so apart from the preventive maintainenece, what's the best way to handle a fire?  i hope i'll be able to smell smoke/fuel, or maybe some other driver will wave to me.  what happens after i pull over?  i can't imagine that i'll be able to calmly open the hatch and engine lid and spray my extinguisher around...  everything will be a mass of heat, smoke, and confusion, right?  I have this nice new extinguisher in the back of my van, but i haven't the slightest idea how to handle a fire.  any advice from someone who has handled this before?

aaron
'87 syncro gl

-----Original Message-----
From: jimt [mailto:camper@TACTICAL-BUS.INFO] 
Sent: Friday, April 01, 2005 8:06 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Another Vanagon Burns Up

Don�t forget to check out your "other" vehicles.  There was another vehicle fire out on the road yesterday.  I knew the tow operator and he let me look at the engine compartment before he hauled it off.  The officer let him hold for a minute after he told him that I have been doing some private research into engine fires. (nothing to publish that hasn�t been said in here and other lists).  I was able to easily follow a funnel shaped spray/fire pattern back to a hole in the high pressure side of the fuel injection system.  This particular vehicle was a 96 jeep 4L that had the same system as my daughters.  Examined hers and found what action/cause the leak could have come from.  Be very careful when doing maintenance around your metal fuel lines.  Especially where they bend. (Again this is on any vehicle)  I havent seen but a single burnt bug/bus/vanagon in the last year here locally but have examined close to 30 vehicles burnt out in the last year.  That 96 and a 2004 (under litigation) were the only vehicles made after 94 that I had examined.  Anything with a fuel system made before MTBE and alcohol needs to be rigorously inspected at all rubber fittings and hoses.  Make sure metal lines are not within 1/4 inch of any metal surface unless held out away from it in a way that they cannot make contact under vibrations.

Let us please keep the BBQ in the BBQ.

jimt

On 4/1/05 6:50, "Stan Wilder" <wilden1-1@SBCGLOBAL.NET> wrote:

> In an empty van or bus the steel lid will definitely be better... even 
> if the paint burns, it won't rapidly touch-off the whole van. -- 
> Andrew Grebneff
> --------------- Clip -----------------------
> One of our list members had a fire while his wife was driving his 82 
> Air Cooled Sun Roof Vanagon. The magnesium fan shroud caught fire and 
> the local fire dept gave it a few shots of pure oxygen with a side of 
> O2. I bought the transmission and it was still OK but the engine case 
> had oil galleries that were weeping from heat, the oil cooler and 
> mount had about melted off. The rear engine yoke had totally liquefied 
> leaving just the bolts.
> I couldn't save the heads because some of the fins were welded with other
> trash.
> Lots of luck ever bringing a burned van back from the depths.
> 
> Stan Wilder
> Engine Ceramics
> 214-352-4931
> www.engineceramics.com
> 
>