Stuck on the Road

This is the time of the year that I see many people on the side of the Interstate with their hoods open and a white handkerchief tied on their door handle. Their cars just died enroute…A chief cause of this is that you filled up with winter rated gasoline and it suddenly turned hot. The gasoline in the fuel bowl, or pipe, just gets hot and the gasoline vaporizes.

This is classic vapor lock.

In some older cars that still have carburetors the problem is a small fuel bowl. You have the option of changing the thermostat to a lower temperature, or as I did, attach in line a very large gasoline filter next to the carburetor intake fuel bowl. This allows a pool of gasoline always available to the carburetor. especially after parking the car in the hot sun and the fuel bowl is bone dry – evaporated – and hard to start.

Another idea is to install next to the gasoline tank a small booster electric fuel pump that pushes more gas up the line. Although you may have an electric fuel pump inconveniently located inside your fuel tank it requires mostly a full tank to keep it cool, or in hot weather you can vapor lock that end of the line.

Sometimes electric fuel pumps get clogged with dirt and rust deposits and need to be removed. That is a chore. If I were to buy a newer car with an electric fuel pump in the gasoline tank I would want to see an inspection plate over the fuel tank located inside the rear of the passenger flooring. Otherwise I would have to drain the tank, and then remove the straps; it is a pain and expense to go this route.

You can also buy insulated gasoline fiberglass tubing that acts as an insulator from road and engine heat on the gas lines.

If you are pouring gasoline into your car from old gasoline cans, use a big wide funnel with a screen – preferably the screen-filter used in pouring paint. You will be surprised at the amount of grit captured. The three grades of gasoline you purchase have a filter index – the 93 octane has the best-filtered grade.

Gas tanks stored over winter and cars stored over winter tend to develop gummy gasoline that clogs up the carburetor or injectors. You can add STABIL ™ at the beginning of the season; once you start driving again, add a can of gasoline carburetor-injector cleaner to the gas tank. You will notice an improvement.

All these products may be purchased inexpensively in the auto section of Wal*Mart ™, Advance Auto, or other automotive stores.

Diesel vehicles use what is known as a Universal Fuel- it is the same fuel for home heating oil as Diesel motors except for the dye put in to indicate you paid road tax.   Universal fuel will keep for years with no care, especially if buried in the ground with an approved storage tank. There exist Universal Fuel stabilizers you can use if you wish. When you check your fuel filters and they show a yellow smudge, or at the bottom of the tank you see yellow goo it is time to use stabilizers, although I would first pump out the good oil floating on the top, and then separately pump out the goo. Add stabilizers and return the oil to the tank. The Soviets had actual huge swimming size pools of diesel stored for 60 years; it is still ready to go to run the military.

As of today, diesel is US$3.99 a gallon and Hi-Test gasoline is right behind that cost. The last time this happened it killed the small diesel trucker and equipment operators. The cost of operating the machinery and passing the cost of fuel onto the customer was prohibitive; ergo – more business failure. The President is at this time asking Congress to eliminate the fuel subsidies to the oil companies to save Federal money – yet when enacted, if at all, it will pass on higher costs to the consumer.

Of course this is rationalized political move that you will go out and buy a new gas –diesel efficient vehicle but it too will go up in cost as the manufacturer has to add in the oil costs for production, delivery and service.

If you live in the sticks you can safely store, if you have the money to buy, fuel for your garden tillers and tractors. If you live in the city you will consider public bus transportation and carpooling again.   It is all one big mess and soon to get worse in this election year.

I would suggest for my Prepper friends, as a reminder, when oil goes up, all costs go up, including food and commodities in general. Wall Street may profit from the cost increases at the expense of the working poor but the cost in unemployment, and less consumer spending will highlight another bank system crash. This may spiral us into hyper inflation as the money in circulation is monopoly money – money not based on anything but our good name and that is dwindling in the international market.

So from the gallon of gas to the loaf of bread, it all hinges on oil.

God Bless,

Old Timer

COPYRIGHT: 2012, www.Back2theLand.com, Mark Steel, all rights reserved.