Smells like melting wires

[Powell]

K so just the other day i take my 91 daytona down the road and on my way back i decide to do a burnout. (kept the rev about 3800-4k) after about 6-7 seconds the tires start smoking (they are technically winters) and it smells like melting wires. I drive back into the driveway and it smelled like that for the rest of the day. This morning i check and the engine bay still has a faint scent of it. I couldn't see any obvious melted electrical components and thought maybe it's the battery??? Any ideas?

[Powell]

Anyone think it could have anything to do with low tranny fluid? i don't think that would explain the smell but it only happened afte a burnout. It was localized on the driverside of the engine bay.

[crusty shadow]

um the smell you may be experiencing would be burning rubber. have you ever done a smoking burnout before this? if you know what burning rubber smells like, the burning wire smell may be due to the fact that you did this on winter tires. they use a different compound than a performance or all season tire. different tires will have different smells, different sounds and different "patch" laying- eg; lays a strip with no noise, or squeals and lays no strip, or makes little noise and leave a little pile of rubber chunks behind the tire instead of a patch on the ground.
either way if you do a burnout enough to make smoke you can see while in the driver's seat , that smell wil be with the car for a day or 2. now if you keep getting that smell a few days later you might be on the verge of toasting something.

[Powell]

Yes i have done Numerous burnouts before in hundreds of different cars and im well aware of how it smells. =\ I've never known a burnout to smell like battery acid. I didn't know if for some strange reason if the battery could be overloaded while doing a burnout causing the smell. Its not a brand i normally use and wouldn't surprise me if it were a cheapo. It's been over a week and i can still smell a hint of it even after driving again. I reeeeeally doubt it's just the tires.

[ol"blue]

It doesn't smell like a burnt clutch does it ?

[Powell]

Mmm i can't imagine it would be, there are no other ill effects from the clutch. (Doesn't slip, no abnormal play at pedal...) I guess i can't really say i know exactly what a burnt clutch smells like. I've gone threw some before but they have never wreaked of any potent odor.

[Screamin4banger]

A burning clutch has a pungent, almost acidic smell to it

EDIT: HOW I KNOW THIS:
Back in the day, we used to go down to this one junkyard that sold cars for like $200. We would grab some stick shift Omnis to take for "test drives". LOL YEAH RIGHT!!! we would beat the shit out of these cars for about 45 minutes. Every traffic light was thew same - rev motor, dump clutch, spin tires. I guess you could say we took them for a "test race" all over the north side...lol
Goddamn those little cars were tough!!

[Powell]

Ok then so does that mean the clutch is going regardless and expect it to fail?

[Screamin4banger]

No, It just means you were beating the snot out of it. Slipping it at a high rpm...

[Powell]

hmm i wonder if it's original. I really didn' think it would be possible. The odometer reads over 200k and the engine itself has no problems. I figured it was rebuilt along with a new clutch but who knows.. Just thought it was weird cause my 92 iroc could do burnouts all day long with no clutch problems....Although it did go once...but never smelled bad...The car really isn't modified much right now either.

hmm well guess i'll have to go easy on it until the car is ready for an upgraded one.

[Screamin4banger]

i dunno... my 85 still had the original clutch. said Fitchel & Sachs right on it... They started calling the company just Sachs sometime. So that confirmed it for me.

[Powell]

So yah a month down the road i just wanted to add my suspected reason for that happening. My clutch cable sticks and needs to be replaced so i'm guessing it didn't fully engage when i did it. Sound logical?