Months spent getting to rego then disaster!!

[Holden202]

As some of you might know i have been helping my brother for the last few months, bought a cheap VS Commodore with suspected cracked head $450 ... schmick body etc ....

so pulled the motor, got the heads crack tested, one buggered, so got a replacement and set about porting the heads, upped the compression, full gasket kit, stage 2 shift kit in the tranny ....

put her all in and she was puring like a kitten ...

so this morning, the brother took it for a blue slip, straight through, old mate raving about how nice it is to drive and how schmick it is for a VS etc etc ...

went to nrma, compo insurance and ctp thanks, done, insured for $3000 off we go to RTA and on the way out of the carpark from nrma black smoke from under the bonnet, brother pulls over and shuts it down .... its already too late, full scale fire under the bonnet, can't pop it because the bonnet cable has most probably already been fried and doing nothing.....

VERY LUCKILY the local fire brigade were at the shopping centre getting lunch!!!!

mind you they had to pry the bonnet open on the sides to get at the latch .....

all the plastic on the grille, bumper, CAI air box all that is just gone .... engine bay guards and bonnet all burnt, half the wiring and fuse box all screwed.



so he went back to nrma and put his claim in hehehe .... hopefully they will cover him which other than the firies being right there will be the only positive thing to come out of it all!!

it is very disapointing that after so much work and all the good bits in there its either going to be written off (and we'll never see the engine/box again) or it wont be covered and he'll be high and dry for wheels!!

[Apples]

Have you worked out what caused it, an EFI line pop off or what ?
I have been there had that happen to customers car on test run after someone had the line off at the fire wall and it didn't latch back on correctly.
It was a new vy crewman and it was written off as parts quote ended up a grand off new car price.
I have also been called out to fix fuel leak from line popping off the fuel filter after being replaced.
Theirs nothing like working on bitumen that's had petrol on it ( note: clothing don't come clean ).

[Holden202]

not really and the problem is all the answers got charcoaled so we may never know.

he said he tapped the brakes (coming up to intersection in carpark) and heard little a little pop/knock noise then just after that smoke! so we are wondering if something in the brakes has had the dick and sprayed fluid onto manifold .... the firies said it was definately an oil fire ... but also after the fire started any number of lines could have ruptured....

a/c line to firewall gone, return line to tank gone, p/s resivoir and lines gone, master cylinder resivoir gone!!

anyways heres some sad pics.



that on the ground is the thermo fan!






and here is the unfortunate man himself!!

[Doctor Bob]

a common cause of similar fires in VR-VS was the transmission cooler line popping off.
looking at these pics it could be this.

[VL400]

you both must be gutted after what went into it was really looking forward to the battles between all the ecotecs too!

[Holden202]

yeah i know scotty is shattered ... i'm not that pissed as far as my time and effort more that a good motor (ported heads, more compression, kitted gearbox) is probably gonna go to someone that if they use it as a complete motor they probably wont ever know what they are sitting on....

an insurance payout will get you another VS, but then your back to square one as far as porting heads etc ...

and something i thought about the other day .... i gave scotty the VS nvram board with a stock tune on it to get that car going rather than giving him the stock memcal with the 29c010 in it!!!! now the nvram is gone and if its written off we wont be able to get it back!!

[casagoya]

My son recemtly had a car written off. He took a small discount on the insurance payout (about 10%) and was allowed to keep the car. Is that an option for you.

[Holden202]

its worth enquiring about .... if it happens to be an option and something like 10% thats good, if its like what my VR (written off in floods) was its not with it ($1200 to buy it back)

[Holden202]

Well although its not a huge amount it looks like my brothers insurance has paid him out!!

after all the costs and bullshit is sorted he get $1600 in the pocket .... thats just about what he spent to get the car and repair it in the first place so other than having no car hes not too badly out of pocket .....

apparently hes on the prowl for another VS commie now