>If I had a place to do it and a parted out vanagon to test I would love to
>test out various barriers in the back like a thin piece of sheet metal over
>the engine lid or nomex fabric blanket or both and see if the fire could
>intrude into the interior.

The EPA would be onto you...

A factory steel lid will not STOP the fire getting through, unless
the engine compartment has nothing flammable in contact with it in
the cargo-bay. The metal will get red-hot and ignite anything
flammable on or near it... even the paint might be enough to set the
whole van off. Also, once the rubber lid seal has caught fire, this
will add to the flames & smoke inside the van, in addition to that
making its way in through the resulting gap.

What the metal lid WILL do is slow the fire's breakthrough down so
that you can (hopefully!) take steps to put it out
--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin
New Zealand
Fossil preparator
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut

HUMANITY: THE ULTIMATE VON NEUMANN MACHINE

DEMOCRACY: RULE BY THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR