Backfire!
 

Yep, it happened to me yesterday afternoon in the 960. Massive bang and a flashover of flame whilst accelerating briskly off a set of lights. The backfire was strong enough to blow the Throttle Body Elbow to pieces as well as the airbox. It also took out the front indicator and both washer jets on the bonnet.

Coasted the car close to a petrol station and bailed out with the fire extinguisher in my hand (its a requirement to carry an extinguisher here in Turkey). Popped the bonnet and had a good look over the car but other than blowing the induction system to pieces the important bit, the manifold, was still intact and the throttle body appeared to be OK. I was on a full open throttle at the time which may well have helped there.

Cranked the car over with the LPG disabled and it did fire up but wouldnt run properly due to there being no airflow through the MAF and all sorts of air and vacuum leaks now.

So, now im desperate for a new throttle body elbow and air filter box!

UPDATE: Got the follwoing quotes from Istanbul Autosport this afternoon:

Airbox Top: 165TL
Airbox Bottom: 345TL
TB Elbow: 245TL

I got them to rebuild the airbox (there were more or less enough bits left of it) and they have managed to get the TB Elbow back together. Car runs now on LPG and Petrol but now im wondering whether to bin the LPG or not?

Cant find anybody who can do a 6 cylinder LPG system over here despite the fact the Inlet Manifold has been drilled and tapped for injectors already. Anybody using this type of system and if so, whats it called?

I would be able to ship you out a front end system for the 960 if you can not get them localy.

If you are running a mixer system on a car like the 960 I do recomend using a K&N type air filter as it reduced the damage of a backfire.

Having now suffered a second massive backfire at very low revs the system has now been disabled and removed. The second episode actually took the linkages off the throttle body and I had to go looking for the small connector rod!

K&N type air filter has been installed at a cost of 70TL, compare that with 500TL for a new airbox assembly.

Been talking to Dai about a replacement multipoint LPG setup for the car, hope to get that in progress in the next few weeks.

It's the right decision not to use the single point fuel system on the 960 ... 7 years ago my backfire blew the inlet manifold clean off and set the engine on fire ... Took nearly 6 months and £8500 to put it right ... !

The 960 must have the multipoint fuel injection system fitted.