Matt, I believe the altitude is the culprit. I sent the below to you via your e-mail this morning but it bounced back. If you did receive please pardon the redundancy. Hope to see you in Tahoe. Sneed Adams, Texas
Matt,
I have been following your blog driving your PII across roasting TX. Wish I had known you were coming this way we could have set up a couple of rest stops in Dallas and Abilene.
I noticed you were having vapor lock issues which have seemed to become more prevalent as you traveled. Having had a similar problem with a R-Type over the last 30 years, I suspect the issue is elevation.
The higher you go in elevation the lower the vaporization point of your fuel goes. In other words ... As you know the boiling point of water 212 F at sea level. For every 1000 feet rise in elevation the boiling point temperature of water drops a shade under 2 F.
So if you are in Carlsbad, NM at 3300 Ft Elevation you are boiling water at about 205 F. Now the same thing happens to gasoline. Only a tad quicker.
With the fine line you are running on the PII at elevation and the air temps in those parts I suspect you may be crossing the vapor line more easily.
A couple of suggestions. Remove the bonnet. Guess that might be a bit tough to manage. Sorry. Prop the bonnet open several inches with blocks of wood and lash down with bunji cords. This should increase the air flow around engine and maybe lower temps back below vapor line.
If you are not having any dust issues driving along the roadway, it may help to remove the air cleaner and ducting to the carb intake. The slight pressure drop of the air through the air cleaner and ducting can contribute to the issue when operating on the fine line between vapor and liquid.
Call me on cell if I can help. Sneed Adams – 281-787-3160
Matt, I believe the altitude is the culprit. I sent the below to you via your e-mail this morning but it bounced back. If you did receive please pardon the redundancy. Hope to see you in Tahoe. Sneed Adams, Texas
ReplyDeleteMatt,
I have been following your blog driving your PII across roasting TX. Wish I had known you were coming this way we could have set up a couple of rest stops in Dallas and Abilene.
I noticed you were having vapor lock issues which have seemed to become more prevalent as you traveled. Having had a similar problem with a R-Type over the last 30 years, I suspect the issue is elevation.
The higher you go in elevation the lower the vaporization point of your fuel goes.
In other words ... As you know the boiling point of water 212 F at sea level. For every 1000 feet rise in elevation the boiling point temperature of water drops a shade under 2 F.
So if you are in Carlsbad, NM at 3300 Ft Elevation you are boiling water at about 205 F. Now the same thing happens to gasoline. Only a tad quicker.
With the fine line you are running on the PII at elevation and the air temps in those parts I suspect you may be crossing the vapor line more easily.
A couple of suggestions. Remove the bonnet. Guess that might be a bit tough to manage. Sorry. Prop the bonnet open several inches with blocks of wood and lash down with bunji cords. This should increase the air flow around engine and maybe lower temps back below vapor line.
If you are not having any dust issues driving along the roadway, it may help to remove the air cleaner and ducting to the carb intake. The slight pressure drop of the air through the air cleaner and ducting can contribute to the issue when operating on the fine line between vapor and liquid.
Call me on cell if I can help. Sneed Adams – 281-787-3160