I took off the carb and intake manifold off Sunday to work on them. I left the hard fuel line from the fuel pump to the carb sitting there since I knew it was above the level of the tank, it should never leak.
Well, boy was I ever wrong....
Yesterday afternoon when I got home from work, I opened the garage to do some work outside. The door faces west, so the rear of my car got bathed in the South Texas afternoon sun. No problem, right?
Well about 30 mins into working I started to smell gas. I was tring to figure out if I spilled something as I was cleaning off the workbench, but all my searching was coming up empty. Finally I walked over to the car and saw gas literally running out of the hard fueld line at the carb connection (carb still isn't there). The entire valley pan was FULL of gas. What the H**L?!? I immediately threw a rag into the valleypan to try to get the gas out.
I ran back to the fuel tank and turned the gas cap and I had this HUGE rush of air out of the tank. I could even hear the metal tank make noise as it contracted and released pressure.
?!?!?!?!?
I had so MUCH pressure from the afternoon heat in my gas tank that it started to push the gas past the fuel pump and out of the hard line well above the level of the tank. I have no idea how this would happen.
My '69 does not have the vented gas neck nozzle, but I DID install a vented cap. Isn't a vented cap actually supposed to vent pressure both ways (for gas expaning pressure, and for using up the gas creating a vacuum)?
My 69 also has both fuel and vapor lines going to the fuel pump, but the Carter fuel pump I bought only has an inlet line, so I only hooked up the main line. The vapor line is still there, just plugged near the fuel pump since it's not used. Should I just unplug the vapor line? Will that allow it to breathe?
Obviously I think my new vented gas cap must be bad. But geesh, if I hadn't been out there, or near the car, I could have leaked out LOT of gas and been a big fire hazard. Geesh.
