I've heard that a wash with distilled water and mild vinegar solution will take a lot of extinguisher residue off. Of course, depends on what type of unit was used.

 

Anyhow, it is a good habit to jump the fuel pump relay after working on fuel supply lines before starting your engine to pressurize the system to make sure there is no gas spraying all over the place (no petrol seepage).

 

Looks like a fine project. Me, I'd swap the engine, rebuild the original at my own pace (if possible) and throw it back in after driving it for a bit.

Good luck with your endeavor.

Brian.

 

Kos, good idea on the checking the gas with just the fuel pump, I was looking at the 88 and trying to figure how to see all of the fuel lines, which have all been off with the air filter and boxes on.

More pictures


Exterior with all of the auction markings taken off.



Interior, the seats are shinny because I sprayed them down with a thick coat of Leatherique conditioner.


Had I known the jumper cover was missing I may not have bought the car.

 

are all the missing engine pieces in a box?

I worked on a exJapanese 928 that had went through a minor fire; be very careful to inspect all rubber/plastic connectors .......they tend to crumble to the touch.

if you were closer Id come over to view and discuss

 

Malcolm

I'll start an inventory and take individual pictures tonight.
Then I'll have a starting point for individual pieces.

Agreed that a mild acidic solution, vinegar and water, should clean most anything off of aluminum, I'll probably start with a hand brass brush with the shop vac running right beside it. I'd like to get the bulk off without adding fluids to the mix. I'll remove all of the soft components and then it should be easier to do an assessment. The components that were removed will also give me an indication of the heat that everything saw.

The section in the middle that looks like heat damaged metal is at least 3/8" of charred, not breached, hood liner, indicating a relatively contained fire with minimal heat.

The fact that there is any intact hood liner is surprising.

 

Opened the boxes of parts up last night.


Intake manifold is in arguably in good shape, the fire was very contained right in front of the #5 intake. The rubber is all there and no more brittle than what I would expect from age. It all has to be replaced, but that would be the case once it was open, fire or not.



Close up of #5 intake.



MAF looks to be unharmed, but probably should be sent in for rebuild. Both fuel rails, 1 cam cover one rail cover various other bits.



Weather and time permitting, I'll start the clean and inventory of parts on the car, I hope to get one other project out of my garage this weekend so that I can get more intimate with this one.

 

that really looks like a very small fire.....have fun

 

Be careful lifting the car without the engine bay brace or you might crack the windshield.
BUT you knew that already.

 

Bilal,

I didn't know that, I have a 4 point lift, but as that has my sons 944 on it this will probably go up on stands, and now that you've mentioned it I can see how that torsion could stress the windshield.

Thanks

 

James,

The fire is so small of a fire, I'm wondering why it wasn't repaired.

Our provincial Insurance company may underpay for cars they don't deal with on a regular basis, and our local dealers, for all brands, certainly overcharge, the combination may have lead to a total loss.

Or there may be something else. It would be nice to know who took it apart, if cars could talk as you say, it was either the fraud prevention department of the insurance company, or it was the dealer as part of providing a fixed repair cost to the insurer.

The owner left a bunch of paperwork as well as cassette tapes, in the car, even though the car no longer has a cassette deck, certainly an oddity.

 

given that most insurance companies opt to punt if the initial repairs estimate is 50% of fair market value it does not take too many new dealer parts to push it over. They have all gotten burned (pun intended) by additional parts discovered after they have spent a lot starting a repair.

 

I started cleaning it up this AM. I got some of the burnt wires out of the way. Most of the residue is coming up reasonably well.

Damage is minimal, oil filler neck, several small wiring harnesses, the plastic timing belt cover has a single spot that is raised, the knock sensors and the bulk of the vacuum lines.

I can see no damage to the head, even the valve cover gasket looks OK, from what can be seen from the side without removing the cover.

I was concerned when I couldn't remove the spark plug connector from the #5 cylinder, I thought it was possibly melted in, but then I found I couldn't remove any of them, and my present assumption is that they haven't been moved in 26 years, I'll have to see if I can lift a lip and get some WD-40 down along the sides.

Any suggestions on removing the plug connectors would be welcomed.

 

My wife has named the car precious, based on the ring from Lord of The Rings.

Finally had room on the lift and started the full look. I don't know how long it had been at the insurance yard, I had a car that took nearly 2 years to settle and was 28 months to auction, but it looks like the car was loved.

Loved but not fully nourished, the wheels are new and not a nick on them, they are shod in Michelin Pilot sports, that don't look to have 100 miles on them, there is a Panasonic premier head unit, professionally installed right down to the microphone, and Boston Acoustic speakers.

By not fully nourished, the old fuel lines combined with old cracked plug wires did cause the fire, no sign that the timing belt had been changed but the tensioner was in good shape and belt tension was correct, oil in it was clean. Antifreeze was clean and no signs of acid damage in the water pump flute.

All in all much better than I had hoped.



Cleaned the burnt liner and smoke damage off of the hood, serious pain. I took everything off that was discolored At the worst spots, when it was all cleaned up there were a couple of spots were the paint was thin enough that the primer was visible.


Installed a new hood liner


Cleaned up the engine, the fire extinguisher residue was everywhere and boy does it have some stick. Many times I was down to a dremel with a small brass brush and a 50-50 vinegar water mix. I am very happy with the results.

Lots of new parts on their way, I'm onto the valve covers and intake manifold next.

Lance

 

Neat find! I love these kinds of projects - bringing a car back from the dead.

I'm doing an intake refresh/refurbish right now on my 1991 S4. Let me know if you ever need photos of what the assembly is supposed to look like as I took a bunch during disassembly.