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Magnesium Blocks?

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Proud_Dad Seriously Crusin Dubber

151 posts · joined Jul 2005 ·

#507745
Had to do my compulsory Fire Fighting lecture for the year today and the firies we're tellling a story of VW's having a block made of magnesium and when they have an engine fire and hit it with water it makes the whole thing go up more.

Its not the first time i've heard this story from a fire fighter but never heard it round the VW grape vine. is this just a firie myth?

empi Compulsive Aussie Vee Dubber

4,131 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#507753
Fire myth revolves around the fuel line rupturing and leaking onto sparkplugs and then BANG... make sure your fuel line has an "o" ring on the tin ware where the fuel line goes through to prevent this. also have hose clamps on all fuel lines...

Magnesium does make a good fire.... nice and hot like the white hot intencities of 1000 suns ........ hot!!!!
"If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you." - Anonymous 🥷

mackaymanx Custom Title Time!

1,611 posts · joined Jan 2006 ·

#507754
No, Magnesium will burn hot enough to spilt the hydrogen oxygen bond in water. so if you add water you are adding oxygen
Quote of the week
"Do I wish to send them to you again, nope, no interest can't be bothered really, to much hassle for little or no return."

[IMG]https://www.vw-mplate.com/mplate2-18600.png[/IMG]

empi Compulsive Aussie Vee Dubber

4,131 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#507755
Fire!!
"If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you." - Anonymous 🥷

56astro Custom Title Time!

1,772 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#507772
Not a myth.

They do generally start from a simple faulty fuel line or connection. But once the fire starts and takes hold, you need more water than a fire engine carries, or can pump through the hoses, to put the sucker out. It needs to be cooled to a temperature below the ignition temperature of the mag.alloy.

Quite often dumping a load of sand (or similar) on it to exclude air also works.

BTW
What's a compulsory firefighting lecture?

VW car, VW engine ...... keepin it "real"
35MPG on 101.3kPa

MickH Hairy Gutted Sloth

3,389 posts · joined Sep 2003 ·

#507773
loves to burn under water...looks pretty at night time..
tssnq.com.au

Turbo54 Veteran Volks Folk

2,220 posts · joined Jul 2004 ·

#507778
We took and old case fishing on the beach and threw it on the fire. Lit up our whole camp for hours. Could see exactly what we were doing. Highly recommend just do it away a little from your camp as it is got a little too bright.
T54
C'mon kids gather round,
there's a new sensation hitting town,
It's moving straight, low to the ground,
it'll pick you up when your feeling down.

56astro Custom Title Time!

1,772 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#507790
pete wood wrote:how hot does it have to get before it will actually burn?
600 - 700 deg C

some mag/alloys and powders will ignite below 500 deg C

[ Edited on 4-7-2006 by 56astro ]

[ Edited on 4-7-2006 by 56astro ]

VW car, VW engine ...... keepin it "real"
35MPG on 101.3kPa

Joel Now containing 100\% E-Wang

9,368 posts · joined Feb 2006 ·

#507871
throwing an old vw block in a bonfire is always good value, specially if its still got a bit of old oil around LOL

just make sure u have ur sunnies handy :thumb

Joel

vsleepy Officially Full-On Dubber

228 posts · joined Jul 2005 ·

#508026
how can you tell which ones are 'for the fire'. Ive got an old 1180cc or what ever with the cast alternator support, with this burn?
vs

Schmoburger Baywindow Mafia Godfather and Cement-Shoe Fitter

2,185 posts · joined Oct 2005 ·

#508036
what people fail to see as far as magnesium case fires is... if the fire is hot enought to ignite the actual magnesium... the car is fucked anyway.

700 degrees is a lot of heat...
1976 Kombi Trakka camper, "Buttercup"... driver.
1976 Beluxe Microbus, "Saphir"... resto.
1974 Kombi panelvan, "George"... shed.
1974 Superbug, "Schmeetle"... resto.
[img]http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b366/c

bajachris88 The international telephone dialing code for Antarctica is 6

6,661 posts · joined Apr 2005 ·

#508037
lol, as schmo said... 😀

DO beware, we used to burn little ribbons of magnesium at school, HELL BRIGHT!!!

and it does do permanent damage to ur eyes if u look directly at it!

Be fun to chuck in. so whose donating an old box for a valla bonfire?
(ô_!_/ô) (ô_!_/ô)
69' baja: kombi box, thing spindles, irs, disc front, type 3 rear drums, 2 inch lift kit, 31x10 rears. 👍
New engine in process: 94mm p&bs, 74mm C/w chomol Crank, 35.5x39 SP heads, turbo. Wierd combo, hopeful torque monsta!

Schmoburger Baywindow Mafia Godfather and Cement-Shoe Fitter

2,185 posts · joined Oct 2005 ·

#508043
howzabout that old semi-auto one o yours chris? :P 😂
1976 Kombi Trakka camper, "Buttercup"... driver.
1976 Beluxe Microbus, "Saphir"... resto.
1974 Kombi panelvan, "George"... shed.
1974 Superbug, "Schmeetle"... resto.
[img]http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b366/c

shaihulud Custom Title Time!

1,448 posts · joined Nov 2005 ·

#508045
Some years ago I went to a freezing cold winter cracker night (not Guy Fawkwes night) party on a farm just inside the NSW border near Canberra. They had spent days collecting all the fallen timber on the property and had built a bon fire that was as big as a small house. They had scattered several VW cases in the fire and when they went up you could not look at the fire and we all had to stand back about 20 metres more, the heat was so intense.

Notch Nut Custom Title Time!

1,011 posts · joined Apr 2006 ·

#508326
Marshmellows anyone!!😎 Bring your *really* long sticks and sunnies!!
- Adam
If you can't fix it with a hammer,
you have an electrical problem....

last celtic warrior Wolfsburg Wizard

402 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#508344
Years before getting into Volkswagens, my cousin (who's father drove a Kombi), my brother and myself bought an old cracked VW box from a local wrecker as we needed the magnesium for the fireworks we were making. We used filings and drillings (swarf) in seperated containments within the secondary charge, and woohoo, what a show. Got some good altitude with the cannon we used to launch with too. Might be considered dangerous, but still much more successful and far safer than NASA's efforts.

N.B. Important. To anyone in law enforcement reading this, the story never happened and I don't even exist. To anyone else, "them was the days"...

Schmoburger Baywindow Mafia Godfather and Cement-Shoe Fitter

2,185 posts · joined Oct 2005 ·

#508350
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA...OMG HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA...oh dear I think I wet myself :duh...HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHLMAO!!!😂
1976 Kombi Trakka camper, "Buttercup"... driver.
1976 Beluxe Microbus, "Saphir"... resto.
1974 Kombi panelvan, "George"... shed.
1974 Superbug, "Schmeetle"... resto.
[img]http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b366/c