Boosted Falcon

Last week I had a small engine bay fire. The result of the fire was the loom above the fire wall burnt out, a few vacuum leads burnt and for some strange reason a decent amount of water flowing into cylinder 6. Here is a pic of the damage.



As you can see not a great deal of damage. The pay out was $4500 minus $500 excess and $800 to buy car back (seriously??? thats all?) so I now have a car that isnt running and $3200. Whats my best move here? The current motor has about 200,000 on the clock, is it best to repair the head damage (whatever it is), drop a new motor in or swap it for something else?

I have looked at MANY cars and have decided I wont be buying a new car because I wont be able to get another like this for a good price and ive spent enough here as it is.

So anyway, if you had $3200 to repair this car what would you do? It is a manual as well if that makes any significant difference to pulling motors out.

Buy a new motor and drop it in. There's plenty of au motors kicking around for cheap. Then depending on how good you are with cars replace the loom and vac lines and make a massive profit. Is it listen as repairable write off?

looks like its mainly LPG wiring thats damaged?

motor/loom replacement, try Alan @ Falcon Stuff in Elsum Ave Bayswater, he has good motors cheap might even get a Tickford for a good price. as Ech0_ said a lot will depend on if its listed as a write off/repairable write off

yer its repairable. Vac lines are easy but might leave wiring to auto elec that I know.

EFFalcon that what I was thinking!!! They are telling me that the whole engine bay will require a relooming requiring dash out and so on. But there is no engine loom there. I want to get it to my auto elec to see it as well tho. Problem is I only get 1 more free tow so i gotta decide if it comes home or goes to auto elec.

So confused, do u think insurance could have made a major identification mistake? (Confusing LPG loom for factory loom)

put a bog stock taxi motor in it, put car back to stock, and put all your goodies and 3200$ towards another car. Or sell the goodies too, have about 7-8k, save up 2 more x and get a stocker 2003/2004 xr6t!

Won't it need a full ViV to re register?

Theres a real nice BF XR6 with a ZF ive been looking at for $12k but its too far out of my budget as a uni student. Plus im on P's and after dealing with insurance once I can say I wouldnt want to have a turbo on my P's and try to make an insurance claim, they will squeeze through any hole they can!

If it wasnt for the dam red plates brought in I would be getting of my p's in 3 months!!

SNR wrote:Won't it need a full ViV to re register?

I dont know about this, can anyone inform me whats required to get this?

Quick search says that they identify the car hasnt had any stolen parts used and that there is no structural damage. As the pic shows there is clearly no structural damage. Cost of viv and re-reg (which was due anyway) about $1000. So that leaves $2200 for repairs.

insurance people always make mistakes, most of them know squat about cars so its entirely possible that they got the looms mixed up

I wouldn't bother if it needs a VIV. Part it out and make your $800 back.

well i just called FTG auto salvage. They will fit up a tickford motor for me drive in drive out for $1500 in one day. that means im still $700 up from pay out after viv, rego and motor swap. Cant imagine wiring would be much to fix. However FTG auto are usually a rip off, any recommendations of somewhere that will do better?

TUFED6 wrote:I wouldn't bother if it needs a VIV. Part it out and make your $800 back.

Why is that? from what vicroads says its pretty much just making sure the car is still structurally safe and not stolen.

Usually it requires an inspection from an engineer, which costs $$$$.

The price quoted by vicroads is $440

Yeah, thats for them to look at the engineers report etc. Not an actual inspection by an engineer.

wait its actually $484 and that is for the inspection. From their website:

"When making a VIV booking, $127.20 must be paid to secure the booking timeslot. Only payments by credit card (Visa / MasterCard) will be accepted. The balance of $356.80 must be paid on the day of inspection before the inspection starts, by cash or credit card. If you do not present the vehicle for inspection at the allocated time and date, you will forfeit the booking fee. The total VIV inspection fee is $484.00."

All info is here: http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/Home/Reg ... ection.htm

They are real nazis about it. You can tell they are rude just from their website.

The engineer part might just be for structural repairs, thats what I had to do with a wreck I bought once.

If all you have had is a fire, then I guess as long as you have evidence of everything that has been done properly (receipts, photos, etc) then I suppose you could do it all yourself. Might need proof that the LPG is fitted correctly too? They are real **** about it.

Basically I wouldn't bother, a VIV is stuck to a car forever and always effects resale negatively.

Yeh i might call vicroads when i have a spare eternity to clear this stuff up. Im gonna get work done properly. The quotes so far to get it back to roadworthy total about $2800 that includes wiring fixed, motor swap, viv and re registration. this is such a PITA but its gotta be done or I lose too much.

The gas was only installed 7 months ago and was done by qualified technician so shouldn't be a problem I hope.

Thanks for advice, im off to uni now.

Ill update when anything comes up :-)

Part it, get a better car. I've fucked around with VIV's before, i ended up fucking the car off because i couldn't be fucked dealing with the hassle. they're REAL anal.

call up ozwreck in dandy. they supplied and fitted an xr6 motor in my car in a day. cost 1100 and got 6 months warranty (or was it 3?...eitherway).

or even browse ebay for a motor and pay someone 400-500$ to fit. Or someone on the forums might do it for half the price and a slab.

Yeah but if the fire had to do with the gas wiring, they will want proof that its been repaired and is working properly.

Looks like gas wiring that is burnt. The water temp sensor probably copped it as well. Can you see around that big plug or under the manifold to see if there is other burnt wires?

If it got hot enough to damage your engine it must have gotten pretty bloody hot. It might have damaged your clutch/flywheel as well.

How did the fire start? Bad oil leak from somewhere?

What is special about your car that makes you want to keep it?

Go speak to a good panel beater and see what they say about getting a Viv.

Looks like dodgy LPG wiring. If youhad the LPG fitted don't go back there.

Appears like an easy fix, pull motor out throw some money in it. Replace loom, buy new vac lines and refit motor.

Back to where ya started but better!

I doubt you will have any issue's getting a viv for that, if you can get one for a car thats been crunched up yours should be no problem.

A mate got one done at Ultratune i think in Dandy.. easy as pie

How much is a running good AU going for these days?

Thanks for input so far. I want work done by a shop as one requirement for VIV is itemised receipt and ABN. Says you can DIY but you need heavy documentation and I reckon they will be harsher.

Dan there is nothing special but there is no way im going to find another au with TE body kit, manual, and all other goodies ive added for $3000. Also there is no space at my place to have this car as I part it out and I have no pool of cash that I can plunder in the mean time. After looking for a while ive decided it will be a fair step backwards if I buy another car.

Oil leak appears to be from a rocker cover gasket that was only a few months old They never bothered with a proper inspection of the cause because of the low value I guess. They have put it down as an oil fire and thats it.

Parfrey does that mean ultratune can issue ViVs? So its not just vic roads?

The only reason the car wont run is the pool of water in cyl 6. I can easily strip the motor down to being just the block, probably save a lot of money if I then dropped at FTG auto and said just whack a ticky head on and give me a receipt for the professional rebuild. Take the price from 1500 including whole motor swap to just suppling + rebuilding the head at maybe $900?

See how it runs as is first.

Pull the spark plugs out and crank it over to get all the water out.

hmm im a little bit annoyed at the moment. Car just arrived home. Ive had a good look and Im certain that no factory wires were damaged. The guy has told justcar that factory wires were damaged hence the reloom effort but this guy has no experience with gas and certainly not SVI gas. I called him to say that all wires that run along top of firewall are aftermarket gas wires so would be easy to repair.

He paused for a bit and says in a stern voice 'no, the gas only has a few wires. There are wires that are there for the motor vehicle as well.' Im fairly certain he is wrong can anyone with a stock au (preferably au1) send me pic of your firewall directly behind the rocker cover? If im quick I could prevent the writeoff of the car and hence the ViV.

You've got a temp sensor at the back of the head. That should be it though.

yeh thats true, heres the proof:

http://www.fordmods.com/ford-4l-and-6-c ... &start=120

Page 7, half way down.

So the question is, what should I do, email these to the assessor or keep quiet? Ive got the w/e to mull it over

They will still write it off so it wont matter.

The insurance company will be looking at the cost to fix it all properly. Replacement engine and replacement of looms that are even partly damaged so you cant complain in 5 years when a solder joint comes unstuck.

Replacement prices + labour = cheaper to write it off.

Ask what a viv costs, if it needs an engineer to look at it and fix it all. Get someone like Kev to replace the motor and fix the gas wiring or take it to any decent mechanic.

A 2nd hand motor using all your accessories with new gaskets and coolant, oil etc will cost about $800 from Grant Walker.

Looking at that wiring, if no hardware is broken it would take 10 minutes to patch up with a soldering iron.

How did they determine water was getting into the motor?

ah i didnt know kev was an engineer. i like the idea of a tickford motor for $650. thats from FTG auto on a swap basis, but I dont really wanna keep the old donk anyway.

As for th water, the oil is milky green from the head to the sump and you can literally see coolant in the fly cuts out of the top on cyl 6. Plus steam was coming out after it was cranked and then checked.

Can anyone confirm if VIV's can only be given by vicroads or can 'accredited' mechanics give them too like a roadworthy?

I didnt say Kev was an engineer.

You will lose your cam if you swap the motor wont you?

I still dont really understand how coolant ended up in a cylinder as a result of the fire?

oh i thought that was the point of having kev do it. mis read what you wrote. The cam was already swapped for stock before they took the car away

tufed6 - neither do I. But she was running perfectly before the fire had been driving for about 15 minutes then turned car off when i saw smoke. After that i replaced leads as they were damaged, i and it wouldnt run properly at all. blowing tons of smoke and barely idling. So i checked spark plugs and thats when all the steam came out.

just about to head away for weekend anyway. Whats done is done so ill just deal with it now as best I can.

fark what a shame rhys wonder what the cause was...
looked to be setup well enough when i saw it.

well you would think they would lodge the write off status straight away...

Vehicle Registration: WMY663 Registration Status: CURRENT UNTIL 09/08/2011
VIN/Chassis Number: 6FPAAAJGSWWG96976 Written-Off Status: NOT-WRITTEN-OFF
Engine Number: JGSWWG96976 Encumbrance Status: NO-ENCUMBRANCE
Vehicle Make: FORD Stolen Status: NOT-STOLEN
Vehicle Colour: BLUE
Body Type: SEDAN
Year of Manufacture: 1999

Yeh I know bill, oh well im looking at the silver lining. Now I get the ticky motor with better flowing head and valve springs.

Mark - I was just talking about that with anthony and we agreed that plates also need to be handed in when rego is cancelled. The official write-off status wasnt decided until friday morning tho so maybe they havent had enough time to process it??

Are you sure its written off and going to need a Viv?

Some insurance company wrote off Mum's EF and she got to keep it. She had to get a rwc I think but she didnt need a viv. They paid her out too.

She just kept the cash and lives with the damage to the rear quarter. She dgaf.