Hello everyone!

A few weeks ago I bought my first ever car, a 1972 1.7L Porsche 914. I decided to take it to a reputable shop to give the car the ol' once-over for problems. After being assured that the car was in drivable condition, I drove my 914 home. A mile from the driveway, I looked into the mirror to find flames trailing from the engine compartment and the engine completely siezed up. Dismay! After pushing the 914 the rest of the way, I try to figure out what went wrong. The PO on my 914 put twin-throat 40 Weber IDF carbs on the engine, and the fire went through the 1/2 cylinder side and destroyed the air filter. Best I can figure it, one of the intake valves dropped and the spark got into the carbs and set the gas on fire. I haven't dropped the engine and cracked open the heads to have a looky-see yet, though. I'm still hanging on to the hope that I'm wrong, and I won't have to replace the piston and cylinder. From what I can see, the engine is still in 1 piece. Am I screwed? So much for that legendary VW reliablity.

Welcome and sorry your first post was bad news.

Take a picture if you can. From your discription it is hard to tell what happened. Take the carb and sheet metal off and have a look.

Paul

Bongo thats horrible, man.

Ury is right. Going to need pictures to know whats wrong, not that I'll be much help there.

Have you considered a 6/8 conversion yet?

I don't have a working camera in the house.

I'll try to take a closer look at the heads and write a better description tonight. There are no gaping holes in the crankcase, at least that's something.

What pisses me off is that it happened maybe 6 minutes after the mechanic told me it should be all right to drive for 6 months. 6 months my ass.

I am planning to put a 2.4 or 3.0 six in the 914. It would take me at least a year, probably 2 to save up to get all the parts though. I would like to drive the car for longer than a hour during that interval, though. I thoroughly enjoyed my brief time in the car before it went into a coma (it's not dead, it's not dead)

I took a closer look at the heads, and there are no holes anywhere. At least 1 intake valve is still working from what I could see through the intakes. I couldn't see well enough to see if both valves were there. The head bolts were nicely rusted shut, so I couldn't crack them open. I will find out for myself when I drop the engine and open the heads. But I came on this board with my problem to get a second opinion. Is there any reason other than a dropped valve why a seemingly well-running engine would suddenly sieze up and catch fire? I'm not too familiar with 914's, and I havent done a proper diagnosis.

Thanks, everyone, and sorry for the lack of pictures owing to my lack of camera

Pull the valve cover off and take the rocker arms off. See what the springs and valve stems look like.

This should tell you alot.

Paul

. . . and NEVER trust your baby to a mechanic again.

Nobody will ever really care about your car more than you. To a professional, it's just a way to earn a living. To you - it's your baby.




I'd say you're more than lucky that the fire stopped where it did. Once that aluminum crank-case and transaxle catches on fire, there's just about no stopping it. Maybe now's a good time to think about investing in a fire extinguisher?

Can't wait to hear what really went wrong.

Ripped open the engine. It turned out not to be a dropped valve, but the valve seat had bent and jammed the valve where it impacted the piston. So now I just have to replace a single piston and rebuild the left cylinder head and hopefully it will be running.

can't really blame VW for PO modifications ...

sorry for your loss. a dropped seat can happen at any time - doesn't seem to matter much what immediately preceded it. continued overheating seems to make the issue worse (which is a little odd, since carbs tend to make these motors run richer...) there are a few places that are the 'go-to' places for head repairs - i'm sure someone will chime in with the current list ...