Vapor Lock Issues

[rikubot]

Hi guys and girls,

Its hot as hell in CO, and I've been getting some vapor lock issues. I'm just wondering what y'all are doing to keep from this problem. Thanks!
- Mike

[c00nhunterjoe]

What is your current setup? Stock pump? What fuel line from pump to carb and how is it routed? What intake and carb do you have?

If running a stock style mechanical pump, i would reccomend rubber line over the factory steel. I would also route it away from the alternator and exhaust, wrap it in thermal wrap if possible. Also under no circumstances should the line lay on something hot like a valve cover or intake manifold. Use an intake gasket or valley pan without exhaust crossover ports, use a good carb insulator like coolcarb technologies offers.

[rikubot]

I had the steel line laying on a valve cover, and I run the a stock fuel pump. Not too smart, I know. I have since re-routed the line toward the fender with rubber hose, and installed a 1" wooden riser under my edelbrock 600. I think I solved the vapor lock issue but I don't know if I've got too much hose (plus it looks terrible). Do you have any ideas in mind? Also I would like to note that at about half throttle I get a strange whistle type noise. The riser block is the open square type, if that has anything to do with it. also, I need to raise the throttle linkage now...

[rikubot]

Stock intake as well.

[c00nhunterjoe]

Stock intake probably has stock valley pan. Changing to an aluminum intake would help and even moreso would be a valley pan with the exhaust crossover blocked off. My fuel line runs along the outside of the frame rails, inside the front passenger wheel house and comes through near the horn relay to a regulator mounted on the inner fender.

[rikubot]

Good Lord that looks good. What are you running there? (Pistons, displacement, compression etc)

[rikubot]

Sorry one more question: what kind of riser block are you running?

[lukedukem]

i had the same issue. 383 with aluminum intake. removed intake and added the heat cross over block and put a spacer under my carb. i have a electric pump and my hard line is attached to fire wall and rubber line to carb. i don't have a pic on me.

Luke

[c00nhunterjoe]

Good Lord that looks good. What are you running there? (Pistons, displacement, compression etc)

I actually just blew it up after 16 yrs. Basic true 10:1 flat top 383 pistons. 30 over stock stroke. It was an edlebrock torker intake for yrs, i switched to the performer rpm with no measured gains. In the lic is an allstar phenolic spacer but i swapped it for a cool carb technologies spacer which was a big help in both cooling and hood clearance. Intake valley pan had the heat crossover blocked.

[c00nhunterjoe]

Last pic of the motor intact...

[rikubot]

What kind of power was it making?

[c00nhunterjoe]

What kind of power was it making?

Never put it on a dyno. Best mph at track was 108-109 and was a respectable 12 second car. I would estimate a 390-400 crank hp.

[rikubot]

Very cool. Great looking motor as well. I'd be more than happy with that. What gears/tranny are you running?

[c00nhunterjoe]

Very cool. Great looking motor as well. I'd be more than happy with that. What gears/tranny are you running?

It was a dana 60, 4.88s behind an 833 4 speed.

[rikubot]

That's a killer setup. I'm trying to get my hands on a 69 roadrunner that was originally a 383 4 speed. Just the body but if the price is right...

[c00nhunterjoe]

Cool, whatever you end up with, block the exhaust crossover and run an insulating carb spacer and it will be a night and day difference.

[rikubot]

Any tips on blocking it off so that it's not a permanent? What was the purpose of the crossover?

[lukedukem]

Any tips on blocking it off so that it's not a permanent? What was the purpose of the crossover?

My 383 has a valley pan gasket with the ports for the cross over blocked. So it's not permanent. I've heard some guys use furnace cement for permanently sealing. I think the purpose was to evenly heat the engine up.

Luke

[rikubot]

That sounds pretty simple. I'll end up doing the valley pan thing as well. Thank you Luke!

[69wannabe]

Blocking the crossover isn't bad to do but if you decide you don't want it blocked you will have to pull it back apart and put the open crossover gasket back on it. Once you block it off you won't go back, it really wakes the engine up more than you would think and will help your fuel problems alot too! I put the block off gasket on my buddy's 69 charger 440 and he couldn't believe the difference it made on his car!! I also have the cool carb technology's spacer on my engine and am very pleased with how it works, there is about 20 degrees difference between the intake temp and the carb temp. I would be even better if I could use both spacers the carb spacer kit came with but if I put both on there it's too tall with the RPM intake on there but using the one works really good.

[c00nhunterjoe]

Blocking the crossover isn't bad to do but if you decide you don't want it blocked you will have to pull it back apart and put the open crossover gasket back on it. Once you block it off you won't go back, it really wakes the engine up more than you would think and will help your fuel problems alot too! I put the block off gasket on my buddy's 69 charger 440 and he couldn't believe the difference it made on his car!! I also have the cool carb technology's spacer on my engine and am very pleased with how it works, there is about 20 degrees difference between the intake temp and the carb temp. I would be even better if I could use both spacers the carb spacer kit came with but if I put both on there it's too tall with the RPM intake on there but using the one works really good.

Is yours a 383 or 440? I ran both coolcarb spacers on my 383 and an rpm intake as pictured in my last post with no clearance issues.

[rikubot]

Thank you for the information. I've looked around for a pan with the exhaust crossover hikes blocked but I can't seem to find one. Any resources I should check?

[Brass]

Thank you for the information. I've looked around for a pan with the exhaust crossover hikes blocked but I can't seem to find one. Any resources I should check?

If I'm not mistaken, Felpro 1214 for B and 1215 for RB.

[69wannabe]

Blocking the crossover isn't bad to do but if you decide you don't want it blocked you will have to pull it back apart and put the open crossover gasket back on it. Once you block it off you won't go back, it really wakes the engine up more than you would think and will help your fuel problems alot too! I put the block off gasket on my buddy's 69 charger 440 and he couldn't believe the difference it made on his car!! I also have the cool carb technology's spacer on my engine and am very pleased with how it works, there is about 20 degrees difference between the intake temp and the carb temp. I would be even better if I could use both spacers the carb spacer kit came with but if I put both on there it's too tall with the RPM intake on there but using the one works really good.

Is yours a 383 or 440? I ran both coolcarb spacers on my 383 and an rpm intake as pictured in my last post with no clearance issues.

Joe, its a 440 and im already running a drop base breather but the rpm intake puts everything very close to the hood. With a B engine there would be no clearance issues since it's quite a bit shorter than the RB engine.

[c00nhunterjoe]

Interesting. I ran no drop base on mine and had a tiny bit of room to spare. Maybe 1/8 to 1/4" max. How tall is your air filter element perhaps?

[69wannabe]

I'll have to measure it, i am running the stock black wrinkle air cleaner with the pie pan. I think it's a factory 68/69 HP air cleaner for the 383 and 440 engines. The bottom part wasn't a drop base so I had to purchase a ford motorsport air cleaner that had a drop base bottom on it and use it to keep the hood from hitting the air cleaner. Before this ethanol crap came along and I had the carb bolted to the intake with just a thin gasket on there I had plenty of room but then the heat soak started to set in and I had to be careful how many and how much I put under the carb since it was already pretty close to the hood already. When I had the 383 in the car I had no hood clearance issues at all even without the drop base but I wasn't running a rpm on the 383 tho...

[rikubot]

I just noticed that I'm having rubbing issues with my air cleaner too. 

I'm gonna get a half inch spacer for my Eddy tonight on Summit, and get that valley tray with the crossover blocked off as well.