ldt1

One of my two 86 951's caught fire and basically melted about a month ago. I had just had a lot of work done including new clutch and rod bearings. everything in front of the firewal and most of the interior was toastted. I am wondering if the block and clutch might still be ok. It is not a pretty sight. Just thankful that my kid had the presence of mind to get out of the car, even if he did leave the ignition on after the fire started. which is what I surmise, insured total destruction. If the block is ok I will probably wait for a viable car with a bad engine to appear in the various ads. if not I will soon have some parts for sale, and a very contrite 17 yo son.

Tom Carson

If the engine was stopped the fuel pump would have stopped...

The normal rebuild process will tell if block is still good...I bet it is (as well as the clutch).

Zero10

Hmm, engine fire, sounds familliar!
The fuel pump would quit when the engine stops turning, that is, if it did stop turning.
From the sounds of it, it ran until maybe the belts burned up?...

Anyhoo, if it ran until the belts burned, then you have bent valves, but if he turned the car off, then the engine is probably alright.

Now, that said, you will have to replace all of the rubber seals near the fire, because they will be done for.

If you have some pictures, we can probably give you a better idea on if your clutch is alright. It probably is.

... I mean, perhaps you should just sell me the whole car for $50, and ship it to my house, because it's worthless

faithless

Thats a shame, I'm sorry for your misfortune.

Maybe now would be the obvious time to buy a professional fire extinguisher for your car? Here are two low priced vendors for Halon:

http://safecraft.com/product_page.as...CatID=7&menu=H

http://www.drivewerks.com/catalog/sh...et2_pg2.htm#12

If you want to know anything about Halon, or why it is so expensive. Post up!

FAST44

Thanks for the info.. Great idea, we should all have one to protect ourselves and our investments. Cheap insurance!! The Safecraft product sells a seat bracket for Porsches, made by Brey Krause.
Sorry to hear of your loss LTD, I'm glad your child got out fine, It's easy to panic when there is a fire! This is a inexpensive lesson for me. Thought about it years ago but never acted!!

hosrom_951

Did you identify the source of the fire? (electrical, fuel lines, injectors....)

special tool

10 bucks on the lines...

944Fest (aka Dan P)

After dealing with a burnt car, I learned that it isn't exactly how HOT the block gets in the fire, but how rapidly it cools down that effects it's salvageability. If the block gets hot, halon puts out the fire and it gradually cools, you might be OK. If it gets really hot, and a fireman sticks a water hose in there and gushes a thousand gallons of cold water on it, the tempature shock may be terminal to the aluminum block. This is just an opinion, of course..FWIW.

faithless

Very true. Halon is the safest thing you can use on your car. If you wanted to for the hell of it, you could take a bottle of Halon, and stick it right up in the intercooler and unload the entire bottle on a car, and drive it 5 minutes later as though nothing even happened. Dry Chem ABC is gonna corrode the **** out of your engine if any water gets on it while its on the metal surfaces inside the bay. Dry Chem BC is pretty decent, but Dry Chem in general has many downsides. Its best to go with Halon, or if you're on a budget at least Halotron.

Zero10

Hmm, so perhaps my block is toast, the firemen yarded my headlight out, and stuck their hose in the hole...
What exactly could it do to the block? Are we talking about cracking, warping, ???

Tom Carson

or the block heater

faithless

Jesus, the water probably ruined everything in its path.

Firemen are really destructive. NEVER park your car infront of a fire hydrant. I'm told if there is a fire and your car is in the way, they will axe out your windows and run the hose through your car, just to make a point...

Who knows if they would actually waste precious time doing that, but not worth finding out!

special tool

"waste time doing that"?? You are kidding, right?
You must be a young'n, dude

Those 4 inch lines are under tremendous pressure, and they want to straighten out everything in their path - take it from the ex-navy guy.
You can't just run a 4 inch line around someone's front bumper, kido.

Zero10

Not a chance it would go around a car, they _will_ take your windows out.

Hopefully most things are alright, I would like to salvage a lot of parts from it

real funny :P

Flight_951

That was in the movie "Backdraft" years ago. Actually there was a 944 in that movie too.