Ford Sabre engine fire

[dustywings]

On returning home to Hamble from a day in Newtown creek at the mouth of the river we heard a bang and investigation seemed to indicate it was a hatch falling shut so no more was done. When berthed I went to close the sea cocks to discover that the auto fire extinguisher had gone off, at first I thought this was a faulty unit (I couldn't possibly have a fire!) but later found black smoke residue above the turbo. The engines are 300hp Ford Sabres and clearly something must have fuelled this fire but there is no diesel on that side of the engine and certainly no smell of diesel anywhere. The oil feed to the turbo looks fine and running up on the dock at high revs for 5 mins showed no leakage. I did wonder if the smoke might in fact be exhaust gases but I can see no leaks anywhere. I am rather mystified as clearly something caused this but what? Has anyone had anything similar happen to them?

 

[volvopaul]

Hi what type of fire ext is it, halon or dry powder? how old was it , if old then maybe its been damaged or knocked and has just gone off on its own due to age etc.

If its a seafire system then its clearly been triggered by its own system which im sure is heat activated, or maybe the wiring is faulty and made contact to trigger the system.

Either way, be happy you didnt have a genuine fire aboard.

The 300 and 275 sabres have air coled tutbos which do give off more heat in the engine bay compared to a water cooled turbo, maybe something from them has triggered the system, also id check the exhaust hoses and exhaust route out of the engine room for any signs of leaks etc.

 

[dustywings]

Thanks for that, after more investigation I ruled out it being a fire (as there would have been damage to insulation, wiring etc) and decided it must be an exhaust leak but running on the dock showed nothing. I took the boat out last night and discovered that when under load at 1700 rpm when the turbos have kicked in there are exhaust gases pouring out of the side of the turbo. Obviously very relived that it was not an actual fire but now have to have the turbo refurbished as that model is now obsolete. The fire extinguisher was a powder one which took five hours to clean up!

 

[IAIA3259]

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