How Long Can You Idle / Do Traffic Jams Frighten You

[jg61hawk]

Drove 250 miles in a 61 Hawk. Hit traffic and car vapor locked after about 10 minutes of dead stopped traffic and 95 degrees. Ethanol gas involved. Engine would crank fast but gas would evaporate. If the car was holding 180 this wouldn't have happened. I watched it run great at 180 until traffic stopped than up to over 210 and wham it stalls.

Is this normal for others at idle?

[Greenstude]

Since premium gasoline here contains no ethanol, it is what I use in my 1947 Champion. The car does not stall even when the heat gauge gets hotter than I like. When I drove the car in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont a few years ago and had no choice but to use ethanol fuel, it would stall on the slightest pretext. It was also very difficult to start when the engine was warm. That combination was not good when it stalled in a left-turn lane at a red traffic light in Bangor, Maine on a busy Sunday evening! (Fuel mileage dropped 17 per cent with the ethanol in the car ---- that's another topic.) . As soon as I returned to New Brunswick and bought real gasoline, all the nasties immediately stopped.

[Commander Eddie]

After going through the entire cooling system on both my '55 President and '61 Champ hot day traffic jams are no problem. I solved the problem of the vapor locking by buying a fuel line wrap for each vehicle. No more vapor lock. Design Engineering, Inc. in Avon Lake, Ohio. Item # 010477, Fire Wrap 3000 - 5/8" I.D. x 2ft. You can find them online or call 1-800-264-9472. Works great.

[42champ]

I put electric pumps on mine. Just hit the switch and clear the lock and go.

[StudeNewby]

Non-ethanol gas does the trick for my 64 Champ with 259 V8.

[TWChamp]

My experience is exactly as Bill's in #2.
I try to always use gas without corn, and I add 4 ounces of Marvel Mystery Oil to each 10 gallons of gas. Running good this way so far.

[Hawklover]

Corn is all we get in the greater NYC area.....I use MMO and real TEL(in qt containers) when I gas up

My experience is exactly as Bill's in #2.
I try to always use gas without corn, and I add 4 ounces of Marvel Mystery Oil to each 10 gallons of gas. Running good this way so far.

[Mike Van Veghten]

Again -

Don't whine, just learn new tactics for tuning with today's gas.
The sky really isn't falling..!

Mike

[tsenecal]

I'm not too sure that "tuning will keep the gas from evaporating. The heat shield on the fuel line, mentioned above, sounds like it could be a viable option.

[studeclunker]

I had a Wagonaire that kept vapour-locking on me. I lined the fuel line with clothes pins (on the advice of an old Studebaker owner) and it did the trick! Probably the same as the wrap recommended in the third post. My mechanic in Riverside used to get a laugh out of it, but hey, no more vapour locks!

[Kurt]

I'm not too sure that "tuning will keep the gas from evaporating. The heat shield on the fuel line, mentioned above, sounds like it could be a viable option.

cooling system in excellent shape. 160 degree thermostat. Heat shields. Do away with the manifold heat system. Make sure your fuel pump puts out proper pressure and volume. That is probably the biggest thing. It seems to me that most do not. Even brand new fuel pumps. I have fought Vapor lock on my 51 for years and even with supposed good gas it would sometimes give problems. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to put a fuel pump on top a V8 engine must have been a real genius. I finally solved it by getting the fuel pump pressures and volumes correct per the shop manual. I have a electric pump for back up, but only use it to help get the car started.

[345 DeSoto]

Full time, low pressure, electric fuel pump and ethanal free gasoline works perfectly fine for my 289...

[Dave Bates]

Been using Stabil 360 and have not had any problems.

[joe bailey]

Another thing to keep in mined, don't buy gasoline in the winter to run in the summer time, there is a winter blend and a summer blend or there used to be any way, the summer blend has chemicals to help prevent vapor lock or the gas from boiling.

[JRoberts]

I too have an auxiliary electric fan. During our recent Power Tour experience there were many times in very warm weather when we were standing still in traffic. Click on the fan and no problems. Non-ethanol gas was not available. The one place I saw it the pumps were empty. Some times I did push the accelerator to up the RPMs for bit.