<VV> Help for Vapor Lock

[Tim Verthein]

I too would be interested to know what problems an electric fuel pump
will have making it worse than the mechanical? My '64 has an electric
pump, right up front under the floor near the fuel tank (a common and
oft suggested location). Only had it a couple months, but have driven
it daily since with no troubles (not to mention about 800 miles getting
it home when we bought it).  I have heard/read nothing but good things
for electric pumps and had the car not come with one, I would have put
one on. It does have a nice pressure regulator back on the engine, and
all is well. Should it act up, it's easy to diagnose, easy to replace. 
It will virtually eliminate vapor lock. And installation of a hidden,
key operated cut off switch made a cheap theft deterrent, AND a handy
way to disable it when working on the car when I want the ignition key
on, but the pump off.  Can't thnk of a real drawback. Heck, everything
made the last many years has electric pumps in'em, and I've had 'em in
many other vintage cars with no troubles.

As for vapor lock, one other thing to watch for (that probably dosen't
apply to a lot of you) is using ethenol fuel.  Here in Minnesota
everyone is REQUIRED to use ethanol EXCEPT classic cars, cars that meet
the requirement as classic cars, small engines, snowmobiles, etc....you
have to know where the stations are that have "Non-Ethenol Premium"
(which is 91 octane here....we can get 92 octane gas but it has 10%
alchohol in it). Lower boiling point with ethanol increases incicdences
of vapor lock.  Mostly only trouble when you're forced to use it in the
summer, and I would think with high engine temps of a Corvair it would
be more likely to cause trouble. I also had a Surburban back in the
early 90's that we pulled a heavy old travel trailer with....vapor lock
all the time with ethenol in the summer, but back then we had the
option to not buy it.  Took me just a few thousand miles to figure out
I could eliminate the problem with different gas!

Tim in Bovey

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