Turns out that Herman was unable to get his ’44 started due a fuel line failure, brought on by the PO’s use of improper fuel line hoses, fittings and clamps. Herm’s wrench told him that he was lucky that the leakage didn’t result in a fire, as the loosened hose was atop the engine.
Astonishingly, just a few hours before Herman sent me his photo, I had been perusing Rennlist 944 forums and came upon this horrific account of just such a fire, leading in this case to the demise of a fine 944.
A beautiful 944 destroyed in three minutes. Condolences to Rennlist user “83 944”. Bummer.
By the way, this is NOT an April’s Fool thing. This is serious stuff.
And speaking of fuel, I wonder if this guy was using ethanol-free gas … see this earlier post.