I am shopping for a fire suppression system for my C5 racecar. What are you guys using and why did you chose what you have? Is a 2.5 liter enough or should I opt for one of the higher capacity units?

Cheers,
CV

 

I've been thinking about adding one myself. I've got the 2.5# fire extinguisher but think I might need more. I think I'll still keep the hand held extinguisher. Last track day for me in 2009 I had a leaking brake bleeder. It was shooting brake fluid on hot brake parts and was smoking like crazy. I pulled back in the pits with smoke coming from right front. No one seemed that concerned so I figured there wasn't any flames. I was prepared to jump out with the extinguisher.

Also might be good in case of an off in dry grass. I've seen several cars go off and stall in tall, dry grass. It catches on fire pretty easy.

 

This is a no brainer. The cost differance is very small. If you are actually on fire and need it to go out, how much fire supression do you want?

 

Twice as much as fricken possible

 

Yup! Keep the hand-held even if you add a fire system. Several stories from Thunderhill about guys pulling off broken and then the grass catching fire... in-car system won't help you there!

 

Do you guys have any thoughts on foam (AFFF) vs. gas (Halon replacements)? It seems:

Foam: Cheaper to refill, helps minimize chance of reflash fires, more cleanup required if used

Gas: More expensive to refill not sure if helps on reflash fires, no cleanup required if used

I get the impression that AFFF is more popular. I like the idea that gas has no cleanup required though. Cleaning a bunch of foam from the interior doesn't sound like fun.

 

As I said in my original post, I want the best fire SYSTEM I can find. That is why I am asking for specific examples of what racers have in their cars and why they picked a particular brand. I appreciate your comment but it does not address my original question. What do you have in your car, for example?

Cheers,
CV

 

 

Clean up is not that bad with Foam. We set one off to just to see what it would be like. We were doing it in a controlled environment so we took the steps to cover a number of items in the engine compartment - the foam is non conductive and non corrosive - but we wanted to cover all the fluid reservoirs, in the event of a real fire you might want to change your fluids after. For clean up we just hosed off the engine and used a shop vac on the carpet - we also left the windows rolled down for a few days so it could totally dry out.

The engine gets the brunt of the foam. If you install the system per the manufacturers instructions you wont have a bubble bath in your car. We have used OMP and ESS foam systems in our cars, and both have you cover the drivers legs and feet (with a front engine car).

In the cars I drive, I will gladly take the foam clean up, over a gas thats production has been banned since 1994.

The system we set off for the video is an OMP FIA 4.25li system with five nozzles (comes with a sixth to cover the passenger for Rally applications). If you want a lot of coverage, this delivers. http://www.pegasusautoracing.com/gro...pID=FIRESYSOMP

http://www.youtube.com/user/SportsCa.../0/0rrc6GPdHLg

We have the ESS 2.3 in our ITA Miata, and the new car we are building, it meets all the requirements (capacity, nozzles) for SCCA, and is one of the most affordable on the market: http://www.essfire.com/2_3_liter.php ESS also offers a bigger system, and even has controls that will set the system off automatically.

It is not worth saving a few $$$ and a few lbs by using a hand held. With an in car system you can pull the lever and get out, it may save your car while you are safely away.

 

I just bought the OMP FIA 4.25 AFF system w/6 nozzles from Pegassus that's listed above

 

Thanks for the detailed response RX7 KLR. Using a vacuum sounds like a reasonable way to do cleanup for the interior.

So do you have the nozzles configured with 3 on the engine, one for the driver and one for the passenger? With OMP's six nozzle system, it seems like you COULD do two on the engine (one on either side), driver, passenger, then both sides of the trans/diff or one at each fuel tank.

Of course, just because there are six nozzles doesn't mean you have to use them.

 

was thinking about that, but the ESS one being refillable is nice.

 

I've always used safecraft. First class products.

 

Now that is the type of info I needed. I had seen the ESS system but had not seen the OMP. Pegasus is out of stock currently on the big OMP system so I may go with the ESS. Anything would be better than just a hand held!

Cheers,
CV

 

We installed it per the manufacturers instructions*... Three on the engine, two on the firewall facing forward, one on the rad core support facing the engine. The in-car instructions spec'd two for the driver (one near each knee) and one for the passenger (FIA Rally spec) - as we don't have a passenger in Club Racing we opted to skip the passengers jet. But it certainly would not hurt to have it.

There are a lot of people out there that do not install the jets where the manufacturer specs it (*even us leaving out the passengers jet means we did not follow the instructions 100%), but I would always go with the instructed placement. While we may think it is crazy not to cover the driver from head to toe, I am sure they have a reason for designing the system that way. And if the system passes FIA the way they built it, who am I to "improve" on it.

btw SCCA only requires one on the driver, and one on the engine if you use an installed system. Anything installed is going to be better than a hand held.

 

Tom Turner at ESS is a great guy, and he will make sure you get the right system.

 

Thanks again for all the details.

 

actually mine came in the mail today

 

i thought about the ESS but ended up on the OMP bc of its 6 nozzles and price..

i'll keep my fire bottle as a just in case back up for if the OMP has to get used on a friday or saturday

 

Unfortunately I have experience here! So far I have caught on fire and rolled over. Maybe I need a safer sport. Anyway, here are my opinions. Safecraft makes a great looking product but has crap for customer support and later refills either because you set the system off or need a re-certification. Just because of that I will never buy another one. The parts that failed on my safecraft unit was a weld broke off the tank foot and the pressure gauge failed reading normal so that even if the pressure was lost in my tank it still reads OK. I noticed this by chance when on a hot day the pressure in the tank did not seem to climb. So if you have a tank with AFFF in it check you gage either by depresurrizing and refill with nitrogen or seeing if the pressure changes as the day gets hotter. Another problem specifically with OMP is that OMP about 10 years ago could not sell me a system because they stopped production since the flop tube was failing. The flop tube is in every AFFF pressurized system. It is the feed tube of the AFFF to the nozzle head. So if you are upsidedown the tube will flop on the top of the tank and still deliver foam while you are upside down. A couple of OMP systems failed in rollovers and they quietly and temporarily left the marketplace. I am certain that this no longer an issue. However, I would check my floptube if I had a presurrized system by taking my tank out and turning it upside down on ocassion. You should hear the metal weight on the end of the tube "tink" against the side of the tank when you turn the tank upsidedown. My guess is that after many years the flop tube sitting in water gets hard and brittle. It either breaks off or stays hard in one position thus fails when you need it. I have no evidence to back me up other than I know this "was" a past issue and only OMP had the problem or Only OMP was man enough to fix it. Everyone else was silent not even taking the marketing opertunity to capitalize on OMP's wows. Well maybe they did not because quietly they have the problem too and you know what they say about throwing rocks in a glass house.

Currently I use a EES system which is a great idea not so great in execution. What a poorly made POS that looks like it was made in china. It uses nondedicated nozzles that are made in the EES factory by using a plug then cutting a slot in it and each "nozzle" looks different. In other words they look to be made one off each time they put kits together. The fire bottle has aluminum burs in the threaded portions and 1 very light coat of paint on it. The most important part which is the plastic pin area that punches the C02 cartridge is the best looking part of the system. The EES is a cheap in construction system that I "hope" works when I need it. It has many qualities we need as clubracers 1) cheap refills, 2) trackside refillable, 3) scca legal, 4) easy to check for likely function, 5) few parts to fail, 6) flop tube never gets wet so I suspect it will always stay supple and is easy to check anyway.

So as a result I use the EES system. I also don't think 10lbs of AFFF is worth anything with 6 nozzles. I'm not convinced the tank will have enough capacity for much fire fighting. I got 2 in the engine and 2 on me. I don't care if the car burns I can buy another one. You can buy real nozzles from Diest safety or even safecraft and adapt them to the EES system.