Wood clothes pins on the gas line
 

I posted this under another thread, but I am dying of curiosity. A neighbor said that he used to put clothes pins on his gas line (Flat head V8) to eliminate percolation and vapor lock. I don't see how it would work. What is the science? Would the wood pins act as a heat sink? Anybody have info on this? :confused: BW

Re: Wood clothes pins on the gas line
 

The clothes pins supposedly draw the heat from the gas line, thus cooling off the gas.

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http://www.fordbarn.com/forum/images/icons/icon1.gif Wood clothes pins on the gas line
Clothes pins were used to hold on a wet rag.

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Many Old Timers swear by the clothes pin fix. If I ever have the problem it's the first thing I'll try.

Regarding the oil spot. My "A", is just like my dog, it marking it's territory

Re: Wood clothes pins on the gas line
 

The deluxe version used cigarette package foil folded
over the gas line and held in place by the clothes pins.

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My Dad, when I was growing up, swore my the clothes pins and tin foil method of heat dispersion. That was quite awhile back. Your results may very?

Re: Wood clothes pins on the gas line
 

BW:

There is a good thread from early June. Search "vapor lock". The title of the thread is "vapor lock for non believers". I wrote a long reply at the end of the thread. Clothes pins are a waste of time & effort. Vapor lock is real. I recently wrote an article for The Smoky Mountain Chapter newsletter - Rumble Seat Reviewer.

Vic
Vic

Re: Wood clothes pins on the gas line
 

Went over to HAMB site to check out this question. Seems the wood pins work for some, but not others. The only function they could have would be as heat sinks - I thinks. ;) BW

Re: Wood clothes pins on the gas line
 

See I told you guys about the clothes pins, but everybody made fun of me, like it never happened. Somebody must have thought it worked, or they would never have tried it. I'm really disappointed in you guys that KNOW EVERYTHING.

Re: Wood clothes pins on the gas line
 

If clothes pins work it is not because they are a heat sink. Wood is a very poor conductor of heat.

Bob

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I think George got it right. Clothes pins holding a wet rag would do a good job of cooling the fuel.

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In the summer (when I was much younger), I used to wrap shop towels around the fuel pump and the line to the carb on the 8BA in my '50 Ford convertible and then pour water that I carried in the car on the rags. The evaporative cooling stopped the fuel from boiling and the engine would get enough fuel to run. It helped to pop the hood so that the safety latch was allowing the hood to be open slightly. I would have loved to have aluminum clothes pins which would have helped much more than wooden ones. Gar Williams

Re: Wood clothes pins on the gas line
 

I had some success with clothes pins on a 51 Chev. that would vapor lock. But, so far they have not helped on my Model A to prevent Ethanol gasoline percolation.

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AREOCRAFT.........Now there's an idea....Aluminum clothes pins, but put fins on them like a motorcycle cylinder.
" Hey ma' ya got any of them there finned aluminum clothes pins? My car's a vapor lockin' on me again."

Seriously, I was just teasing on my last post. I really appreciate all of you guys who are willing to share your knowledge with every one of us who are new to this hobby. I usually don't ask many questions, I just read the posts, and it never fails, someone will ask just what I want to know.

Thanks,
Stan

Re: Wood clothes pins on the gas line
 

I have another theory about clothes pins on gas lines. While wrapping a piece of aluminum foil around the gas line making it look like a flap and holding it in place with clothes pins; that would be an effective heat sink. But another thing that occurs is the gas line will now vibrate at a different frequency. That vibration, in my opinion, contributes some to gas percolation. I think this is why sometimes clothes pins work, and sometimes they don't.

What do others say?

Re: Wood clothes pins on the gas line
 

I've always thought the clothes pins prevented heat from getting to the fuel rather than pulling heat from the fuel. In other words, the clothes pin are an insulator. At least that's my take.

Rich

Re: Wood clothes pins on the gas line
 

Some cars came from the factory with a woven, black tubing over the engine compartments' fuel lines, called "lagging", to help prevent vapor-lock. Packard being one of them.-My 2 cents.

Re: Wood clothes pins on the gas line
 

I was going to back up what stinch was saying.

People say the clothes pins draw the heat away, but I've been told to put as many clothes pins on the fuel line as possible, which would basically become insulation.

I think the wood in the clothes pins is insulating the fuel line, not pulling the heat away.

Re: Wood clothes pins on the gas line
 

You guys completely missed the point: Clothes pins attract women's attention!! You have to take it from there yourself, period.

Clem, with a bizzilion copy righted stories to tell the ladies after they ask

Re: Wood clothes pins on the gas line
 

If you attached a real heat sink to the fuel line, it would make the problem WORSE, since it would allow the fuel line to absorb more heat! Insulation is what you need...

Doug

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For all the "non-believers"
We were lucky to find a rare once in a life time original Ford N.O.S. barn find gas line/ water outlet cooling device. This instrument will prevent vapor lock and also can be used to drop the temperature of your engine water outlet by a minimum of fifteen degrees. I must confess, I did try it on my '31 ford for a test and it works !!! I ran my car today with this fine device in 95 degree temperature with no ill effects from vapor lock or overheating.This unit was found in a trough that runs behind and below the cows (where all the Bullsh** falls) in a abandoned dairy barn in upstate New York.
So in conclusion this should put the clothes pin theory to rest. :)

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Say...Bob....you got any more of those...? I've called Bert's and Snyder's and while they've heard of them, neither of them has one. Is that a rare NOS model...or a repop...?

You realize you're sittin' on a gold mine, don't you....?

Re: Wood clothes pins on the gas line
 

Pop was an old ford trained mechnic and worked onfords from the 30's- late 60's than went to caddys but on a trip in fla. with a 1953 flathead v8 {he bought it new cause they were not goinng to make them anymore} had vaporlock and he only had a bag of grapefruits..... yup he cut two partly in halve and put them on fuel line used friction tape[old time tape used like duct tape today for everything] to hold the heat sinks on and away we went, when we got to a store he purchased wooden closepins and put them on no more problems don't know why or how it worked but it did impress this 5year old!!!!!!!!!

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By golly, Bob, I think you hit it a home run here! I see your secret is using modern PLASTIC instead of wood....clever.

Re: Wood clothes pins on the gas line
 

Hmmm – I think the clothes pin topic has led your memory astray.
The grapefruit method was for the fuel pump.

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The only slight relevance to the clothes pins it to add the use of tinfoil wrapped around the fuel line shiney side out. It has always been told to me to uise the clothes pins to hold the tin foil in place. I doubt if it does any good unless used in direct sunlight. Some people get heat and light confused. I have never bought into this theroy at heat is heat and light is light and it is possible to have them independantly so I do not believe the laws of thermal dynamics support the use of the tinfoil in a darkened enviroment to block heat has any affect. Rod

Re: Wood clothes pins on the gas line
 

Here are a couple of examples from the archives of Popular Science.

Re: Wood clothes pins on the gas line
 

My take on why it works . . .

It’s not the reflective aspect, it’s the conductive and heat transfer capacity
of the foil that does the cooling. Hot water baseboard heat uses the same
effect, and it’s semi hidden in it’s casing.

Re: Wood clothes pins on the gas line
 

bob

do you have phots of the outlet cooling device

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I thought they were for DRYING YO' WET SOX.
Bill W.

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Newbie here!

So roughly at what temperature range does vapor lock ocurr? Upper 70's? 80's and above? I do realize there's probably no set degree where vapor lock ocurrs. Just a wondering?

Glenn

Re: Wood clothes pins on the gas line
 

You got it Doug in NJ: Wooden clothes pins work just like blood letting at the barber shop cured disease in the 19th century!! Nothing more, nothing less.

Re: Wood clothes pins on the gas line
 

Back in the 50's my uncle had a '53 Ford V8. I was 4 or 5 at the time and I asked why he had all those clothes pins on his motor (must have been 40 or 50). He told me that was the only thing that would keep that car running in the hot Texas summer.

Re: Wood clothes pins on the gas line
 

My first car was a '53 Ford with heads and duals. I nursed it through two South Texas and Hill Country summers. Most ever'body I knew had clothespins on the gas line under the hood.
Fearless

Re: Wood clothes pins on the gas line
 

A couple of wooden clothes pins work as well as touching your nose and spinning around three times before entering your car.

Re: Wood clothes pins on the gas line
 

My 1964 425 HP 409 Chevy had a third fitting on top of the fuel filter. A line attached to this fitting that returned to the fuel tank. This allowed vapor to get out of the fuel and breathe back to the gas tank. Many big block GM cars of the '60's had this feature.

Re: Wood clothes pins on the gas line
 

Yup there is no set temp. You can have 15-20 Model A's driving on the same road on the same day and not all will have problems.

Here in South Florida where the temps are often in the 90's this time of year and no one in our club has ever had vapor lock.

It would be nice if there were a set of conditions that always caused vapor lock but there is none. some get it all the time, some never.