Itinerant Air-Cooled

I guess this might be the single most important shop tip. I just got home from the funeral for a friend from my Volkswagen club. Please, please, please make sure you have adequate ventilation if you are working on your car with the engine running.

Wow. So sorry to hear.


neal

dtrumbo wrote:I guess this might be the single most important shop tip. I just got home from the funeral for a friend from my Volkswagen club. Please, please, please make sure you have adequate ventilation if you are working on your car with the engine running.

I cannot imagine what scenario would keep me working on an engine if the exhaust was overpowering me.
Isn't there a moment where you feel dizzy or something and clear on out of there?

What a terrible thing. I am sorry to hear this.
Colin

Having only heard the (limited) details at the memorial service, we wondered the same thing. It seems he was working on his Vanagon in the garage. When his wife came out to call him to dinner, she found him unconscious. We all wondered if somehow he was incapacitated in some way and then succumbed to the CO while in that state. If I hear more information, I'll give an update in the spirit of "don't let this happen to you".

To your point, Colin, and I'm assured this was not the case here, how do people commit suicide using this method? I can't imagine the mental anguish folks feel that they can override their brains natural instinct to save itself.

That's just awful...I'm sorry to hear it dtrumbo. My condolences.

Amskeptic wrote:Isn't there a moment where you feel dizzy or something and clear on out of there?

I was working on our Type 3 once, running, with the garage door wide open, but with the tail end in first--no cross ventilation. A headache slowly crept up on me but I blamed it on other things; the garage door was wide open after all. As the headache steadily got more severe and I started getting dizzy, I realized what was going on and got out. I could imagine that if I were laying down under the car and hadn't noticed I'd been getting dizzy, I could've kept blaming the headache on something else and just worked right up until it was too late; confusion setting in (it didn't in my case) might make it so you don't realize or can't do anything about what's going on.

dtrumbo wrote:how do people commit suicide using this method? I can't imagine the mental anguish folks feel that they can override their brains natural instinct to save itself.

The deep well of despair can motivate a person to set it all up and give it a go. Then the physiological effects have to be overcome. If the despair is greater than the discomfort, then perhaps it will work.

This Vanagon guy, was the engine facing into the far wall, was it near the door? I am awash with questions.

Terrible to contemplate his wife finding him like that.
Colin

Amskeptic wrote:This Vanagon guy, was the engine facing into the far wall, was it near the door? I am awash with questions.

Terrible to contemplate his wife finding him like that.
Colin

I am awash as well but haven't yet found the appropriate avenue to delve deeper. At our next club meeting (11/5) I will ask his very dear friend who surely knows more of the details to share in the spirit of safety for others via tragic lessons learned.

I will also be taking my portable CO detector for show-and-tell.

Thanks ruckman101 and whc03grady for the condolences as well as the potential explanation for otherwise unexplainable events. To honor my friend, Brian Watson, I'm starting these discussions here as well as on other social media sites to make other shade tree (or garage) mechanics aware of the hidden danger.

I'm very sorry to hear about your friend, dtrumbo. Be safe everyone.

72Hardtop wrote:http://www.becksfuneralhome.com/obituary.php?id=1758

Yikes, to put the portrait of this person to the thread . . . so many billions of us each with our stories and friends.
Colin

To tie this up, I spoke with one of his very close friends at the latest meeting of our VW club. With hindsight fully focused and taking all the individual clues in complete context, it tragically seems that this may well have been self-inflicted.

In spite of this, let me use this opportunity to restate the spirit of my original post. If your working on your vehicle in an enclosed space with the engine on, please make sure you have adequate ventilation. Unless you don't want to.

A very sad story as I met the "significant other" at a bus gathering. Safety is really important when working on any car, bus, lawnmower.

dtrumbo wrote:To tie this up, I spoke with one of his very close friends at the latest meeting of our VW club. With hindsight fully focused and taking all the individual clues in complete context, it tragically seems that this may well have been self-inflicted.

In spite of this, let me use this opportunity to restate the spirit of my original post. If your working on your vehicle in an enclosed space with the engine on, please make sure you have adequate ventilation. Unless you don't want to.

Geeze, answer one question and inspire a thousand others. I had to ruefully laugh when I read your last sentence, thank-you for acknowledging the fiercesome and deadly truth of Free Will. While I am very glad that we have it, I am feeling for his family.
Colin