Technical Vanishing Fuel

Is Non Ethanol available in California ?
I was there this summer visiting my son (Beale Air base) and could not find any in that area.
Ended up getting really pissed off when trying to fill my Harley.
Didn't know the pump nozzle had to be fully pushed into the tank to operate a safety feature to supposedly to catch vapors/spill and making it impossible to visually top off a cycle tank.
Only did one Harley fill there, may be it could have been be tripped by hand?

Did I mention I HATE CALIFORNIA

 

The trick with these dumb ass nozzles here in Ca is to pull and hold the rubber seal up with a couple fingers and then you can run the pump.
Starting fluid, either, what ever you want to call it will wash the oil off of the cylinder walls, not a good idea to use it often to try to start an empty carb, filling the bowl with a squirt bottle is a better way to go.

 

I have a 350 olds and a quadrajet carb with a mechanical fuel pump.With a fuel pressure guage in line it shows 6 psi when running but when shut down the pressure drops slowly back to zero.Won't the fuel pump hold that pressure in the line with the engine off.Also the fuel enters at the bottom of the bowl so the fuel would drain out then.

 

Allright, just read my question and the needle and seat should keep the fuel in the bowl.Still wonder about the fuel pressure in the line.Thanks

 

Non-Ethanol gas is not available in California.

The pump nozzle bellows is easily pulled back.

I am on a motorcycle most days, and there is no issue topping off.

 

The bowl is vented to the atmosphere.

Hot engine + vent = flash off of light hydrocarbon fuels.

 

www.pure-gas.org lists 24 stations in California

 

If I had a carb(s) that would not hold fuel for a week or more, I'd be concerned it was draining into my engine, and diluting my engine oil! If I was the OP I'd be pulling the dipstick and smelling the oil to be sure it's not contaminated with gas, and wont protect the engine.

 

Almost exclusively expensive race fuel, and almost all nowhere near major population centers.

If you have to drive farther than a tank of gas to buy ridiculously expensive gas, then what's the point?

The only station on that list near me is 40-miles away. I just called them. The person on the phone said that they don't sell E0 Ethanol-free, and they wish people would stop calling about it.

 

We discussed this on another thread, but there is a technique you can use to maybe start better!
First of all a mechanical fuel pump pumps via a spring pushing on a diagram. The engine just “ loads” this spring. This pressure developed by the diagram / spring has to push fuel through a small orfice , needle valve and seat. And in your case three of them!
So, just spin your engine about one or two revaluations. Then wait about 10/ 15 seconds and do it again. Then possibly a third time. Then pump your accelerator pedal and start normally. Usually it will start right up.
Continuing to grind the starter doesn’t really give the fuel pump time to push the fuel into the carbs. Even while the engine is setting between turning it over two times, the fuel pump is pumping. .... provided the engine did not stop, depressing the spring in the fuel pump.
I learned this on the ranch many moons ago, trying to start old trucks that had been setting a while and had a battery that was somewhat run down from setting!








Bones

 

Yeah. I forgot. It's California. Never mind. LOL

 

This is a very common problem with carbureted engines across many makes and models.

The carb bowls actually hold the fuel, at least most of it. This isn't the problem, there is some fuel in the bowl, it doesn't completely evaporate, and there's also usually enough fuel to operate the "squirters" or carb accelerator pump circuit.

What there isn't enough of, are the volatile lighter ends of the fuel that makes for quick reliable starts. This is the "stuff" that boils off quickly in an open to the atmosphere fuel system.

The "tell" here in this situation, is that by simply pouring about an ounce or so of fresh fuel down the carb throat the engine lights off instantly.

 

That is kind of what I started doing. It only takes about two brief cranks. Then I pump it twice and crank it again and it usually starts right up


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Normal ... todays gas evaporates fast, just deal with it and crank the engine.

 

Modern fuels are not mixed for carburetors - they are mixed for fuel injectors. They want that stuff to atomize easily.

Also, modern fuels will separate into all the various blends if they sit long enough, and there isn't enough mixing power around to unite them again.

 

Hmm, so if you were to block off the vent until the next start, might keep the fuel in the bowl?

 

May need to go to the vintage hand pump in the dash. Mine is not hooked up for obvious safety reasons. I have a fuel line isolator ready to go to put on the firewall side. I have had this problem and I thought it was something unique to my car. It has a 3 X 2 carbs.

 

What does California have to do with it?

We have over thirty million registered vehicles on the road here, with an unknown number of out-of-state ones at any given time. The average age of a vehicle in the US fleet is right about 12-years-old. That means fuel injection, and closed emissions control systems. The last civilian car sold with a carburetor was in 1990, with police/municipal following in 1991. The last truck, in 1994. That's 30, 29, and 26-years ago, respectively.

There is no business model on Earth that would support having Ethanol free fuel at the pump, to support a market that does not even register as a rounding error on the account books. The cumulative amount of fuel that the petroleum industry is allowed to leak into the environment is several orders-of-magnitude larger than all of the fuel that the rod and custom market uses.

We are quite emphatically a market not worth serving, in any state.

https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-repo...summary-california-vehicle-and-transportation
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2019/06/28/average-vehicle-age-ihs-markit/1593764001/
https://www.autotrader.com/car-news/what-was-last-car-america-sold-carburetor-260855

 

California policy regarding automobiles has been & continues to be , health/ safety issues aside , the initiator of rules & regulations that establishes themselves as the bane of hotrod & classic car owners existence .

 

Does a fuel injected vehicle run better on 10% ethanol v/s non ethanol fuel

 

Doesn't necessarily run any better , but the engine management system can adjust to it " on the fly".

 

The ethanol-laced fuels tend to be more hygroscopic and prone to phase separation and don't play well with older fuel systems. It isn't so much they won't run, it's what they do sitting in the vented steel tanks, in the buna rubber lines, and in alloy carburetor bowls that's the problem.

 

It's something we have to live with these days. I put an electric fuel pump on my flatheads to cure this and cures vapor lock also. Y'all remember flatheads and vapor lock, don't ya? Just be sure you mount the pump as near to the gas tank as practical. They're meant to push, not pull. Turn on the pump to prime the carb. Running down the road in hot weather, if you feel the engine starting to lean out, just turn on the pump before the carb runs out of gas. You can always turn it off when not needed.

 

Maybe throw a bottle of 104+ in a tank of gas in your hotrod. And while your at it, throw those 11to 1's back in. Lippy

 

Gimpy..... why you keep slapping us around with the truth?








Bones

 

Solve the problem with the addition of an electric fuel pump and on and off switch.

 

Interesting how today's vehicles self prime themselves as well. A few people mentioned pre-priming and how to do it.

 

LOL I like 'em full time.

Lots of guys use an electric for a primer pump but if your car starts without it why bother. crank it a little bit and go when it starts

 

I am so tired of people digging deep to find any reason to bash my state, even when "the problem" is simply basic Capitalism.