Farwell to the 80t
Ryan Gemmill
Gemmill3 at flashmail.com
Mon Jun 25 17:17:59 EDT 2001
Alex,
I'm very sorry to hear about your loss. I can only imagine how you must be
feeling. Just remember that because of your quickness you're able to read
this email now. Nonetheless, I look forward to hearing about your new
quattro and following the mods on it as I did on your 80t.
Good luck,
Ryan Gemmill
----- Original Message -----
From: Alexander van Gerbig <Audi_80 at email.msn.com>
To: <quattro at audifans.com>
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2001 1:53 AM
Subject: Farwell to the 80t
> Well after a great day at MtW the worst possible ending happened.
While
> driving back following Dan Simoes my car burst into flames. While pushing
> 100mph behind Dan I started to smell gasoline and the turbo started
sounding
> like a vacuum cleaner. I turned the radio off and listened carefully,
noise
> got worse, turbo sounded very wizzy. I flashed Dan to pull off at the
next
> exit. When I pulled next to him I put the window down and smelled lots of
> gas, plus the engine sounded like it had no exhaust. I pulled up to a
> little median and immediately shut the engine off. The second I shut the
> engine down the passenger's side of the hood blew up and black smoke
> starting billowing out of everywhere. I grabbed whatever I could and
threw
> it out of the car onto the median. Dan grabbed his little fire
extinguisher
> and dowsed some flames, but to no avail, it got hotter. Flames started
come
> out from the hood and the paint started turning black. Luckily a nice
man,
> retired fireman probably, ran out of his pickup with a huge extinguisher
and
> killed the fire after I popped the hood for him.
>
> Everything rubber in the engine bay melted, absolutely the worst smell
> ever. Two of the four fuel lines were broken at the metering head, where
> the hard line meets the braided line. When the problems started all
gauges
> read normally, high oil pressure, low oil temp, low coolant temp, high
> boost, and 100mph on the speedo. Thanks to the man with the big
> extinguisher the rest if the car was saved, brakes, rims, times,
suspension,
> and probably the engine itself, just nothing rubber around it. I'm glad
I'm
> alive first off, secondly I'm glad Dan was there to help, thank you!
>
> I had the car towed back to Double Z motors in NY and left a note on
it,
> $350 tow job and my mum couldn't find the entrance to the shop, so I
waited
> for 2 hours in my burnt out 80, very sad. I figure I'll salvage
everything
> possible, new pistons, rebuilt head, turbo, and all that if possible. I
> think this time around I'll be getting a quattro, but my frantic mother
> insisted I get a new car and not touch it, blaming me for the fire, what
are
> mothers for? I may have parts for sale or not, but I hope to pick up a
> 90q20v and slap on my bits, not the turbo though...
>
> If anyone has a clue as to why this happened please explain. The fuel
> lines I used were the stock lines and I had the metal pipes bent up
slightly
> to clear the intake tract, but never bent or molested the part where the
> hard line meets the braided line. Plus why would the turbo sound very
wizzy
> if a gas leak occurred? My A/F gauge read that the mixture was fine? I
> wonder if the turbo seized, but the oil temps where 80C when this happened
> and oil pressure at 5bar. I'll be doing an autopsy as soon as possible,
if
> the turbo seized then I have some serious beef with guys who rebuilt it,
but
> I can't see how that would cause a fire unless the turbo got so hot it
> started to burn things, but I'd figure the oil temps to be mighty high if
> that happened. What a horrid night...
>
> Alexander van Gerbig -- '88 80t (crispy engine and stinky interior) :-(
>
> The Audi 80 Pages-----------------
> http://surf.to/the80pages.com
>
> North Ferrisburg, VT 05473
>
>
>
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