[Healeys] Vapor lock?

[Alan Seigrist]

Len -

What you describe is the classic vapor lock symptom of American Cars of the
50s and 60s.  With a mechanical fuel pump located on the engine block, when
things are hot all the fuel in the line and carb vaporizes, making the pump
lose its prime and spending its time literally sucking vapor.

The old timer's solution, although not that great for upper cylinder wear,
was to give a shot of starter fluid into the air cleaner, then at least the
motor would spin up fast enough to get the pump to pull some fuel.

The only real solution is to go with an electric pump - a common mod of the
period.

Alan

'52 A90
'53 BN1
'64 BJ8

On 8/3/07, Leonard Berkowitz <drberkowitz at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> I believe that is what my problem is called.  It seems that when my car is
> hot and I turn it off it is very hard to restart it unless it has been
> sitting for a very long time.  The problem is encountered more frequently
> on
> hot days. Not so much when it is cold.  The only way to start it is to put
> my foot to the floor and crank the engine for quite some time. The only
> bit
> of info I failed to include is that the problem is not with my beloved 63
> Healey. It is with my 50 Dodge.  The car has a straight six, L-head engine
> with a one barrel carburator and no fuel filter. It is typical design with
> a
> metal fuel line coming from the fuel pump to the carberator.  I was
> wondering if there might be some other reason for the starting difficulty
> that some one on the list might suggest.