Farwell to the 80t

[Tom Donohue]

Well, you haven't really been in Western Mass 'til you get to my neck of the woods.  Office in Pittsfield, and farm in Alford.
Try looking that up on your map.  Alex, my heart really goes out to you.  I have been following your quest, as you know, from the
beginning.  If you sort out what you really want, let me know...maybt I can find the perfect "project."   You certainly don't
seem to be the type of lad that wants one that someone else has already perfected.  Best regards, Tom

Dan Simoes wrote:

> Hell, if we knew that at the time, we probably could have swapped parts
> over to it and Alex would have driven it home, being that we got stuck
> in the middle of Western Mass...
>
> Me to cop: "where exactly are we?"
> Cop:"Deerfield".
> Me: "Vermont"
> Cop (rolls eyes): Mass.
> Me: And where is that?
>
> JShadzi at aol.com wrote:
> >
> > Wow, now that is community!
> > Javad
> >
> > In a message dated Mon, 25 Jun 2001  5:15:54 PM Eastern Daylight Time, "joshua field" <joshua at orbitinteractive.com> writes:
> > <<but I am compelled to give it to you because of your loss. I am located in
> > Northwestern Massachusetts. It's black with gray cloth interior, 150
> > some-odd miles and the runs well. Just send me an email if you are
> > interested, if you want it, it's yours.
> >
> > You'll be back on the road in no time!
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: quattro-admin at audifans.com [mailto:quattro-admin at audifans.com]On
> > Behalf Of Alexander van Gerbig
> > Sent: Monday, June 25, 2001 1:53 AM
> > To: quattro at audifans.com
> > 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
> >
> >  >>