Logan
Well-known member
I know some people say vapor lock doesn't happen, but they've never driven their car in the texas summer heat. Today it was about 110 degrees, and we were on our way back from our annual summer "hotter than hell tour" that we do every year in July. Two cars were experiencing vapor lock pretty much at the same times, one way worse than the other. I had heard a few years back from an old timer in the club that if you poured a soda on the carb, because of the carbonation in the soda, it would cool the carb down without hurting the casting.
Well after we stopped to fix a tudor (that later also experienced vapor lock) a lady in a '31 slant went to drive off and the carb vapor locked. I pulled out the choke a couple times, to dump cool gas in the bowl, loosen the gas cap and even that didnt seem to help that much. She had rubber gas line, so i couldnt put clothes pins on the line. Then i remembered what that old man once told me. so i went and grabbed a warm coke, and just poured it around the bowl and throat area. With about 3/4 of the can gone the car would rev up and act like it had never vapor locked. She took off and drove all the way to lunch without it ever happening again. After good luck with that car, about 10 miles later the '29 tudor was vapor locking bad bad bad. I did the same to her car as the first car, first with the choke, loosen the gas cap, then i loosed the tightening nut on the sediment bowl to possible let any sealed air out in the bowl. When none of this worked i grabbed another coke, and sure enough i poured it on there and within 5 seconds she was also off and going. She ended up vapor locking several more times and we ended up having to buy more drinks lol. We ended up taking off her hood and placing it in the back seat so the motor could air out and that seemed to make it cool enough to where it didnt do it anymore.
Sorry for the lengthy message, but if you ever have vapor lock symptoms this may work for you, as it worked for us. Some may not agree with the method, but it didn't crack the zenith when we poured coolant on it, and it sure does beat waiting under a tree for it to cool down.
Well after we stopped to fix a tudor (that later also experienced vapor lock) a lady in a '31 slant went to drive off and the carb vapor locked. I pulled out the choke a couple times, to dump cool gas in the bowl, loosen the gas cap and even that didnt seem to help that much. She had rubber gas line, so i couldnt put clothes pins on the line. Then i remembered what that old man once told me. so i went and grabbed a warm coke, and just poured it around the bowl and throat area. With about 3/4 of the can gone the car would rev up and act like it had never vapor locked. She took off and drove all the way to lunch without it ever happening again. After good luck with that car, about 10 miles later the '29 tudor was vapor locking bad bad bad. I did the same to her car as the first car, first with the choke, loosen the gas cap, then i loosed the tightening nut on the sediment bowl to possible let any sealed air out in the bowl. When none of this worked i grabbed another coke, and sure enough i poured it on there and within 5 seconds she was also off and going. She ended up vapor locking several more times and we ended up having to buy more drinks lol. We ended up taking off her hood and placing it in the back seat so the motor could air out and that seemed to make it cool enough to where it didnt do it anymore.
Sorry for the lengthy message, but if you ever have vapor lock symptoms this may work for you, as it worked for us. Some may not agree with the method, but it didn't crack the zenith when we poured coolant on it, and it sure does beat waiting under a tree for it to cool down.
Rusty Bill W.