Preventing Vapor Lock

[iliketoski]

I think I've only had vapor lock 1 or 2 times until this year. (Original owner '01 VLX w/monsoon)

Well I've had vapor lock both of my two last weekends, I know the gas I'm using has ethanol, so maybe they bumped up the percentage some this year? Anyway, I knew how to clear it, (opened engine compartment, ran blower, cold towel on fuel rails, a couple of key cycles). We were on our way in 5-10 min.

My question, will adding Sta-bil keep vapor lock from occurring? Which one, red or blue/green one?

Thx

[TCdave]

I find that running 89 octane instead of 87 helps. We use our boat a lot during the summer so I don't bother using marine sta-bil until the last few fill ups in the fall along with non-ethanol gas. According to the thread below it looks like running non-ethanol helps a lot if it is available in your area.

http://www.themalibucrew.com/forums/index.php?/topic/56829-an-effort-to-battle-heat-soak-induced-vapor-lock/

[Bill_AirJunky]

I just run the blower a lot. Seems to work fine.

[iliketoski]

Unfortunately, I don't have access to non-ethanol. I wonder if 89 octane w/ethanol, avoids the issue?

[dalt1]

I just run the blower a lot. Seems to work fine.

Didn't work for me.

[Vtxdave]

Adding stabil didn't help on my moomba either and I used the marine.

[wdr]

Star tron made by Star Bright supposedly breaks down the crud to include water in to small enough particles to be burnt off, that's the claim anyway. I had a vl issue on my '06 and after one treatment and follow-up treatments of StaBil I never had another problem with it. I didn't drain the tank to clean it, but we put a lot of hours on that boat in any given year so we burnt a lot gas to purge the system as it were. We did run the blower religiously after that incident, but I do beleive the Startron helped.

Edited August 4, 2015 by wdr

[Slayer]

FWIW, I've run star tron in every tank since I've owned both my '97 SSLX and my current boat. Never an issue. wdr may be onto something. I never thought about it having an effect on VL.

[wdr]

From what I have been told, the condensation/water makes its way from the tank to the heat soaked external fuel pump and vaporizes creating the vapor lock problem. No water, no problems. The newer in tank pumps won't get hot enough for that to occur because they sit in the tank and are cooled by the fuel. We just have to deal with other fuel tank issues like lame fuel gauges!

[MadMan]

A solution I used in the past was to plumb in a fuel priming bulb that would be used on an outboard. I put it right at the fuel tank. If I had vapor lock, while trying to start the engine, have someone squeeze the bulb. This would get liquid fuel to the pump and the engine would start. This is a cheap and easy way out that gets you going immediately. It's a good solution if it only happens a couple times a year.

I haven't researched if these fuel additives or 89 octane raise the fuels vapor pressure but I doubt they do.

[scottnance]

Indmar offers a electric lift pump kit to over come a known vapor lock issue, expensive but it works well.