every vanagon owner should carry a fire extinguisher with them in their
van.    less than $25 and its worth  every penny.

mount it behind the drivers seat.  or keep it under the rear  sofabed..

In a message dated 12/16/2012 6:52:05 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
sailingfc@DSLEXTREME.COM writes:

I'm  okay.

Early November I bought my first Vanagon.  1987 GL Syncro  with a Audi/VW
2.5L I5 conversion.

Today I had an engine  fire.

Coming to a stop on a freeway off ramp the clutch pedal goes to  the floor
without disengaging.  Step on it again and same  results.  Van is lurching
forward because the clutch won't  release.  Hitting the brake slowed it but
I
can feel the engine  pushing forward. I shut off the ignition to bring it to
a stop.  I  look in my mirrors and see smoke coming from the rear air
intakes.  I  hop out in the middle of the road and run to the back hoping it
might only  be steam.  No luck, it's stinky smoke and starting to turn
black.
I  get my cell phone and dial 911.  I stand there and watch flames  starting
to come from the bottom of the engine.  More black  smoke.  I think to
myself, I am going to watch my "new" Syncro burn to  the ground.  All of a
sudden there is a loud hiss and the smoke turns  to white steam and water is
streaming from the engine.  The coolant  tank melted and sprayed coolant on
to the fire and put it out.   Shortly after an highway patrol pull up.  A
few
minutes later the fire  truck arrives.

Not a nice day.

My theory is:  Clutch hose  or the slave had a catastrophic failure and when
I stepped on the clutch,  the brake fluid sprayed out on to the exhaust
piping (exhaust runs forward  on the driver side).  The fluid flashed and
started  burning.

It's sitting in my driveway now.  I'll start looking at  the damages another
day.  I'm too depressed to do anything now.   Fireman said that it might be
a
total loss.

-Dick Wong-
78  Scirocco
Original Owner
87 Syncro 2.5
Third Owner
12 Golf  TDI
Original Co-Owner