On my first Vanagon, a 1984 Wofsburg GL, while cruising through town, I
noticed smoke pouring from my intakes. I pulled over, turned off the
engine, and, with fire extinguisher in hand, opened the rear hatch and
lifted the engine hatch (I didn't know any better) quickly extinguishing
the flames. Oddly, this was not a fuel fire. The fire had been contained
within the top of the distributor, by the round metal shroud. It melted a
matching hole in the hatch insulation.
Amazingly, that morning, ARCO, my employer, had handed out free fire
extinguishers! Until that day, I had not carried one.
I then went to Pep Boys and returned the spark plug wires I had recently
installed and replaced them with good Bosch. Were the wires to blame? Who
knows, but I never had another problem with that engine and used it to
commute from Corpus Christi, Tx. to Durango, Co. for a grand total of 120K
miles! Years later, I drove the same commute for another 120K in my 1986
Syncro and only suffered the dreaded 3/4 tranny failure.
Miguel