one over lunch and i got back home safely.

here is a pic of the underhood and and what i ripped out..

now all i need is some adhesive foil so i can isolate the hood and make the heat reflect off it...

my big scare was if i had burned a fuel line.. imagine that..

and that how i got a FIRECAT.. for 30 seconds..

Fr0st

BRPforlife · 01-05-2006, 03:10 PM

Awsome story, glad to hear no damage was done and noone was hurt

illwerral · 01-05-2006, 03:46 PM

That's the best kind of story...one that a)has a happy ending and b)is told by fr0st.

IndianRvrShiver · 01-05-2006, 03:56 PM

Seems like there's never a dull moment aroung the Fr0st house!! Another great story!!

fr0st · 01-05-2006, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by IndianRvrShiver
Seems like there's never a dull moment aroung the Fr0st house!! Another great story!!

heeeeeey i'd prefer NOT to have stuff like that happening...why can't i have it like everybody else

im a magnet for strange things happening... i have a bad karma.

next time i have a firecat it will be the green one with a 700 CC engine...

Fr0st

94zr580 · 01-05-2006, 04:41 PM

great story fr0st.

i got excited, i thought u bought firecat then wrecked it or somethin. lol

**smallengineguy** · 01-05-2006, 05:26 PM

Good story. Between the teflon tape and that, you've met your quota of problems for the year...

96sport · 01-05-2006, 06:22 PM

I've had 2 sleds burst into flames, and old olympic which burned to the ground and my current polaris indy. Once the fuel ignites all the snow in the world wont help you. My indy's hood looks similar to yours with all the foam melted !!

fr0st · 01-05-2006, 07:02 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by 94zr580
great story fr0st. i got excited, i thought u bought firecat then wrecked it or somethin. lol

wow, u wish me good things to happen men , thanks... i think.

smallengineguy,

yeah i'd say thats enough now.. geez.

Fr0st

illwerral · 01-05-2006, 07:18 PM

Yep...you should definitly thank 94zr580 for getting excited at the idea of you buying a Firecat and wrecking it before you get to have any fun on it

grouly925 · 01-05-2006, 08:53 PM

On every arctic cat that I have ridden or owned since the late 80's it seems that after a while the spray on adhesive on the foam goes to hell. Done know what makes it do that, but you got lucky. Quick thinking!

letitsnow · 01-05-2006, 09:30 PM

it's a good thing you didn't burn a fuel line, or an oil line.

that fome started to fall of on my cougar so i just sprayed some adhesive on it and if worked for a while

i've managed to catch 2 sleds on fire, both a couple of years ago. the first one, i was about 10-11 and me and my dad were trying to start our old motoski nuvik 340. it was flooded bad, we took the plugs out and wanted to see if we had spark so we took them out and put them in the boots and layed them on the head near the plug holes. he pulled it over and we had spark!! along with a twin cylinder flamethrower!! the gas shot out of the plug holes and the plugs ignited it and it landed on the seat.

2nd time- i was about 13 and i went out to go ride our old rupp 440. one of the primer lines popped off and i didn't know. i pumped the primer a couple of times, didn't start, pumped it more, then it backfired out the carbs!!(there was no airbox) it was loud so i opened the hood and low and behold the area in front of the motorwhere allthe fuel lines were was on fire. scared the crap out of me. i threw snow on it and put it out without much damage. then i put the line on and went riding.

fr0st · 01-07-2006, 02:42 PM

UPDATE on the foil repair i did..

i got some adhesive foil isolation for a yamaha ATV ( the only thing the dealer had in stock) for 20$ and i already had some super sticky aluminium foil tape for thermo foil isolation on houses ( and garages..like mine)

i cleaned that underhood with a some soft sand paper and then cleaned it up afterwards ( very dusty stuff)

then peeled opff that adhesive ATV isolationa and sticked it to the hood and added some thermofoil alu tape alla round and to hide in between pieces of adhesive isolation and all around them.

it now looks like this.. i hope it will hold out ok witht he tape.. anyways, aluminium tape cannot catch fire so..

take a look.

Fr0st

Dave86ElTigre · 01-08-2006, 02:23 AM

Awesome story, and the foil mod looks good - I just got my sled, it doesn't have any foam, and I was thinking of what I could do, so now I've got an idea!!

--Dave.

(note to self: get small fire extinguisher for my sled)

**smallengineguy** · 01-08-2006, 06:50 AM

I dare ya to put it all over the outside....

IndianRvrShiver · 01-08-2006, 07:29 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by smallengineguy
I dare ya to put it all over the outside....

That would be an awesome way to make a chrome helmet!!

fr0st · 01-08-2006, 10:04 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by smallengineguy
I dare ya to put it all over the outside....

now i have the confirmation that you don't like brown sleds :P

all over? why? i dont want my sled to look like spootnik!!!

Fr0st