paulmoore

Was driving my camaro home from work last night and was sitting in the turning lane. Sometimes people are idiots and can't drive, so only 3 cars made it through the light cycle. I decided to shut my car off to save gas. Anyway, when it got close for our light to go green again, I tried to start my car and all it did was crank. I was like WTF! I was cranking it in spurts for a couple of mins but nothing. Then I noticed that when I was cranking, I was getting no oil pressure on my gauge. I smelled gas, and my first thought was distributor gear. I have a COMP roller cam, and have been through a gear or two with it(curently the one I have is a bronze gear). Got AAA to flatbed the car to my house. Me and the old lady go out for dinner, come back an hour later. I pop off the distributor cap and have her crank the engine. The distributor spins. I tried to grab the rotor to see if I could stop it(as in if the d gear was worn and jumping teeth) and I got hit by my Blaster HVC coil. YEP WE HAVE SPARK!! lol. The gf notices that there was 10 psi of oil pressure when she cranked it, so I put the d cap back on and it fired right up and idled fine like nothing had happened. I am at a loss as to what happened. I was thinking vapor lock from idling in traffic too long and then shutting her down, but my coolant temp was at 180 with both fans on(Be Cool radiator module sytem). Nothing, however, explains the lack of oil pressure when I was cranking it and why I have it now. Any thoughts?? I'd love to hear 'em!

Atilla the Fun

I've had the same experiences with oil pressure when cranking. Hot (200*) oil gives less pressure than cold (90*) oil.

paulmoore

Ok well I think that I have found the issue. I drove the car this afternoon and attempted to re-simulate the conditions that existed when the car wouldn't start after I shut it off. I warmed her up, drove her about 10 miles, and then pulled into the driveway. I let her idle for about 2 minutes then I noticed something happening. My engine RPM's dropped to about 500( I usually idle at about 750-800 RPM) and my fuel pressure was jumping between 0 and 1 PSI. I think that I might be running into a vapor lock issue. When I noticed that happening, I shut her off and tried to restart it. NO DICE!! Normally when I come to a stop light, I am always watching my voltage gauge because if I sit at a light too long my voltage will drop below 12V. I have to blip the throttle every now and then to keep it at 12.6V. Maybe the blipping of the throttle was keeping the fuel flowing into the carb so it wouldn't get heat soaked??? It does sound like a classic case of vapor lock to me. But my next question is this...

How do I keep if from vapor locking? My fuel system is just a basic carb style setup with no regulator or return line. Dropping the tank is a PITA just to add a seperate return line. How did they do it in the older carb'd cars? Any info on this would be greatly appreciated.

Atilla the Fun

vapor lock is something I have NO first-hand experience with. Honestly has never happened to me. Some guys say a cool-can helps, some disagree. www.summitracing.com sells one made by Moroso, for $110, under part number MOR-65125. This cools your fuel by you adding ice, but first check that your fuel is nowhere near any part of your exhaust system. Second, Why not run a return line? Many of the late-70s V8 camaros came with a fuel pump that returned excess fuel to the tank. Your car should already/still have a line you can use. There should be 4 lines connected to the tank. Feed, return, charcoal canister, and one-way fresh air vent. This is a little white plastic thing above and forward of the rear axle, on the driver's side, just inside the subframerail. Start by checking the cheap stuff. As for your alternator issue, do you have underdrive pulleys? If not, you may need a new voltage regulator or even the entire alternator replaced.

383Camaro88

I had some vapor lock problems on an '77 K-10. Would be fine then sitting still at a light or where ever I idled at would cause it to stall. Would not start until it cooled down(I did not know that at the time). I racked my brain trying to figure it out. Then someone said try moving your fuel line away from the engine.

I got some hose and rerouted the line so instead of following the block from the pump to the carb I made it longer and had it go out to the fender and then over the valve cover and into the carb. Problem solved.

I thought about the cool can and all that but just getting it away from the block helped. Though it is a little tighter under the hood of a camaro then a full size pick up.