Talk:Vapor lock

Summer and Winter Fuels[edit]

Where I come from (UK) we have no such thing. This certainly may not be true elsewhere, and in the distant past they certainly were in widespread use because early fuels were more volatile to overcome the poor carburation technology. Can someone elaborate on this in the article in the form of climes, altitudes and places in the world that you can get summer and winter grades? I assume that petrol is being referred to here.--ChrisJMoor 02:15, 5 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'm in Canada, and I believe it's pretty much universal here, and you don't have an option... it's just what is sold.

Are you sure you don't have seasonal fuels in the UK? I know from watching some TV documentary that they change the additives to gasoline in the US based on the season but I'm sure most Americans don't know that. --Gbleem 04:25, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If they do this in the UK, again, hardly anyone here knows of it. We dont really have hot enough summers or extremes of altitude to make it a problem. For that matter, I've never actually heard anyone in the UK use the expression, probably for that reason.--ChrisJMoor 01:59, 8 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Fuels are formulated differently in summer and winter in the UK, though this is not widely known or publicised. As a pilot, I am very much aware that using motor fuel (mogas) in an aircraft engine in place of aviation fuel (avgas) can produce vastly different results depending on the time of year. The Civil Aviation Authority regularly reminds pilots of this, largely to avoid vapour lock problems! Emeraude 12:20, 24 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Many British-designed and built carbureted cars use an electric fuel pump next to the gas tank, not a mechanical pump near the engine. Both the fact that the pump is in a relatively cool engine and the fact that it only "sucks" a short distance means that vapor lock as described here is virtually impossible. Even with our screwy, all over the place gas in the US my British carbed car doesn't vapor lock. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.131.57.120 (talk) 01:09, 23 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Its certainly an issue here in California where fuels include all kinds of environmental stuff such as ethanol. --RobertGary1 (talk) 00:05, 22 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Link to an interesting story[edit]

I found a cool website with this brain teaser about vapor locking:

[1]

JustN5:12 02:11, 13 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

How old?[edit]

Vapor lock was far more common in older gasoline fuel systems

"Older" is pretty relative. A timespan would be nice. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.152.165.152 (talk) 09:28, 22 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

"before carburetors were abandoned for fuel injection" --24.6.228.145 (talk) 02:33, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Vapor lock in the brake system[edit]

It seems that this phenomenon can also be present in the brake system. If you look at the Japanese version of this page, it only talks about vapor lock in terms of bubbles forming in the brake fluid. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.36.206.181 (talk) 05:21, 6 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, indeed. Shimano says their mountain bike disk brakes should not be used on tandem bikes due to risk of vapor lock, according to the docs for my brakes. Titaniumlegs (talk) 06:16, 29 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Vapor lock in two cycle engines[edit]

Vapor lock can occur in 2-cycle engines because they tend to run hotter, since they are usually both carburated and air cooled. On a hot summer day or where the engine may struggle to keep cool, vapor lock can cause the engine to stall after warmup. Troy-bilt (among others) recommends fresh fuel mix is along with a clean air intake, but enthanol-free fuels may also be needed solve the problem.

http://www.troybilt.com/equipment/DisplayContentView?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=14102&pageName=customerService.html

--66.227.152.21 (talk) 22:07, 4 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]