Ever put moth balls in your tank?

[ODZKing]

Can't be good for the moth either 

[Ghoste]

Coat the muffler bearings with plaid paint first.

[shorty442]

...back in the '60's and 70's some unnamed folks would put a lot of mothballs (high percent Naptha) in a gas tank so the engine would run too lean/hot and wreak havoc on pistons and valves - esp in a car belonging to someone who always acted like an a**hole towards others of us.

..and it always worked!!!

[HeavyFuel]

When my family were still in the orchard business we had the ultimate rodent poison, they didn't survive three feet from ingestion but I cant get it now.

These work well.

[Windsor]

Decades ago the rage was to put clothes-pins on fuel lines as well.....

some of you younger guys may not know what those are, so you will have to look it up

Still do it every now and again on carbed cars in hot climates. Has helped on a few cars with vapor lock. Worked at a service station, when cars would get vapor lock and sit at the pumps, I would put a couple on their fuel lines while filling the car up. Had a couple people come back and ask what I did because their cars had been having problems for weeks and was fine after it left. I have even seen it done on a race car down in Phoenix.

[Stretch]

They are supposed to work at keeping the mice at bay. Several people have told me they place a container by the shop doors with moth balls and the mice won't come in....
Haven't tried it myself.

I would never put them in my gas tank thou

This don't work either. Little bastids still get in my junk. EVERY SINGLE SPRING, I go down the road and stuffing outta my seats hits me in the face when I open the fresh air vent. And I have a whole box in the cars. Sure does make your ride smell funny.

Use dryer sheets. They smell good and the mice stay away. I haven't had a mouse problem sense I started putting a box under the seat, a few sheets under the hood and a box in the trunk. Always had mice before I started using them.

[HeavyFuel]

Decades ago the rage was to put clothes-pins on fuel lines as well.....

some of you younger guys may not know what those are, so you will have to look it up

Still do it every now and again on carbed cars in hot climates. Has helped on a few cars with vapor lock. Worked at a service station, when cars would get vapor lock and sit at the pumps, I would put a couple on their fuel lines while filling the car up. Had a couple people come back and ask what I did because their cars had been having problems for weeks and was fine after it left. I have even seen it done on a race car down in Phoenix.

Please tell more about this clothes pin thing.       Sounds interesting.

[ws23rt]

Decades ago the rage was to put clothes-pins on fuel lines as well.....

some of you younger guys may not know what those are, so you will have to look it up

Still do it every now and again on carbed cars in hot climates. Has helped on a few cars with vapor lock. Worked at a service station, when cars would get vapor lock and sit at the pumps, I would put a couple on their fuel lines while filling the car up. Had a couple people come back and ask what I did because their cars had been having problems for weeks and was fine after it left. I have even seen it done on a race car down in Phoenix.

Please tell more about this clothes pin thing.       Sounds interesting.

Me too---Would these be put on the rubber lines (perhaps to restrict flow?)  Or would they be put on the steel fuel lines. If that's the case they must be very special clothes pins. Nasa would be interested in them and the Gov would likely try to remove all traces of their ever having existed.

[Cooter]

Theory I believe was to break up tiney air bubbles that formed in fuel lines due to heat.(vapor lock)
I've seen tin foil wrap as well.

[A383Wing]

they were put on to act like a heat sink for the line....to cool it down.....for the vapor lock issue

[Cooter]

Hmmm, I woulda thought being wooden ones of course, that they'd be more of an insulator as many carb heat isolators are made from that Phenolic stuff that appears to be wood.

[A383Wing]

I seen many cars with fuel lines that were completely covered with cloths pins...all they had back in the 60's & 70's were wooden ones....

[ws23rt]

I find it odd that someone would use a line of clothes pins to insulate a fuel line.  Wrapping the line with news paper and duct tape if nothing else would make more sense.

Clothes pins are not unlike magnets in that they have no effect on the fuels energy release.  If there is a fuel boiling problem it's likely to be the carb is hot and not so much the fuel line.

I do recall the use of a can where the fuel line is coiled and ice or dry ice is used to chill the incoming fuel. But that is a long way from clothes pins

BTW didn't the OP mention the intent was to boost octane?

[Windsor]

Usually what the clothes pins are use for is when there is a high spot in a steel fuel line that allows the fuel to get hot and vapor to get caught at that spot. Put a clothes pin or two at that spot and it can help to reduce the heat enough to keep it from getting vapor lock.
As for the moth balls, I would say a bottle of Everclear would work better than the ones that are made these days. I assume they use a whole different chemical compound now.