I need to add this but I’m already at the height limit. May have to consider a lower profile air cleaner.
No problem, I’m kind of glad you dug it up! I still can’t get mine to start right 
I bought that exact same heat spacer, used it on my previous holley carb, still had problems. I rebuilt another carb for it, installed it with the heat spacer and it still does it 
I will do as you did sometime to check manifold and carb temp with my infrared gun. I just wonder if the fuel in my area is extra crappy causing this? I know the Edelbrock carb on my CJ7 jeep does the exact same thing if it sits more than a few minutes.
Is the metal gas line from the fuel pump touching the block, AC comp, PS pump?
Few years back my Cat was doing exact same thing as yours and this was resolved, among other things (related to overheating), using Ethanol free gazoline. Here in Montreal this is available (and clearly indentified as such) at almost every gaz station so it is an easy choice! My advise is you should use gazoline with the least amount of Ethanol that you can find and stick to it.
I wish, sadly I’ve never seen any gas station in the U.S. offer this.
I wish, sadly I’ve never seen any gas station in the U.S. offer this.
That’s a pretty broad statement.
There’s usually one gas station in about every town around here with straight gasoline. Iowa tends to have 87 octane with and without. Minnesota you find the areas near boats and there are pumps labeled as for boats or classic/vintage cars and those will have no ethanol in them. BP stations used to carry 93 octane that had no ethanol in it, but I don’t know if the local one here does anymore or if that was even a chain thing or specific to those around here.
Also there is a LOT more to this than whether or not there is ethanol in the fuel. I ran my old truck for years on ethanol without any issues related to the fuel. New fuels do not like to sit and age out much more quickly than “the good old days” so whether it’s got ethanol or not you are still likely to run into problems if you let it sit. The other thing is the electronic controls in most of the vehicles today compensate automatically for things that really cause problems in carbbed vehicles (the winter mix around here almost requires retuning the carb every spring and fall). Plus the higher pressures in the system make them much less prone to vapor lock.
One of the tricks I’ve read was to clip some wooden clothespins to the metal fuel line from the pump to the carb – the added area supposedly pulls the heat away faster and prevents vapor lock.
An electric fuel pump may also help as even if it does vapor lock you’ll be able to pump cool gas from the tank into the system and re-fill the carb without cranking the motor.
Hopefully you are onto something here, I will have to check. 
Thanks for the advice!
My car has pretty much done this since I got it regardless of carb and whether it was new fuel or not which my car pretty much always has fresh fuel because it gets driven a fair amount in the nice weather months. I would love to find somewhere with 100% gasoline without ethanol, Meijer was the last place I remember seeing it, but that’s probably been 10 years ago. I will have to pay a little closer attention and try several different gas stations to see, but I’ve pretty much given up on finding it in my area. You do bring up some good points about how the new Obama gas as we call it doesn’t last as long, seen this in lawn equipment more and more lately since it sits around a lot and over the winter. Fuel injection is so much nicer for the newer gas which is great in daily drivers, but I just wish I could get my carb’d cat to fire up like a fuel injected car 
I’m going to check my metal fuel line for contact or clearance as ClawIt suggested. I don’t think this is it, but I’m in the process of installing a new balancer and adding a timing pointer since the engine rebuilder left mine off apparently, but this is mainly for other tuning issues.
It’s really hard to find real gas in a big city in the States. If you’re in the EPA penalty box like we are, it’s damn near impossible.
I’m in Cincinnati, not sure if that is an EPA penalty area, but I haven’t seen 100% fuel in 10 years and it was even rare then.
Here is a web site that lists stations with E-F gas. There are 6 listed for Cincinnati. If one is reasonably close it might be worth a try. Tends to be a bit expensive…
cool thanks! There are a couple that are pretty close, one is a tool rental, wonder if they will sell to general public, might have to give them a call!
Last night I was working on swapping out the balancer, I took a look at the metal fuel line and saw a place where it was very close to the back side of the p/s pump, it might only be a 1/16" away from it. I will loosen the fitting on the fuel pump, see if I can get any adjustment there, if not I will put a slight bend in the line. I hope this help!
Interesting, would be cool if they made the higher octane 100% fuel w/o ethanol, but doubt that would happen.
I too think this will not happen… at the end of fourth last paragraph of this article, it is written that one way to increase octane is to increase the amount of ethanol… just the opposite way of what I think work best with our older carbs/engines!
I didn’t see that, but yeah that makes our situation even worse!!
If you are having trouble finding ethanol free fuel, suggest you contact boat repair/dealers or small engine repair shops. Boats and small engines operate much better on non ethanol fuel. It is worth the time to find it and the extra cost. The ethanol is bad news as it attracts water, effects rubber fuel lines and gums up carbs. I put ethanol free in my Cougar at home. If I’m driving I’ll run some ethanol through car but fill it with non ethanol when I get home.
up here, most anything over 90 octane is ethanol free and they take the trouble of writing it on the pump.