I'm kinda stumped. Had a bad Mr gasket thermostat and had some overheating issues a few weeks ago, nothing horrible. Replaced the thermostat with a working one and that is fine, but I had a couple of instances of what I thought was vapor lock when the car got up to 220. Ran real rough then would not start until cool, but I could smell gas. Happened even after the thermostat change, but if I kep the revs up it would not stall. I had to rework the fuel line off of the carb because it ran real close to the motor. On the way to work today everytime the temp guage went to 200 it started to run real rough and if I did not pop it into neutral it would stall. Every light it would run fine until the temp went to 200. When I parked at work I let the temp climb up in park to see what would happen, and sure enough it stalled out at 200. Then I could not get it started. Also when I ran the new line off the carb I added a clear gl*** fuel filter, more to be able to see what was happening, and at idle when first started it looked like it was 75% full, at idle at 200 it looked 50% full. Is this vapor lock or a bad electric fuel pump? Any simialr experiences?
Had basically the same problem. Replaced the old, cracked hose at rear of fuel line. Evidently after it warmed up, fuel pump was getting aired up?Frank
Check your gas tank's vent, also. I've heard of the vent tubes getting plugged by those bottle flys or mud daubers. Your engine can get starved for fuel if the cap fits snug and it takes a while for the pressure to equalize where you can get fuel delivery again. So, it gives the appearance that you had to let the engine cool down before it would restart.
Probably not the fuel pump if it's related to the engine temp... You say you already routed the fuel line away from the engine. Hmm, after it stalls and won't start, look down the barrels and see if the squirters are working when the throttle is actuated. That'll rule out vapor lock... Also try running it without the gas cap on to make sure the tank is venting... edit:ahh, 36tbird types faster than me!
I just went out to see if it would start once it cooled, and it did. Again the fuel filter looked 75% full, I'm not sure why they fuel flow looked lower when hot.. I'll check the vent, and the carb. I did have a foam filter on it when it overheated and it backfired and did melt part of the foam. It has been replaced by round air cleaner.
Also, what engine are we talking about here? Ignition type? Just curious, even with that fuel filter 50% full you should have enough flow to make the engine idle ok...
200 degrees shouldn"t give your motor fits like it seems to be. Get it hot to stall and check for fuel squirting like others have said but also check spark since heat soak will roach some coils/modules or ballasts.
350 chevy points, ignition in a 1936 Ford I agree that 200 is not near hot enough for what happens, but it happened 3 or 4 times at lights this morning. I have a sealed cap with a hard line vent comming out of the side of the filler, and this car has been on the road for 2 years this way and this is the first time for the problem. Why I think it is fuel related is I can keep the motor going by giving it more gas, at idle it will want to die but I can keep it running by reving it. It's realy strange cause it will be fine but onces the temp climbs I can feel it start to break up.
I just ran it in park at it got up to 210, did not stall gas flwo looked good, but it did break up a little, and I have a mallory coil on the firewall, the chrome type and it was very hot to the touch, hotter than the firewall it is mounted to. Is that normal?
Coil is likely breaking up. Oil filled coils get hot as hell when dying. My money is on ignition. Take it one step at a time and swap a coil.
might also want to ditch that gl*** fuel filter. when i first joined here a guy either told a story or posted pictures of what they can do, as they are very leak prone. wasn't pretty. i had similar issues, but they were because the heater hose laid against the damned fuel line. good thing me are not a brain sturgeon.
Well, something new yesterday. Drove it to work and back and had a stumble/miss at lower RPM. After getting home i took the kids to karate and when I got back into my driveway it did the same thing, wanted to die, had to keep on the gas to keep it running. This time it did not stop after cooling down, so I go to pull the air cleaner off and find gas all over the air horn, and pushing out of the vent tube. Lucky for me Phil (IBB41) showed up. We figured the float was off so I pull the bowl off and it was off, leveled that and put it back and same thing. So I had a new needle and seat and put that in but I tore the o ring for the transfer tube so I had a leak and could not run it. I'm hoping the needle and seat had some junk in it, and that caused the flooding...
Update, replaced the old needle and seat, and the transfer tube o ring, and no problems. I did some searching on the web and found that in some cases flooding causes the same symptoms as vapor lock. I believe that the gl*** fuel filer looked more empty than usual because the fuel was just running past the floats into the carb. There had to have been some coorelation with the heat, cause it only happned when hot, except for the last time.
You can usually tell the difference between flooding and starving by giving the exhaust a quick look/whiff, if it reeks of gas, it's flooded! I had almost the same exact problem a few months ago on my way back from york. It was totally intermittent though, pulled the carb apart and cleaned it all out and it hasn't happened since. I first thought it was the ignition, but my big clue was that it was only misfiring on one bank of cylinders. With an edelbrock, there's a float for each side of the carb. Glad you found it! You going to the races this weekend? I'd love to check out your car.
You should probably change your oil, or at least check it. You may have fuel contamination from the flooding.
I was there last year, but this year I am going to be out of town. However a bunch of us are taking a cruise later this month on the 19 to a supercruise in Batavia, if your intersted let me know we had about 20 cars go last year.
Update, driving home Wed night started something similar, I drove to work this morning and same symptoms, get to work and it stalled, pulled the air cleaner off and it's the secondaries doing the same thing. I have 2 filters; one before the electric pump and 1 before the carb, the gl*** filter looks fine, just **** in the secondary needle I guess, so I'll have to replace that one as well....
do you have an isolater under the carb--todays gas will perculate when hot--causes similar problems---had this on a 40 when it got to 200--ok on the raod but would run terrible at low speeds--insolator cured it--same deal on a 55 Chevy
****er stranded me on the Thruway I have the thick holley gasket on it. I'm thinking that my fuel filter between the tank and pump is full of ****, and that caused the needles to stick.
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