This just came on my local Bay Area news feed - I hate to post it. I'd hate if it belongs to anybody here. Glad to see nobody was hurt! Ferrari bursts into flames at gas station, rolls into traffic - CBS News
Domenic lost his when the gas pump didn't shut off when the car was full. It overflowed and the gas fumes caught fire and destroyed his car. http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/308-328/173663-308-lost-fire-last-night.html
More parts...will prices for parts drop? Can this lead to an oversupply of lucas radiator fans and Fiamm air horns? Maybe a spare wheel can be had for a good price? Seriously, this sucks!
Fumes explode, not fuel. Any hose is better than no hose, and at this age, they are bad. New NAPA ones are alcohol tolerant. Ricambi has the Dave Helms hoses. The outer braid doesn't really buy you anything as the sensitive side is the inner one.
Note also that over flow lines..one from the neck tube and in that photo, a drain from the outer lid pocket...different tube, more like Tygon. Imagine though if it was carelessly dislodged, or missing. That's the overflow, and another good reason to watch what you are doing .....any top off, or even using the pump handle locks is a hugely BAD idea!
There are a bunch of threads on fuel hose quality. Here is the one I started: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/308-328/473672-how-ethanol-proof-modern-fuel-hoses.html Steel braiding is abrasion resistance, which is not needed on 308 fuel hoses. Per the link, hose quality is improving with new standards being set, but the big problem we old car owners have is that we need fuel hose that stretch a little so that they can be slid onto a pipe and is clamped with a hose clamp. Modern cars use ethanol-proof Teflon lined fuel hoses which are terminated with threaded connectors.
This post was funny " You can buy an old Ferrari like this for about $30k. I could have bought a 328 GTS for $32k back in 1996. I was supporsed how cheap a Ferrari was until I found out the six month maintenance was about $1500-$2500. You can't afford it if you have to save up for the maintenance service. I'll bet this guy passed up necessary service which is why it caught on fire. Probably old fuel hoses."
Maybe it's not just neglected service. I showed my pictures of my tube filler neck, which was roughly one year old. This hose was a genuine Ferrari part, which looked like this one year after I installed it. It was only a small crack, but while removal I have torn it without much force and it changed its looks like shown on the second picture. After this, the dealer scrapped his complete stock and supplied the 328 part, which was slightly longer, but of appropriate quality. Anyway, this hose incident impressed me so much, that I have now the SRI filler neck in my car. Best Regards Martin
A fan of all the 308/328 series and just my opinion but if you own a carb. You better have your act together and maintenence up to date. Way more chances of creating a Roman candle then just changing out old fuel hose. Glad no one was hurt. Agree with Martin, both my cars run SRI hose.
One of those plastic lines on the FI cars goes, and you will have a helluva flame thrower. Carb/FI, if the lines are original, THEY ARE ALL B.A.D. Change Um. ALL.
Modern injection with system pressures of several bar are much more prone to fires, than low-pressure carb fuel systems. This is -at least over here in Europe- proven by the fact, that car fires suddenly and significantly increased, when injection got standard and those vehicles started to get old and neglected. The only fires I am aware of, which started on the carburettor itself, were caused by stupid things like driving without airfilter on a car with bad ignition. Cracked float housing or lost connectors. The latter because some stupid designer - at Solex for example- just pressed in a brass nipple into the carb housing. After many cold-hot cycles that nipple popped out. Luckily there's no such thing with Webers. A potential fire hazard in theory could be the many lead plugs on our carbs. I regularly see them leaking, but have never heard of a fire or a completely lost plug. Nevertheless I took action to prevent losing these lead plugs. I don't like classic cars with FI. I don't like things like Bosch's early D-Jetronic with injectors in plastic housings, which disintegrate without forewarning and such things. And - sorry Alberto - I absolutely hate early cars with FI and turbos. Best Regards Martin
What I was getting at is carbs out of sync, backfiring, catching the air cleaner on fire, worn out linkage, loose or cracked vent lines etc. Us injected guys get to slide in some ways.
Also the cross-over hoses? I have these still on my shelf, since I didn't dare yet to perform this job in my in-house garage. I should complete this soon, since my cross-over hoses, though inspected regularly and still looking and feeling good from the outside are meanwhile 12 years old. Best Regards Martin
Only fill while car is cold. If you live far away from a gas station then sell your house and move closer.
I'm now in the process of replacing all my hoses, but I'll tell you, since taking delivery of the car last spring to putting her up and pulling all the hoses, I only would fill up a cold car in the garage from a 5-gallon gas can I keep full out there. No pulling over a warm engine into a service station. Maybe I was being overly careful, but...
