My '90 V-6 Camry was running just fine with only 205,000 miles on it. I then pulled off the highway into a parking lot, when I noticed smoke coming from the hood. Under the hood there was a pretty good blaze coming from the distributer area. Cutting off the engine and covering with a blanket extinguished the flames.

I replaced the ignition wires, distributer cap, and rotor, and now it is running fine again.

Any idea what caused the fire? How can I prevent another one?

Oil leaking past the distributor oil seal caught on fire when it hit the gay 2vz-fe cross-over pipe.
Take the upper intake air chamber off, take the rear valve cover & distributor off. Clean oil residue off with acetone, or lots of alcohol. Replace the rear valve cover gasket, cam seal, and the distributor's O-ring.
Reassemble.

If you can't find a distributor O-ring, use some Ultra Black RTV just gobbed all in the distributor. Re-install the distributor LAST. You'll need to put the engine back in time. (Stock timing with TE1 & E1 in the diagnostic port jumped to get into diagnostic mode is 10*btdc)


That's my guess. Makes since 2 me. That or like... Wiring, or rubber fell onto th cross-over pipe, but I think oil is more plauseble.

Sounds like a good diagnosis.

Thanks for the tips! What level of effort do you think this repair would be? I have tools and do some work on the car myself. I was wondering if an ignition wire might have come lose and arched, causing the fire? One of the distributer points in particular had a hole burned through it. I did the last tune up myself, and wasn't sure I got the wires to lock into place.