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Mon Jun 17, 2024 3:07 pm

Greetings. I have the opportunity to part out a vanagon that had an engine fire. I’m wondering if the 2.1 engine is worth pulling. Do these engine fires get hot enough to damage the engine? Thanks in advance.

Mon Jun 17, 2024 4:42 pm

It depends what kind of fire we're talking about....

Don't expect to be a runner without a proper teardown, the water jacket seals are certainly damaged at the minimum.

Mon Jun 17, 2024 4:46 pm

The long block often times survives if the fire was put out fairly quickly. My work van was from an insurance auction. It had an engine fire that burned and melted everything in the engine compartment and up the side of the van and out the vents. My friend who is an auto body guy told me that I should try and use the engine. He said that the coolant in the lines and block usually keep the main part of the engine from being damaged. So, I pulled it out, cleaned off the melted muck and sure enough, the head gaskets didn't look bad. I rounded up all the accessories and components that were damaged, changed the oil and fired her up. that was about 30k ago...

If you go for it, make sure that you do an initial cleaning without removing anything that covers a hole. Leave the distributor, intake and oil breather and anything else like that on the motor until you have removed all the loose fire extinguisher powder and other loose crap from the block. Then, later, as you remove those things, make sure not to let any crap drop in and tape the holes closed as quickly as you can before doing a fine cleaning. Then put her back together.

Good Luck!

Hans

Mon Jun 17, 2024 4:48 pm

That’s a good point. But most likely it’s a good core? The fire melted the afm flat, almost unrecognizable. But it did minimal damage to the interior. If that’s an indicator of temperature range of fire.

Mon Jun 17, 2024 4:50 pm

Thanks Hans. This is good info.

Mon Jun 17, 2024 10:50 pm

Wire Nut wrote: That’s a good point. But most likely it’s a good core? The fire melted the afm flat, almost unrecognizable. But it did minimal damage to the interior. If that’s an indicator of temperature range of fire.

I mean, what's your goal with this engine? A spare engine ready to use , or the base of a full rebuild until you need it?
Only you can judge really, but if nothing metallic is melted on the long block, it's likely salvageable.