[T3] '72 AT Fastback - the autopsy

["Thomas Ainlay" <tainlay@sbcglobal.net>]

I pulled the engine and transmission from Mod today with the intention of
stripping the engine down to the long block for examination and cleaning.
Needless to say that shortly after separating the tranny from the engine my
friend says "What's this hole here" while looking right over #3.  Well it
looks like the actual cause of the fire was a valve failure at the number
three cylinder which caused the piston to blow through the top of the case.
In turn the piston chunk must have taken out the fuel line.  Flying metal
debris in a moving, still running VW mixed with a healthy fuel leak is not a
good thing.  Too bad to as I hoped for a quick turn around on the
engine:(  If anybody wants to see the gristly pics I have posted some here:

http://www.thingtech.com/72fastback.html

Thomas



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