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Unless the metal clothes pins are acting as heat sinks, or wood ones are acting as some kind of spacer/insulator to keep the metal line from touching something else, I really think the notion of just putting wooden clothes pins anywhere on a fuel to cure vapor lock is a old wives tale, unless someone can tell me a scientific reason why they work.

One last thought...an old car buddy of mine told me tonight that he's been using 89 octane gas lately because the 89 stuff doesn't have the ethanal like the 87 does (?) He doesn't have the problem since he's used the 89. ITS THE D**N ETHANAL!

I'm using Marathon. Historically a lesser quality gas supplier than say Shell, standard or Mobil. No prolems with the Marathon. NO ETHANOL label on the pump like the other brands have (BP, Shell). According to Marathon station owner the gas has no ethanol in it.

But, who really knows for sure??? Marathon doesn't seem to the ethanol smell to it like the BP and Shell gasolines do.

I am wondering where in the production stage ethanol is introduced. According to wiki-answers, almost all gas regardless of grade contains ethanol--but can be region specific and must be labeled. Supposedly there are two tanks in a station -- one for 87 and one for 93 with the 89 being a blend of the two.

We had an incident here a couple of years ago where diesel was accidentally introduced into the gasoline at the tank farm because of an improperly set valve. Hundreds of cars either quit, had major damage after filling up one morning, or the fortunate ones were those who heard of the problem in time and only had to have their tanks removed and emptied. Cost the stations and supply farm a very large bundle since they picked up the tab for repairs.

Interesting part was that this was not confined to one or two stations. According to the paper, it turns out in this area about ALL the stations regardless of brand affiliation get their gas from the same supply tanks at a central depot. The differentiation between brands occurs when gas is actually loaded on the delivery truck and the brand specific additives are then included. In this case, those stations that had a night delivery were the ones affected the next morning.

Would think this might be more the norm in todays world so other areas might be the same. If the ethanol is blended in at the refinery all brands then should be similar.