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Date:         Fri, 21 May 2004 11:42:52 -0700
Reply-To:     feedle@FEEDLE.NET
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "C. Sullivan" <feedle@FEEDLE.NET>
Subject:      Re: Preventing a fire in your vanagon
In-Reply-To:  <005501c43f5f$d7fbc160$d9032a45@ttowerdef17>
Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1

> Well I went to Bens site and read about the engine fire stories and boy it > sure gives me pause. > > I would like to do all I can to take precautions against having an engine > fire.

The best way to make sure you don't have an engine fire is to keep your engine clean and free of oil on the outside. (Oil goes on the INSIDE of an engine, not the outside!) Yeah, I know that's a real problem, especially as your engine gets up there in mileage (you should see how oily mine gets). Get down there with some engine degreaser, and do the best you can. As with most things in life, neatness counts. This counts double for you fellow aircooled's out there: oil also acts as an insulator when it's got road dust and dirt caked on it, preventing the air from cooling the engine like it should.

Also, your on the right track with replacing the fuel lines BEFORE they develop a leak with quality rubber. I just spent last weekend going through the fuel lines and replacing all the rubber parts, whether they needed it or not (and, in reality, they pretty much all needed some love).

Third, and this is an often-missed source of engine fires in all cars, is to keep your alternator well maintained. I lost a 1989 Chevy Blazer (a Blazer? Catch fire? You're kidding, right?) when the alternator literally caught fire after losing a bearing on I-10 outside Banning, California. The cause of the catastrophic failure on the alternator? The mechanic (a Chevy dealer of all things) who recently replaced a manifold gasket over-torqued the alternator, causing the bearings to overheat and fail. A very nice car, in great shape (with low mileage), declared a total loss in minutes along side I-10. And trust me: you certainly don't want to get stuck in Banning.

There's no substitute for good maintenance and housekeeping in the engine compartment. Keeping things clean and well maintained will probably be the best bet to prevent engine fires.

But, just in case: there's also no substitute for a well-maintained 10:ABC fire extinguisher bolted somewhere near the engine compartment.


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