Re: Anybody got the end all cure for vapor locking?

Posted by Greenfield On 2021/12/31 11:42:14

The way I would start to diagnose a vapor lock issue is to determine where and how much the gasoline is being exposed to heat. Take a IR surface thermometer and, and create a chart of surface temps of the fuel pump, the fuel line from the pump to the carburetor, the fuel bowl of the carb, the venturi of the carb, and then various places on the intake manifold. I would take the temps, and write them down every two minutes or so until you achieve your suspected vapor lock conditions. Isolate where the problem is.

Just some immediate thoughts: 1. Try non-ethanol gasoline to see if that helps. 2. Check your fuel mixture, perhaps its too lean. 3. Wrap the exhaust downpipe with a wrap to shield the pump/carb from heat absorption. Also 180 sounds hot to me; my 31 Standard only gets to 150 at the upper radiator neck. Perhaps you have a cooling issue like a clogged radiator, poor water pump or rusted out water jacket and block scale that is resulting in too much engine heat for things to run optimally?