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car fire - did the engine & trans survive?

Here's my sad tale...

91 GMC pickup with new HT383 engine & Edelbrock MFI catches fire (probably trans fluid leak on exh). The truck is gutted by fire. The hood was down the whole time. All non-netal parts are gone. Engine paint (block & valve covers) looks OK, no blistering or peeling.

My question is: what are the chances that the engine, trans & xfer case can be salvaged? What condition can I expect the various parts to be in? How can I tell before I try to buy 'em back from the insurance co?

I figure if there a 50% chance or better that most of the parts are OK, I'll buy the power train back, tear it down for inspection and go from there.

Or am I better off just taking the loss and moving on?

Thanks,

-- cb

Reply to
Chuck Bones
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A lot depends upon how hot it actually got. Since the paint survived well, it would suggest that the metal parts, at least, may not have been damaged. If so, then the engine is probably rebuildable.

The soft parts bother me though. Even if the heat didnt apparently scorch them, they may not work as they should and may crumble sooner than they would have normally. The fuel injection may take a bit of doing to get it back like new.

If I bought it back, I wouldn't offer too much, figuring you are going to have to rebuild everything. Is it worth it?

Reply to
<HLS

Chuck Bones wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.easynews.com:

i would give it better than 50% evaluation. of the many burn jobs ive done thru the years ive never replaced the engine/trans assy. had one that got so hot the metal valve covers melted into the rocker train. on a bet with tech next stall over i/we installed new rocker arms, nuts, valve covers, dist, throttle body, plugs, all sec. ign. wires, crank seals, timing cover gask,water pump, front and rear seals in trans, used torque conv., modulator and pan gask on trans. dropped it into simular junker on lot and drove it 2yrs. for parts runner. no leaks, no probs.....if this had been a retail job for customer it would have not been cost feasible but with free labor and reasonable parts prices we didnt spend much. didnt have the heart to collect the $100 tho. he got so involved with project i think he did most of the work. it was a great way to make a good friendship thats lasted over 20yrs. and with mechanics its difficult to build strong positive relationships with each other because we all know WE are the smartist one in the room ;-)...good luck, kjun

Reply to
KjunRaven

Thanks to all for the replies, I have been out of town for a while and didn't get a chance to read the NGs until now. The engine had ~10K mi on it. The truck's in a tow yard 250 mi away (the burn happened on a camping trip). If I can buy it back from the ins co for a good price, I'll drive up with a trailer and pull the engine, trans & xfer case.

-- cb

Reply to
Chuck Bones

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