Hey all. well just went for a little motor to go to my nephew's first birthday part.
And the ol' gal caught fire on the way. She started spluttering and then just conked out at some lights. I looked behind me only to see flames billowing out of the engine bay.
So while I'm fumbling around to find my fire extinguisher (have recently moved stuff about), a very nice guy in a 4wd stops and does the job for me with a good powdered fire extinguisher. So I reckon she was burning all up for about 45 seconds or so. Lucky (?) for me, there were some police behind me also, so they too stopped and called the fire brigade, a tow truck and so on. And I had a lovely 20 mins or so of humiliation in the middle of a main road while everyone arrived 🙂
Anyway, being a Saturday night I'm yet to give Shannon's a bell to see what the go is with my insurance, but I have top level of cover, rating one for life, etc.
I'm just wondering what you guys would have as must-replace components after an engine fire? I've had a quick squiz and it doesn't look too bad. No scorching to the outside of the car or anything, and nothing looks too melted within.
But I'm guessing at the least you'd want the engine bay rewired, fuel lines replaced, spark plug leads replaced, the belt replaced and so on. Also, as luck would have it, I had the air filter off to clean and so it looks like there is powder all down into the carby.
- Ah, fuel pump block... the plastic one??? check that....
- wiring
- belt
- new air filter.... 🙂
-
- firewall padding ....
take the carb and the manifold off, clean out the manifold, clean carb and rebuild kit maybe.... (if your running a twinport setup with single, the rubber boots....)
Any damage underneath the car..?? cv boots??
Any paint damage???
I know a guy in Jindalee if you need any work done asap or pro (VW specialist...)
Photos??? - shame about the fire mate! lucky your covered!
hey craig, sucks to hear mate but atleast you got off alot better than most do
probably best bet is put up a pic when you get the chance as its bit hard to say what needs replacing without seeign the damage
one thing though, the powder from most extinguishers is very corrosive so may pay to cover the carby and any where water may get into the engine and give it a quick hose off
also dont breathe the powder in, its really nasty for you
68AutoBugBeetle Restorer - Experience over 138\% - YIKES --
paladin wrote:But I'm guessing at the least you'd want the engine bay rewired, fuel lines replaced, spark plug leads replaced, the belt replaced and so on. Also, as luck would have it, I had the air filter off to clean and so it looks like there is powder all down into the carby.
Do You know what actually caused the fuel leak and the fire???
Very Lucky the fire only lasted that long...
oil sender - fuel cutoff solenoid- auto choke -coil - may have been damaged also distributor etc depending on where the fire was...
no fuel filter in the engine compartment??
If Your beetle has a fuel tap on the floor all you had to do was turn the tap to the 45 degree angle to cut off the fuel supply...
cheers
LEE
- Helping keep Air Cooled VWs on the road - location: SCONE in the Upper Hunter Valley - Northern NSW 320 kms NNW of SYDNEY---
Thanks guys! Yeah, as far as these things go I think I got off extremely lightly 🙂 She already used one of her nine lives driving down the freeway a few years back when the fuel hose to the carby worked its way loose pumping fuel all over a very hot engine.
Colonel Mustard - Jindalee is great, as I'm just down the road at Kenmore. I believe I get to specify my own repair place as I'm with Shannons, and now that Irwin at Phoenix isn't on the job any more I need a new regular place who know what's what. I've been meaning to try out custom vee dub, though, and would like to take her to someone who is a member here if possible. Decisions, decisions. Still, I'd love to know who you recommend at Jindalee. But yep, I'll take some pics in the morning and post 'em up.
Will be interesting to see what caused it. I notice she started dropping a lot of oil while waiting for the fireies, and a bit more on the tow truck on the way home (all of about 300 metres distance - ha!). I'm talking maybe half a cup worth. But still, the engine was pretty cold, so I'm wondering what it was.
No paint damage from what I can tell. And cheers for the hose down tip, Joel. I have heard that those powders can be worth ten years at the beach! I'll take pics before hosing down though just in case the insurance people want 'em. If I end up thinking it's worth making a claim over. Mind you, I have a $200 excess and I'm already $160 in the hole for the Tow Truck moving her just up the road (still she was blocking half of Moggill road and the police were hanging around until it was cleared, so best to get her out of there pronto).
But, yeah, you can't keep the old girl down. She'll be back on the road in no time 🙂
68AutoBug wrote:Do You know what actually caused the fuel leak and the fire???
Very Lucky the fire only lasted that long...
oil sender - fuel cutoff solenoid- auto choke -coil - may have been damaged also distributor etc depending on where the fire was...
no fuel filter in the engine compartment??
If Your beetle has a fuel tap on the floor all you had to do was turn the tap to the 45 degree angle to cut off the fuel supply...
cheers
LEE
Hey Lee! Not exactly sure it even was a fuel leak at the moment, unless the hose worked a little loose at the carby end. I do have a twist-tie over the hose clip and around the carby to prevent that though. The fuel lines are newish too. Still, there was quite a bit of flame and the engine wasn't hot, so I guess fuel is the most likely suspect to go up like that. No, my inline filter is on the other side of the firewall so it wasn't that usual suspect.
i highly doubt it would have been a fuel fire
they get real hot real quick and take alot to get out
usually they just keep drinking from the fuel tank till its empty too
i'd be suss of the the oil leaking if it wasnt doing that before the fire
And I could absolutely kick myself. See if you can spot the culprit. Apparently the whole twist-tie failsafe device doesn't work so good. Hmpf.
Anyway - what would y'all replace in here to be on the safe side? Obviously the wiring is cactus, including the spark plug lines (looks ot me like the fuel hit the manifold and went up from there) and you can see the burn to the bottom of the fuel line. I'm guessing I should do the manifold boots. What else would you suggest doing to be on the safe side?? Let's assume I have a grand to spend or uncle Shannons comes to the rescue. (I'd not have thought of firewall padding for example).
So my to-be-safe list, thanks to your suggestions includes:
Wiring (incl plug leads and plugs)
Fuel line
belt
Intake boots
Vacuum advance to carb
Clean carb (new kit?)
Clean manifold
Check underside for damage - cv boots etc (thanks Jason!)
Check oil sender - fuel cutoff solenoid- auto choke -coil -dizzy (thanks Lee!)
Check firewall padding
Ta. Anything else you'd add to this to-do list? As you can see, she got absolutely dumped with powder too.
Mechanic recomendations in Brissie would be good too 🙂
Anyway, I got off super light:
Exterior before:
Exterior after cleaning. No real body damage that I can see, other than some singes to the vent:
Inside shots with the powder still on. Spot the villain 🙁 And what a time to have my air filter off! :
And after a hose. Yes, I know I shouldn't have got the dizzy / coil wet, but figured I'll be stripping it all out anyway. I imagine the powder got into everything:
So there you have it! Thanks for keeping me company last night, by the way. I was home alone with only a little bottle of what-the-hell-my-car-caught-fire Vodka for company 🙂
On the plus side my missus has only suggested once this morning that maybe I should consider getting a new car. She's being surprisingly restrained.
bajachris88 wrote:if ur getting a new car... dibs on ur burnt engine :P? 👍😂
Cheers, Chris! I actually might be really interested in that! I'd be more than happy to take say $200 for the engine as is. She's just a stock 1600 but is pretty solid, apart from an as-yet-unidentified oil drip. You'd have to be able to remove the engine and move it yourself. I'd be more than happy to assist, though! for the money I'd also be happy to throw in some as-new Rossi headlights if you're into the Cal Look. I also have a set of hoodjax that I'm not presently using.
My only proviso is that the $200 would have to be in four fifties, each individually superglued to one of the buttocks of Brazilian Olympian twins Bia and Branca Feres. I'd also need, say, a week to carefully remove them.
Craig i see so many little niggling faults with that engines it bugging me 😂
good to see you got off lightly
wont take much to get you back on the road but i can give u a list about as long as my arm of things to change first 😂
all just little petty things like the generators upside down which wouldnt be cooling the bearings in it etc
Craig Torrens6 times Australian, 7 times State Hillclimb Class Champion
paladin wrote:My only proviso is that the $200 would have to be in four fifties, each individually superglued to one of the buttocks of Brazilian Olympian twins Bia and Branca Feres. I'd also need, say, a week to carefully remove them.
😵💫
:P
Dammit! There is always a catch! 😂 I will have to see if i can charm them to Aust..., but i'm not much the piered piper when it comes to brazilian chicky babes :P
I'm sure i can coax some local beenleigh girls here to pretend to be brazilian. Offer em a pack of smokes and a tallie of booze and they'd be keen as heck ! 😎
Joel wrote:Craig i see so many little niggling faults with that engines it bugging me 😂
good to see you got off lightly
wont take much to get you back on the road but i can give u a list about as long as my arm of things to change first 😂
all just little petty things like the generators upside down which wouldnt be cooling the bearings in it etc
LOL! Well now's as good a time as any, please let at her. May as well get her pucca while she's off the road for a bit!
Craig Torrens wrote:sorry to hear about the fire............but with an engine bay with that many bits and pieces wrong no wonder it went up in smoke !!
Thanks, craig. As I've said to Joel - please do fire (heh heh) away. It's a good time to clean up or fix anything/everything that needs doing.
If anyone else wants to chime in, don't worry about my feelings. I'm all ears 🙂
Craig Torrens6 times Australian, 7 times State Hillclimb Class Champion
1 No Air cleaner
2 Vacuum advance tube perished at carby
3 Generator on upside down
4 Fanhousing needs the fresh air pipes connected (or blocked off)
5 No oil breather hose fitted (this goes to the aircleaner
6 manifold preheat pipe cut off, needs new one.
7 Rear tinware missing (this heats up the engine bay big time !)
8 Missing cooling tin on cylinder No 2 (underneath)
yep all that plus its got the wrong throttle stop which is wound in to far, that would give u a funny flat spot on taking off, oil pressure sender wire was against hot manifold, and it was running heaterboxes with no heater hoses b4 the fire which woulda been getting the heads abit toasty
1 No Air cleaner
2 Vacuum advance tube perished at carby
3 Generator on upside down
4 Fanhousing needs the fresh air pipes connected (or blocked off)
5 No oil breather hose fitted (this goes to the aircleaner
6 manifold preheat pipe cut off, needs new one.
7 Rear tinware missing (this heats up the engine bay big time !)
8 Missing cooling tin on cylinder No 2 (underneath)
probably some more I'm missing !!
Cheers, Craig! Much appreciated.
1. Noted above. I have it off cleaning it 🙂
2. I noted this above also.
3. Good call. Thanks to you and Joel!
4. Yep - these are blocked off (as can be seen in the 'wet engine'pic)
5. Good call. Hmmm. . . problem is, being a Wizard the air cleaner that is on this one is an elbowed pipe with a dirt bike style cylinder cleaner on it as there isn't the clearance between the carby and the kit for a stock cleaner. So I don't have anything to connect it to. How serious is this do you reckon, and any workaround?
6. Queensland car.
7. Yep. I have one that arrived a fortnight ago with the hose holes blocked off. Need to put it in. The engine seal also needs going in.
8. Cheers. Will get all tinware attached and also the seal when she's in the shop.
Joel wrote:yep all that plus its got the wrong throttle stop which is wound in to far, that would give u a funny flat spot on taking off,
Cheers! Didn't know that one. This is really great. I'm getting a nice little to-do list!
Joel wrote:oil pressure sender wire was against hot manifold, and it was running heaterboxes with no heater hoses b4 the fire which woulda been getting the heads abit toasty
What would you suggest re the heaterboxes? She's pretty much a warm-weather car too.
the main drama with havign the heater outlets blocked off and a breast plate tin with no heat hose holes is your engine still has the heaterboxes still on it
even when there not in use they need air from fan shroud pumped thro them which comes out a bypass valve in the back otherwise they end up as ovens and the heat rises straight up to the heads above
not a huge issue but these engines dont need any excuse to run hotter
replacement Jpipes are cheap and a good fix
there just straight pipe without all the heater crap on them
re the throttle stop screw as long as it can be unscrewed all the way out till its not touching the choke cam then back in about 1/4 turn it will work
but u may need to some carb tuning as someones probably frigged with the carb to make it run like that
with the screw wound all the way in like it is means the throttle butterfly is always open abit.
at idle it should be completely shut and just running off the mixture screw
this makes for doughy accellaration as its not making proper use of the progression ports when u crack the throttle open
went thro all that drama on my first bug
idle jet had blocked up making it not idel so some moron just wound that screw all the way in......🙄
trickysimon wrote:Engine is supposed to be in the front 😂
When I was in Austria a few years ago, I met an old fella who had worked in Wolfsberg in the fourties and was privvy to all kinds of secret workarounds regarding the Type 1s. I got him very hammered on good Schnapps, and he also confessed this flaw to me. But he had a solution, one which I follow dilligently to this day.
You're safe as houses providing you only ever drive a bug in reverse.
Joel wrote:re the throttle stop screw as long as it can be unscrewed all the way out till its not touching the choke cam then back in about 1/4 turn it will work
but u may need to some carb tuning as someones probably frigged with the carb to make it run like that
with the screw wound all the way in like it is means the throttle butterfly is always open abit.
at idle it should be completely shut and just running off the mixture screw
this makes for doughy accellaration as its not making proper use of the progression ports when u crack the throttle open
went thro all that drama on my first bug
idle jet had blocked up making it not idel so some moron just wound that screw all the way in......🙄
hope that explains it abit better
Joel, as always you're an absolute champ. Thanks so much for that info! I'll put it all on the to-fix list while she's having her little holiday.
bajachris88 wrote:Dammit! There is always a catch! 😂 I will have to see if i can charm them to Aust..., but i'm not much the piered piper when it comes to brazilian chicky babes :P
I'm sure i can coax some local beenleigh girls here to pretend to be brazilian. Offer em a pack of smokes and a tallie of booze and they'd be keen as heck ! 😎
Ha! Hey - so long as they're handy with a fire extinguisher, who am I to be picky?
you said your tinware has no holes in it.... pretty sure if you change to j-pipes you can throw that tin ware in there, without doing anything to it....
