[FC] Replacing fuel tank 5/16" rubber line....and fuel gauge

[Andrew Sego]

Here's an update to my vaporlock/lack of power problem.
 
First off I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to make suggestions.  THANK YOU!
 
At the suggestion of Chuch Sedak I began checking for blocked airflow under the top shroud.  Before I left work last night I pulled the oil cooler cover off and much to my surprise there was a wad of what appeared to be brown hair completely packing that corner of the shroud.  It was about the size of a pack of cigarettes.  I pulled it out and looked in towards the head.  I could see some more of this fluff in there.  Put it back together and drove home.
 
One the way home it had the same cool running low end punch that it did before.  Once it warmed up I noticed that it didn't really have the power loss like before.  I could feel and hear a difference.  I decided to run it fairly hard on the way to get it nice and hot, and to see if the power loss ever came back.  It didn't.  I shut it off at home and waited about half an hour to see if it would vaporlock.  I started it back up and let it idle.  It never did die, although I didn't drive it anywhere.  I shut it off and began tearing down the top of the motor.  When I disconnected the fuel line to the pump I noticed that I didn't have any fuel leaking out of the line...hmmm.  Once the top shroud was off I discovered more of this mystery material tucked into the heads and barrels.  Most of it was in the large holes..against the ports, between the cylinders and baffles, in the corners and up against the front and rear shrouds.  I used a dentil
 pick to dig it all out of there. I then stuck an air hose thru the thermostat doors to blow out the rest.  I ended up with a sandwich baggy full of dirty brown, long fiberglass insulation strands.  The insulation under the engine cover is long gone.  The PO must have removed it and the wire retainers.  I think I've heard that there is some sort of insulation in the ducts coming in from the side grills.  My best guess this is the remnants of that getting sucked into the engine.
 
I could see that the PO had in fact deflashed the heads.  The holes over the chambers were nice and open.  They also had the top shroud installed with caulking to seal it.  I decided to make a plate to block off the fresh air hose to the firewall.  It is sandwiched under the hose fitting and once the hose is in place you can't tell that it's even there.  I reinstalled the top shroud with sealant.  I checked the vacuum balance rubber connections.  They were fine from when i changed them 3 years ago, but I changed them anyway and installed pinch clamps on them for good measure.  I put everything else back together. I fired it up quickly to make sure that I wouldn't be walking to work in the morning.  Driving to work this morning it's still doing much better than before.  It's definitely not 100% and there is probably some room for improvement but it's already much better.  I'm sure the engine is tired, plus the fact that it's probably been
 run hot quite a bit contributes.  Did I mention that when I got the van that I found that the distributor weights were installed backwards and was retarding the timing?  That's all been fixed awhile back but I'm still finding strange things. Back to the morning drive....I realized that I must have set the accelerator cable a little too tight because the idle was high.  I had pulled the carbs and pump off as a unit, and when I reinstalled them I hooked the chokes up before the cable.  I rotated the crossbar a few times when I was tightening them back down to check for binding.  Well what happened was that set the chokes, so when I took the slack out of the cable it was on the fast idle cam.  I drove out for lunch today. Instead of going in I decided to go to the drive thru so I wouldn't have to shut it off (sorry Green Peace Police)  The line at the restaurant was moving really slowly and I hadn't reset the idle yet so the engine had a really
 good chance to get plenty warm.  When I got back from lunch I waited to check for vaporlock again. It started back up fine and ran for another 10 minutes.
 
I still need to replace the rubber hose at the tank for safety's sake.  I might not be out of the woods yet but it's looking promising. I'll keep an eye out for it coming back.  I also need to find out if there is anymore of this insulation coming from somewhere.  Chet Reed suggested that my lack of power problem could be an internally collapsed muffler, and now Bill S. does too.  It's kinda rusty outside and louder than a stockish looking muffler should be.  I'm going to look into replacing it.
 
Lessons learned:  
 
1. Never assume anything.  Even though I cleaned out the oil cooler 3 years ago and haven't driven it much since, it was still gunked up.  
 
2. The Corvantics List is full of knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful people.  Thanks again!
 
Sincerely,
Andrew Sego