Engine bay fire detection?

[fanaudical]

Does anybody have any suggestions for fire detection in the engine bay? I was thinking of adding one of those nifty "fire" indicators to the dash (like you see in the old airplane movies) while I have the car ripped apart. It seems like a reasonable safety upgrade...

[cgarr]

You might be better off with some type of heat or smoke sensor. A flame sensor is going to be too late at reporting a problem. My fresh air comes in thru the engine compartment which gives me an instant smell of anything going on with the engine.

[Bob Kontak]

Gas furnaces and heaters have flame rollout switches that are pretty small in size and inexpensive. I think the the switches are like breakers. The send a signal to kill the furnace when they sense heat. They reset themselves on cool down.

I don't know how you could wire one but if they are just on/off, there has to be an "easy" way to hook a warning light to them.

But like Craig says - time is the key. If they take three minutes to finally trigger too much heat, the damage is done. Worth checking into.

https://www.centraltrailer.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=323

[DRACO A5OG]

Gas leak detector would be better, I had a leak in my #3 injector o ring. Luckily I smelt it and saw sweating there and immediately swapped it out.

[James Brown]

There are several used in aircraft, one is a wire run that melts at a high temp bringing on a fire light and the other is a "fire eye" detector that sees fire. Some times it is tricked by the sun so the first thing a pilot does is turn 90˚ and then if the light goes out, no fire. But i'm thinking what ever detector you use, it will be too late. I have installed a halon fire bottle that dumps 5 lb. of ozone-depleting gas in the engine compartment with the pull of the T handle, and I have a 21/2 lb. one in the cockpit for my use.