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Date:         Sat, 4 Dec 2010 19:24:59 -0600
Reply-To:     mcneely4@COX.NET
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Dave Mcneely <mcneely4@COX.NET>
Subject:      Re: Vanagon engine fire or mishap in Roanoke, Va
Comments: To: David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
In-Reply-To:  <4cfadf44.4bfde50a.3584.ffff8af3@mx.google.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

Aren't many Vanagon fires fuel line (or fuel line connector) related? Isn't one connector commonly called "the firestarter) because of its propensity to fail and spray fuel around, followed by a fire? I have heard many times the business about spraying gasoline on hot metal surfaces without it igniting. I'm not willing to try it except in amounts so small that I might not trust the result to represent what would happen when a lot of vapor was present in a very hot compartment.

All that said, I also suspect that many Vanagons have wiring and wiring connections that are in poor enough condition that they spark on occasion. I have seen a vehicle (not a Vanagon) with random sparks showing up in the open engine compartment in the dark. I don't suppose it ran wonderfully well, but it did run.

DMc

---- David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET> wrote: > At 07:02 PM 12/4/2010, David Clarkson wrote: > > a vanagon westfalia that appeared to have had some sort of fire (probably > >fuel line related) > > Hi David -- I'm just curious what led you to the conclusion that it > was probably fuel-line related. > > I'm not saying it wasn't, and it's certainly a very poor idea to have > gasoline spraying around the engine room. But unless gasoline > behaves differently than it used to (and it might -- it's more of a > mixture of heavy and light components than when I was young) you can > spray it on a hot exhaust pipe without it catching fire* (whereas of > course a small spark will ignite gasoline vapor). Oil, OTOH, dropped > on a hot exhaust will burn. Under normal circumstances there aren't > any sparks available in the engine room, unless of course the > sparking inside the distributor or from the ECU and fuel pump relays > can do it. I'm guessing that with proper distributor cap/box seals > it can't, but again I don't know for sure. > > *I think this was the basis of one of the Car Talk puzzles twenty > years ago. Not that I was young twenty years ago. <g> > > Yours, > David

-- David McNeely


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