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 |
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