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I have my radiator filled with one gallon of anti freeze, 1 bottle of waterpump lubricant, the balance Is distilled water. Last year my engine had a tendency to run on the hot side. Has anyone ever used water wetter In their car or added some diesel fuel to the gas tank approximately 1/2 gallon to a full tank of gas?
The diesel fuel worked In Model A Fords
I have added the diesel fuel to the gas tank. It stunk up the garage, and did no good. I honestly believe Ciselak has the right idea with the larger gas lines, and a good vane type new style electric pump.
I’ll chime in…. As a purist, I do not believe in modifications of ANY kind to our cars. That being said, we must adjust to some things out of necessity of the modern times. The two things that come to mind are tires and fuel. I’ll stick to fuel for this thread. I could post the chemical fuel formula of gas in the 30’s to date with all the different changes including aromatics, blends, heat content and such, and also talk about Stoichiometry and air fuel ratio’s, combustion chamber burn, flame speed, and spark plug heat ranges, but they all would amount to the same conclusion. Modern fuels are DRASTICALLY DIFFERENT than the old days. Specific gravity effects float level, alcohol content effects both air fuel ratios and causes higher combustion temperatures while providing less power. (One gallon of gas today has about 9 percent less energy than the 1970s and earlier.) The fuel temperature boiling point has dropped to such low numbers, that just about any vacuum tank set up will start having problem on any day over 80 degrees. My 31 Cadillac ran fine for years on the Stewart Warner vacuum tank, until it started to draw 10 percent ethanol, then it ran into problems. Additional problems include hot soak, which means when you shut your car down, the under hood temperature increases rapidly and the gas in the fuel line and carburetor bowls will push out or boil over into the manifolds. (If you own a V-12 Pierce, you have this problem.) The fix? Larger fuel lines provide more volume and less drag on the fuel making it much harder to vapor lock. Larger mechanical fuel pumps that are from the 50’s can be installed and look almost era correct will provide more volume and pressure if you carburetor can handle it. (Electric pumos are a must today for cold or hot start up.) New jets for both fuel and air installed in you carburetor to adjust for today’s modern fuels, along with proper tuning of your carburetor. Hotter spark plugs, increased compression, and larger less restrictive exhaust all will help out. Re-curving you distributor to come in earlier and with more advance will help also. And if you are not worried about fuel mileage you can dump in more fuel to cool the air charge and make lots more power, and black smoke. Don’t forget to keep the hood doors open to allow for cooling. The simple answer is to address as many of these items as you can, and the cumulative effect will be no more fuel problems. The hot soak shut down is just something your going to have to learn to live with. Ed
OK, first a disclaimer: Although I am a PAS member I actually own a 39 Buick Limited, but since these cars are notorious for running hot in summer (Texas) I have tried both fuel additives and cooling system additives, and will report my experience for what it is worth. First, fuel additives: I have been adding about 1 quart of kerosene (NOT diesel) to every 10 gallons of regular gasoline (87 octane, 10% ethanol) for over a year now, and have not had a vapor lock problem since I started doing so. Diesel has more heavy ends (higher-boiling components) than kerosene so I am leery of using it although other old car owners have reported success with diesel in their cars. With kero I see no degradation in engine performance. I would not recommend this for high-compression engines but my ratio is 6.3:1 so for your Pierces I do not think it should be a problem. Second, I have used Water Wetter in my cooling system (mostly 50/50 glycol/water) and it buys me about 5ºF in lower temperature readings. In a water system it is claimed that it will work better but I have no direct evidence of this. Finally, I have taken to opening my hood at every stop and letting the hot air under the hood escape so the fuel line will cool. About 20 minutes and I am ready to go again.
I hope that you can use at least some of this information to your car’s benefit. Our cars are very different, but the fuel problem is the same. Best of Luck.
Bill Seward
Hi Bill, while kerosene may alter the spefic gravity slightly, it still does not replace the lost energy or heat content from the change in fuel. It will lube the upper end a little bit, but it also will make for harder cold starting, and tend to load up the plugs. Ed
First of all, I also don’t like to modify anything from original, but the gas situation warrants it, IMHO. My solution to vapor lock is a gas return line. I installed a return line (the same diameter as the feed line, I think 5/16″) from a tee at the carburetor on my ’33 8 cyl, and never had a vapor lock problem again. I use a Carter 4259 (I think) rotary electric pump that pumps about 40 gals/hour. When the car is off and heat builds up under the hood, it takes about 30 seconds to bring cool fuel from the tank to the carb (using the momentary contact switch to run the pump before starting the engine). My pressure regulator (and gauge)is installed on the return line, under the car, just before it dumps back into the fuel tank, so the whole system is at about 1-1/2 pounds of pressure.
My ’34 had a very small return line (about 1/16″) installed on it when I bought it, but that did NOT work. It vapor locked along with everybody else’s. The return line has to be able to move a large quantity of fuel.
My ’33 lines are parallel and covered with asphalt woven covering, so look somewhat correct, except there are two of them.
A possible more aesthetic solution would be to find a siamese line, two lines joined together, and wrapped with a single asphalt woven tube.
Cheers,
Bob
Hi Bob, return lines work well, they just look terrible in many cases. But you still need to adjust for the fuel with the carb. How is the 33 doing? Ed
Tried and true:clothes pins and aluminum foil.They’re easy to
remove when you want the car judged.
Tony