Re: [alfa] 164 fuel leaks and fire hazard

["Peter Marino" <alfa02189@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Nicky,

My point is no one should tolerate the smell of gasoline from any car.  It
seemed to me that a few 164 owners had complaints of gas smells coming into
the passage compartment.  It also seemed to me that they where very
complacent about it.  Still driving their cars.  I hoped my experience might
get them to take the problem seriously and get it fixed immediately.  My car
had no such smells but went up in flames.  I only had the car for about
three months so I do not know the pervious owners maintenance habits.  Nicky
(I' m sure you did not mean me) I'm no back yard hack.  I've been working on
cars for over 20 years.  Mostly Alfas, VWs (Water-cooled), BMWs, Merkurs,
Yes Merkurs, Turbo MOPARs among soooo many others.  I make no "improvements"
to my cars.  I believe as Fred did:  The factory way, was the only way.  I
buy THE  factory  service manual for each car I own.  When I  make repairs I
make them the factory  way.  Did you know that the routing of the fuel lines
from the factory come close enough  to the converter for fuel spray to hit
it?  That's what the fire fighter report  said.  Fuel line ruptured,
spraying fuel on converter, igniting fire.  Yes, converters get hot enough
to start fires.  I think that your playing with "fire" if you know a fuel
leak exists and put off fixing it.

Peter Marino
Weymouth, MA
1979 2000 Sport Sedan under construction (Yes, I'm replacing all the fuel
lines)

----- Original Message -----
From: Nicky Avery <nicky@domain.elided>
To: <alfa@domain.elided>
Sent: Sunday, September 07, 2003 8:39 AM
Subject: Re: [alfa] 164 fuel leaks and fire hazard


> It seems that there was not so far a flood of responses from people
> saying their 164s had burned. (This is a relief!)
>
> After buying my car with incorrectly sized flexible tubing installed and
> going through the gas spraying over the motor scenario, I concluded that
> tightening the hose clamps is part of routine maintenance and it's
> simple enough to do. Using the correct tubing is also a good start.
>
> Problems concerning hoses around the tank appear to be less common from
> what listers said.
>
> The biggest differences appear to be in the level of tolerance of the
> owners. I am not prepared to dump my car becuase of a problem which was
> solved without incident and which is easily controllable. I do not
> condemn anyone who takes the view that this should not be something
> which needs to be controlled.
>
> Since no one else reported the same experience, I think that the recent
> fire was likely an unusual event. Perhaps someone else can tell us
> whether 164 fuel lines are in fact routed over the exhaust pipe? Could
> the tank itself have been damaged? Could a pipe have parted company with
> its connection?  Was improper maintenance or amateur "improvement" to
blame?
>
> Brian wrote:
>
> >I don't know about 164's, but Milano's certainly went up in flames a
> >lot, not due to fuel problems but due to debris in the heating ducts.
> >Seems like Alfa went to the trouble of putting an ignitor in there to
> >take care of things...
> >
>
> This was a feature. Similarly, IIRC, the original VW 1500s had a
> gasoline-fueled heater which, on early models, had a tendency to
> spontaneously reenact Viking funerals.
>
> Nicky
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