Installing fire suppression system

[Dangerous Doug]

I'm slowly installing a Safecraft Halon fire suppression system in my FIA. I mounted the tank in the trunk, horizontally, against the trunk bulkhead. I'm routing the metal tubing through the side of the trunk, and along the frame rail with the battery cable. I have four nozzles, one each for the driver and passenger, and two under the hood. The plan is to put the driver/passenger nozzles in the foot wells, and then the two under hood nozzles on the top of the foot well boxes, pointed to the engine. The objective is to fill the footwells and engine compartment with Halon in the unfortunate event of a fire. I have a 5 lbs bottle of Halon.

All the fittings are flared. All line bends are by tube bending tool.

Anyone have any suggestions or ideas that I may have overlooked?

Anyone else take a deep, hesitant breath before you start drilling holes in your Cobra...

DD

[DAVID GAGNARD]

I have a similar set-up in my 65 Mustang, but instead of two nozzles in the engine compartment, I have one on the firewall pointing at the back of the carb and the other at the gas tank in the rear, just in case of a rear end collision............

David

[Snakebit]

I mounted the 5 lb bottle Halon unit under the dash with a nozzle in the enging bay and another one pointing to the rear of the dash. I figured if a fire started it would be electrical from the dash or fuel related from the engine. It was a short run for the line and the cable release. If you look at the picture of the dash layout in my gallery you just see the bottom of the bottle under the dash.

[Dangerous Doug]

I considered under the dash for the bottle, but wanted to make for an easy inspection should I want to track the car.

Routing the tubing from the trunk is tough. Having to poke holes (take a deep breath...) and getting the tubing through the frame holes along with the fairly massive battery cable gets a little hairy.

Good point on the direction of the cockpit nozzles. They spray 120 degrees, so I should be able to get under dash and lower leg coverage.

DD

[Ron61]

In my Coupe the bottle is mounted to the inside roll bar on the drivers side and then the tubes run under the dash and spray my legs and that area and one under the hood that sprays the Carb. I haven't added one for the fuel cell yet. But everything is very easy to get to as it is right out in the open and plain sight.

Ron

[RICK LAKE]

Dangerous Doug Sound like you have the system setup OK. Does your car have a hood scoop? Is there a turkey pan for the carb? What I am getting at is you want to seal the engine compartment the best you can to make the halon work in this location to last the longest. 80% of fires happen here. Yes there are rearend accidents but if you are running a fuel cell, you should be pretty safe unless it's a high speed into the wall backwards. The other thing you might want to look at is the tunnel in your car. Mine is removeable for the trans and clutch work. I have a fire blanket bonded to the tunnel and seals around the foot boxes to keep MR. FIRE out of my lap. It will not protect for long but enough to get out of the car. The only down side of the tunnel blanket is the heat from the motor was effecting the trans when hot after 15 minute runs on the track. I am going to a trans cooler setup to stop this problem Have gone to Amsoil which has helped but still have the shifting problem a little. How's Cam?? Rick L

[Dangerous Doug]

Rick,
Thanks for asking about my six-year old son, Cameron. He's in remission! We are through the worst of the treatment, and his arterial port will come out in a month or so. He even has hair coming back---although, I am unlikely to let mine grow back out. (Kinda got hooked on the bald head thing...). Cameron still has another 16 months of treatment to go, but it's "lighter" chemotherapy (insofar as chemotherapy can be "light").
I tell ya, with Cameron's illness, my kidney condition (no need for a transplant, yet...) and the economy (layoffs, employment uncertainty, et cetera) I think I topped out on stress.
Thanks for remembering Cameron. My whole world revolves around him.

On the suppression system: I'm not running a fuel cell, but I'm not anticipating racing my Cobra (though I do plan on taking it to open track events). Hood scoop is standard FIA scoop, with a block off with small holes. Open area next to the headers and the sides of the engine are my chief leakage concerns for the Halon, but I'm focusing the nozzles to spray forward toward the top of the engine.

I'll have more time to work on it this weekend. That, and reinstalling my newly ceramic coated headers---which look great.

Cheers,
DD

[undy]

I went with the bling-bling install.

bottle between the seats.. The bottle straps were shipped wrong and have since been replaced..



"Fire" actuator on the dash..



There's a nozzle and each side of the intake, spraying on the distributor, carb/intake and back to the firewall. I've a nozzle under the dash by the electrics and one spraying on the driver's footwell. I've a portable dry type(A/B/C) in the trunk too, just in case.



Dave

[mrmustang]

If you have a two nozzle system one on the drivers footbox, the other on the fuel inlet of the carb.

Three nozzle, same as above, but other on the engine compartment by the firewall shooting forward. Again the whole idea is not to put the fire out (at least not with Halon in an open cockpit car such as the Cobra), but to give you the occupant enough time to get safely out of the car. The car can be replaced, your life cannot be.

Also, something very important to think about is a worst case scenario (whatever that is in your mind) where you are strapped into your seat with the four(five/six) point harness.....Can you reach the activation handle/switch/button........If not, then you need to rethink where you have it mounted.


Bill S.

[undy]

Originally Posted by mrmustang

Also, something very important to think about is a worst case scenario (whatever that is in your mind) where you are strapped into your seat with the four(five/six) point harness.....Can you reach the activation handle/switch/button........If not, then you need to rethink where you have it mounted.


Bill S.

good point.. my 36" sleeve length allows me to reach mine.

[Dangerous Doug]

Just finished the installation of my Halon system.

Four nozzles: one in each foot box, driver and passenger; one directly above each of these in the engine compartment.

This worked out pretty well. I routed a single copper tube from the tank mounted in the trunk, along and through the frame to the firewall, where it enters the cockpit. Upon the entrance to the cockpit, there is a splitter, routing one line toward the driver's side and one line to the passenger's side, where I have mounted splitters. I drilled a hole in the footbox tops for the nozzles, and the engine compartment nozzle connects directly to the second splitter. I also have the footwell nozzle connected directly to this splitter. This reduced the amount and complexity of the copper tubing I had to fabricate (I used all flared end tubing, and bent all my tubing).

Incidentally, the tubing that came from Safecraft was much more robust than what I was able to procure locally. I needed an additional 2', and used what I could find at the local hardware store. It bent much more easily, but I would have prefered the grade I had received in my Safecraft kit.

Pull cable is mounted on a drop-down I fabricated and mounted under my dash---within reach of my fully strapped-in arm's reach---and is situated adjacent to my remote battery kill switch.

I'll post some pictures once I get a chance to take a few shots.

On a side note, my wife keeps asking me, "When will the Cobra be DONE?"

Will it ever?

My answer: "This is my chosen hobby." (i.e. "Get used to it, honey.")

DD