Projects Mid Life Crisis 62 Vette

It's not at the gas stations I visit, unfortunately.

 

BP Stations in Michigan sell 93 octane ethanol-free premium. Costs an extra buck a gallon but well worth it. Is it unavailable in AZ due to smog laws?
Got tired of rebuilding carbs. Ethanol literally ate up one carb body and I stopped using it before it destroyed the second. Haven't rebuilt one since I started buying this for my plow truck, tractor, small engines and OT Corvette.
I heat with an outdoor boiler that eats two wheelbarrows full of wood every day in winter, so I use hell out of my chainsaws. You really see the difference when you scale the motor size down and see the performance degradation you get from ethanol. Pull starting really magnifies that. Always takes way more pulls to start with ethanol cold or hot. Hard on your shoulder when your chainsaw has a motor bigger than some motorcycles.
I do use ethanol in my modern dailies, but they are new enough that the fuel systems were designed to be ethanol resistant. However, if they were going to be idle for more than a couple months I would fill with non-ethanol. Saw a lot of damage caused by ethanol's water absorption in my work in powersports/marine service. Fuel stabilizer does not seem effective. I see that Sta-bil has released a new formula that is made to work with ethanol, but I am skeptical.
The way I see it, the type of fuel used makes a big difference. Any fueler drive can confirm!

 

Buy me a bag of White Castles and I'll give you some 74 year old gas!

 

Back in the mid 1990’s, we used to go to the small airport across from downtown St. Louis in Illinois and buy 100LL for our bracket cars. If I remember correctly, it was slightly more than 2 bucks a gallon and race gas at the track was $3.50/gallon. My buddy ran an 11 to 1 355 and I had a 10 to 1 355 and the engines loved the AV gas. I seriously doubt they will sell it to you today. It also smelled like gas used to.

 

I can buy AV gas at my local little airport here in Sedalia. You just can't puup it in a vehicle. I put it in 5 gallon gas cans. I haven't bought any for awhile, but a lot of the local go fast guys are still buying it. I stopped at a new Casey's gas station yesterday. They have 87, 89, and 93 octane, but what I found interesting is they have ethanol free 91 octane, it was about a dollar more than the 93 octane.

 

I'm not going to use avgas.

 

Jim, I understand, and don’t blame you. Too much trouble to deal with. I just hadn’t thought about AV gas in years and the brain engaged in a little reminiscing. I’m sorry to derail the thread.

 

Jim, I had the same problem with the 56 and wrapped the fuel line, got rid of the heat riser and it helped. Then switched to Maverick’s blue non ethanol gas and that ended the problem. I see you have Maverick stations in AZ if you have one close give it a try.

 

They're starting to build a maverick up by the freeway

 

Might suck as you drive multi states, but I would do it if they were here.

 

We used to buy AV gas from a Beechcraft facility, I would bring my cans up to the truck on the tarmac, pay in the office. IIRC, it was $2 a gallon in 1984, CAM2 was $3 at the track.

One place that is long since closed up had 115 octane and we would pull the race car on the trailer up to the pump, on the way to the track.

 

I guess when I get to the point that I don't drive them any more, I'll switch over.

 

Thanks...

 

We put AV gas in all the cars in the collection I work for, if they have not been completely drained. Some had sat for 10 years and the gas was still good. This is in climate controlled storage, the results may be different in an unheated or cooled garage.

 

still waiting to hear from the guys who put 10k+ miles on their car every year, how they deal with fuel boiling/vapor lock, etc

 

When Moriarity says he knows someone that has a large collection of cars that's saying something. Must be 100 to be a lot compared to his.

 

I did block the exhaust holes under the carb, and added the spacer...just haven't gone for a long drive with it yet. That's tonight, I'm heading up to the Phoenix area. I think I'll have to stop for gas once.

 

My goal is to add a return line. A brass T in front of the carb and route it back to the tank.

On my truck I have a access plate on top of the tank that can remove and add the needed fitting to without having to weld onto the tank .... pretty simple, but I think there will always be liquid fuel available to the carb with no time to heat up and turn to vapor.

Others add a electric fuel pump near the tank and only use it when needed. If stuck in traffic and vapor lock starts to show up, kick on the pump and get some fresh fuel to the carb .... turn off when done.

So I installed a fuel filter for a future place to add a electric pump when I made my supply line.
I just want to see if a return line is enough on its own.

 

Maybe the organizers of the Lemons Rally and Drag Week will plot a course that connects with airstrips!

 

There’s those purists out there that will say it’s crappy.

 

The rules don't limit what you can drive. You get more points if it's crappier, there are some values assigned to age, country of origin, and mostly it's up to the judges to decide. They have a good sense of humor....

And just because a car is worth a lot of money, doesn't mean it's not crappy in some ways! After all, you sure don't see many guys driving early Corvettes on adventures like this. Maybe there's a good reason, which I'm too dumb to realize?

 

Show them this thread as to what you bought and what it is now. Not saying it was crappy but it's quite a change.

 

I think they've seen it already...

 

Sounds like even if you get the carb issue taken care of, you need to stop frequently on the side of the road and deal with vapor lock issues, real or imagined, and complain vehemently about what a lemon the car is. Only you will know that the car isn't really a lemon.

As the judges probably know, the fact that a car is beautiful it doesn't mean it isn't a maintenance nightmare. I had a new OT car with less than 3,000 miles when the Army had us doing over night training. The parking lot of the BEQ they had us staying in flooded over night and there was water up to the door mirrors. I dried out the car, changed the fluids in the rear and transmission and thought I had saved the car. The insurance adjuster looked at the car and exclaimed that it was the prettiest totaled car he had ever seen. I was very sick over it, to say the least. But, his explanation on how the electricals in the car could malfunction at any time, convinced me to go ahead and let the car go.

 

I had a car with a vapor lock issue years ago, forget which one. I had a junkyard piece out of a '69-ish Ford product, maybe a Fairlane.

It was a power steering fluid cooler, just a bent piece of tubing with fins on it. I installed it in-line in the line to the carb. It was pretty compact and cured the vapor lock in that case.

This is similar.
https://www.autohausaz.com/pn/RB-918-319

 

Ran one of those on a poor boy drag car , used it for a transmission cooler! Surprisingly, the trans never over heated , but it probably would have in street driving.
Sounds like a cool idea, pun intended, for a fuel line!