Help, I'm stumped!

[wideglidejoe]

I've been making gasoline for over 33 yrs, so I'll take a couple of guesses......

first, someone commented that our gasoline is crap, and I'll agree, but its not because we want to make it that way, our federal gov't requires it. Don't you just love the feds? I would love to blend with more toluene, TEL, etc., like the good ole days.

OK, first thing, if it was warmer than usual (for this time of year) in San Marcos, the refiners (in San Antonio) are still blending to spring RVP (Reid Vapor Psig), which means there are more "light ends" (butanes,etc) blended into gasoline for cool weather starting, warm-up, etc. Regardless of what part of the country you are in, if you have warmer than normal seasonal weather, any carb'ed vehicle is going to be more prone to vapor lock. Mechanical fuel pumps only pressurize gasoline to 6-7 psig, EFI systems run at much higher psig's, keeping the fuel in liquid state instead of vapor.

Add methanol to the mix, and it is much, much worse. Methanol will boil off at much lower temps, and carb'ed vehicles will suffer. Not to mention all of the other issues with methanol!!

Your vehicle may be fine in July in Dallas, but July gasoline RVP is 9.0#'s (or 7.8#'s, or even 6.8#'s if you are in an EPA high profile area), you are burning gasoline blended with July temps in mind. Mar/Apr RVP gasoline may be 11.5 or 13.5 RVP in your area, so if you get a 90+ degree day, you'll get vapor lock.

I hope I explained this well enough to make sense. Just drive out the high RVP/methanol blend, and you'll probably be OK. Obviously, it won't hurt to check out everything else that has been suggested.

Good luck!