2 summers ago on a real hot day (over a 100) while driving on the highway may car started to run rough and the throttle wasn't responding right. About 1/2 a mile from home the car stalled out. It would crank, but it wouldn't start. After waiting about 15 minutes the car started and I made it home. quite a few people told me it was caused by vapor lock due to the heat. It never happened again.

Not a rare thing for the carb to vapor lock.   When that happened, the resulting lean condition allowed the car to backfire.  The gas fumes then caught on fire.   This can happen under very hot underhood conditions.  At very slow speeds the under hood car raise a lot even if the coolant and oil temp is okay due to the fact there is not a lot of air moving under there.

Urban legend, or some old wives tales have it that putting the old, wooden type clothes pins on the fuel line will stop a vapor-lock from ever happening. The wooden pins absorb the heat, and regulate it enough to keep it from vapor-locking. I used to have a pic. of a big block car with about twenty of them on it!!!

It does werk...jest looks funny as heck...but so does stalling out in the middle of a parade...

After the initial shock, I was more embarrassed than anything else. Here I was all dressed up, the car couldn't shine any brighter, people on both sides of the street and this had to happened. Then I developed a valve tap, which went away after the car cooled down, but as I was leaving I heard a very fast ticking/tapping sound, and noticed that my speedometer took a dump  . But  after what happened to another guy who had his classic Charger in the parade, my problem was nothing.

Talk about having a bad day - Car and House --wow . In the 1960's before modern technology , we use to intall a coiled copper gas line - inside a metal container filled with ice to cool the gas on hot days at the drag strip . Boy that brings back memories - vapor lock is weird -sometimes it happens -somes times it doesn't

Cookie,

[QUOTE=Ten15]Cookie, [/QUOTE]

I would hazard a guess that one of the cars may have had a fuel filter made of glass. They're very available and somewhat popular as an accessory for modified cars. The glass types have had occasions where the glass will shatter, crack, whatever from heat and vibration, leaking fuel all over a hot engine. This has happened with fires resulting of varying levels of damage.

Never, never use one of these aftermarket glass fuel filters!

[QUOTE=Gunslinger]I would hazard a guess that one of the cars may have had a fuel filter made of glass. They're very available and somewhat popular as an accessory for modified cars. The glass types have had occasions where the glass will shatter, crack, whatever from heat and vibration, leaking fuel all over a hot engine. This has happened with fires resulting of varying levels of damage.

Never, never use one of these aftermarket glass fuel filters![/QUOTE]