Vapor lock issues...

budgetzagato

budgetzagato

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Argh... Twice today I got stuck when after parking for about 15 minutes I couldn't get the Scorpion to go... would start and barely idle but would stall as soon as I depressed the gas pedal. The fuel was boiling in the carb I think. Time to install a thicker base gasket or something.

It's about 90ºF downtown Olympia. We're not used to it. :dead:
 
Any chance your float level is low in the carb?

You have an electric fuel pump, is it flowing properly? It should be able to dump plenty of fuel into the carb to replenish boiled out fuel one would think. Is the fuel pump getting vapor lock and being unable to deliver fuel?

Is there a spacer between your carb and the manifold?

Does the Scorpion use a carb cooling fan like the X1/9? Could you add one? It would seem like a good addition to the car.

The Scorpion certainly concentrates a lot of heat in the back without having a great deal of venting. Did you perchance try popping the engine hood to get rid of some of the heat?

Beyond that I've got nuthin', hope there is something in that list that might help.

Good luck

Karl
 
Hmm...

Float level is correct, set during a recent rebuild. I don't have a spacer, but instead a very thin gasket. I think at a minimum I need to put in a thicker 1/8" gasket I made.

The pump is electric, but there is no return line right now, the 38DGAS doesn't have one. I've got another fuel filter that has a return line, having flowing fuel might help.

A carb cooling fan would probably help... I plan on L-Jet conversion so I may just use an injector version. Thanks for the ideas.
 
what do you have your

Points and timing set at? It doesn't get hot enough where the carb is to boil the fuel. There is something else going on.


W
 
Really?

Well, I've seen, head and smelled the fuel boiling so it obviously can get hot enough. My timing is set to stock, perhaps could be advanced more? Points/dwell settings are now whatever the Pertronix Ignitor provides.

Yesterday I replaced the base gasket with a thicker (about 1/8") one so we'll see if that helps.
 
Carb Base Spacer

Having a thick phenolic spacer (insulator) between the carb and the intake manifold works well to reduce the amount of heat transferred to the carb body, you'll definitely want to install one, I use one thin paper gasket under the spacer, and a thicker gasket between the carb and the spacer. Some of the factory Fiat spacers also have extensions to further deflect heat away, but a spacer cut to the same shape as the carb base is usually all that is needed.
 
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