Got Her Hayfield Ready & Boiling Gas with a Twist

This weekend was a big step...finally got the 841S out and about after a long repair and restoration process. I'm by no means done, but she's at least back together and running well enough to take her for a spin (which I did with pride on Saturday). Drove out about 2 miles on the road to my uncle's farm where the rake I'll be using is (it's a "batwing"-type rake that requires a hydraulic remote valve). Tractor lifts it well, and no leaks in the new hydraulic plumbing.

By the way, that Sherman over-under really lets you fly down the road in 4-over...

Anyway, I got to my uncle's farm, and noticed gas bubbling out around the fuel float sending unit (hadn't put the tin back on at that point).

Boiling gas.

The gas is non-ethanol. So much for that fix. And I've read everything on here from putting diesel in the gas to putting tin foil under the tank to re-routing the fuel line. Well, I went to my trusty local dealer (family-operated equipment company for 3 generations). When I told him my gas was boiling, he smiled knowingly and said, "Dad used to have a feller work for him who would take wooden clothespins and put them on the fuel line every 4 inches or so. It's supposed to dissipate the heat."

I said, "Why not?" and went home and tried it. Spaced out three clothespins on the fuel line. Drove the tractor out to my uncle's again. No boiling gas. Now, someone smarter than me tell me how that worked...

Got the tin back on her tonight. Here's a picture of Dad (who's been working by my side throughout these past few months) sitting on her for the first time:

mvphoto7895.jpg
 
" Now, someone smarter than me tell me how that worked..."

The clothes pins act as heat sinks- they soak up the heat from the fuel line. One of the oldest shade tree mechanic's tricks in the book.
 
(quoted from post at 20:39:58 06/10/14) " Now, someone smarter than me tell me how that worked..."

The clothes pins act as heat sinks- they soak up the heat from the fuel line. One of the oldest shade tree mechanic's tricks in the book.

Must be special wood. Never really thought of wood as a heat conductor
 
radara4077,
First off great job on getting the old girl running. Yeah!
Now to the tough part. There is an O ring that goes around that sender. It should stop anything from coming out there. You should get that fixed. Second, the gas cap should be vented, any boiling vapors should come out there. I have the replacement cap that Ford gave out free a long time ago. When the gas boils, you can hear the vapors whistle out that cap.
HTH
Keith
 
I think that the reason why they work is not that the wooden clothespins are good conductors of heat, but that they are a inhibitor to change in temperature. If the wood is on the lines from when the tractor is started cold, the part of the line closest to the engine/exhaust begins to heat up and as the heat travels along the metal of the line and gets to the first wooden clothespin, the heat is somehow stopped from traveling further up the line because the part of the line that is actually touching the clothespin can't change temperature as quickly as the bare line, but eventually it will get past that impediment in heat transfer and the line past the first clothespin will begin to heat up and then it will encounter the second clothespin, end so on up the line, so eventually it will end up transferring the heat all of the way up the line, but just not as quickly as it would if the clothespins were not there, so instead of the fuel boiling in the tank after only 20 or 30 minutes, it might take a couple of hours, or if there's enough of the clothespins on the line the whole system may get to some point of equilibrium before the fuel in the tank ever gets hot enough to boil.

I remember my mom had some metal cooking pots that had metal handles that were spot welded to the bodies of the pots themselves, but had wooden grips on them. The metal of the handles protruded out of the end of the wooden grip. If you ever touched the part of the metal handle on the pot side of the grip you would burn yourself, but the metal protruding out the other end of the grip never got hot enough to burn you.
 
(quoted from post at 13:48:55 06/11/14) the pins don't act as a heat sink they just allow more air to flow around the line and keep the line from gathering heat
lways trying to look for the positive, so, I guess the clothes pins are cheaper than magnets?? Get multiple colors & they will be decorative.
 
Jesse,
I'm not an engineer of any kind but at age 60 I know I saw clothespins on fuel lines at least 50 years ago. And I know they cured the problem they were meant to fix.
Are you trying to tell me you have never seen clothespins on a fuel line?
Alan
 
(quoted from post at 17:25:56 06/11/14) Jesse,
I'm not an engineer of any kind but at age 60 I know I saw clothespins on fuel lines at least 50 years ago. And I know they cured the problem they were meant to fix.
Are you trying to tell me you have never seen clothespins on a fuel line?
Alan
een them back in the 50's, but even now I can't come up with any reason why they would help & am still a "doubter". :) Maybe I should put some on a length of tubing & stick one end in a fire & see if beyond the pins it burns my hand any later than same without pins? Or the hand ahead of pins?
 
(quoted from post at 13:48:55 06/11/14) the pins don't act as a heat sink they just allow more air to flow around the line and keep the line from gathering heat

Unless the pins are somehow propping the rest of the line up away from some other part of the tractor, they couldn't possibly allow more air to flow around the line. In fact,. they would be blocking air from touching the part of the line that the pin was attached to.
 
(quoted from post at 21:44:41 06/11/14)
(quoted from post at 13:48:55 06/11/14) the pins don't act as a heat sink they just allow more air to flow around the line and keep the line from gathering heat

Unless the pins are somehow propping the rest of the line up away from some other part of the tractor, they couldn't possibly allow more air to flow around the line. In fact,. they would be blocking air from touching the part of the line that the pin was attached to.
e see eye to eye. Furthermore, the definition of "vapor lock" is that the lower suction pressure or vacuum of the fuel pump created the situation where the gasoline vaporized & the suction then could only suck vapor, not liquid, and with gravity feed this is not possible , and in the days gone by, the clothes pins were usually in the wrong place to help (if anybody believed they did anyway), in that they were after the fuel pump instead of before it!!!! Nobody has convinced me yet. Let me see some logic, reasoning, cause, evidence.
 
The evidence is this: I had gas boiling after driving in road gear less than 2 miles. Put the clothespins on, drove the same distance, no boiling gas.

The only change was adding the clothespins.

I don't think it has anything to do with the airflow around the line. I think Sean is on the right track with the cookware. Maybe the wood prevents the transfer of heat up the line.
 
(quoted from post at 22:42:49 06/11/14) The evidence is this: I had gas boiling after driving in road gear less than 2 miles. Put the clothespins on, drove the same distance, no boiling gas.

The only change was adding the clothespins.

I don't think it has anything to do with the airflow around the line. I think Sean is on the right track with the cookware. Maybe the wood prevents the transfer of heat up the line.
ot bought yet! Sorry.
 
(quoted from post at 21:57:12 06/11/14) we see eye to eye. Furthermore, the definition of "vapor lock" is that the lower suction pressure or vacuum of the fuel pump created the situation where the gasoline vaporized & the suction then could only suck vapor, not liquid, and with gravity feed this is not possible , and in the days gone by, the clothes pins were usually in the wrong place to help (if anybody believed they did anyway), in that they were after the fuel pump instead of before it!!!! Nobody has convinced me yet. Let me see some logic, reasoning, cause, evidence.

What fuel pump are you talking about? It is a gravity fed system and there is no fuel pump for them to be "before" or "after".
 
(quoted from post at 07:03:42 06/12/14)
(quoted from post at 21:57:12 06/11/14) we see eye to eye. Furthermore, the definition of "vapor lock" is that the lower suction pressure or vacuum of the fuel pump created the situation where the gasoline vaporized & the suction then could only suck vapor, not liquid, and with gravity feed this is not possible , and in the days gone by, the clothes pins were usually in the wrong place to help (if anybody believed they did anyway), in that they were after the fuel pump instead of before it!!!! Nobody has convinced me yet. Let me see some logic, reasoning, cause, evidence.

What fuel pump are you talking about? It is a gravity fed system and there is no fuel pump for them to be "before" or "after".
"and with gravity feed this is not possible"
Read the [u:f9a7ce66c8]whole[/u:f9a7ce66c8] paragraph.
 
I still don't understand what you're trying to say with that. In one breath you are saying that it is a gravity fed system, and in the next you are talking about a fuel pump which doesn't exist on a gravity fed system. If you are referring to some other model of vehicle or tractor that does have a fuel pump then I'm not sure what that has to do with the discussion at hand.

The original post said that he had fuel boiling in the tank, he said nothing about vapor lock. He also did not say anything about the boiling actually causing a problem with the way that the tractor was running. All that he said was that the clothespins stopped the boiling from occurring. I was just trying to come up with an explanation that made sense as to why the clothespins helped.
 
Exactly. No problem yet other than it boiling that one time.

If boiling gas doesn't cause the engine any troubles (as I've read some have trouble with it shutting off), and the tank is sealed (minus the vented cap), then even if my magic clothespins stop working, why not let it boil away in the tank? Is it a fire hazard?
 
If you can smell the gasoline vapors coming out of the vented cap then I suppose it's a potential fire hazard. They should dissipate quickly if you're driving the tractor around, but running it in an enclosed space after it is to the point where it's boiling would be my concern.
 
(quoted from post at 09:30:02 06/12/14) I still don't understand what you're trying to say with that. In one breath you are saying that it is a gravity fed system, and in the next you are talking about a fuel pump which doesn't exist on a gravity fed system. If you are referring to some other model of vehicle or tractor that does have a fuel pump then I'm not sure what that has to do with the discussion at hand.

The original post said that he had fuel boiling in the tank, he said nothing about vapor lock. He also did not say anything about the boiling actually causing a problem with the way that the tractor was running. All that he said was that the clothespins stopped the boiling from occurring. I was just trying to come up with an explanation that made sense as to why the clothespins helped.

Sean, if you google vapor lock and read the Wiki deff. you will see exactly what JMOR is referring to.
 
(quoted from post at 20:41:46 06/12/14)

Sean, if you google vapor lock and read the Wiki deff. you will see exactly what JMOR is referring to.

I know what vapor lock is and how it relates to a system with a fuel pump, but I still don't understand why he brought it up in this thread at all. This thread was about gasoline boiling in the fuel tank in a gravity fed system, and there was no mention of vapor lock anywhere so his comments didn't seem to apply to this thread.
 
(quoted from post at 09:34:56 06/12/14) Exactly. No problem yet other than it boiling that one time.

If boiling gas doesn't cause the engine any troubles (as I've read some have trouble with it shutting off), and the tank is sealed (minus the vented cap), then even if my magic clothespins stop working, why not let it boil away in the tank? Is it a fire hazard?

If your tank is sealed with no vent, you will run out of gas.
(stick a straw in a glass of water and hold your finger over the end and pull it out....)
And anything boiling in a sealed container will go boom eventually.

My wood clothes pin guess.
In nature, if something warm contacts something cold, the heat will try to transfer to the cool thing.
(that Nature hates a vacuum thing)
Since wood is a very poor heat conductor, some of the heat energy will be lost trying to 'warm' the clothes pin.
Nature doesn't care if the wood is a poor conductor, it's going to try anyway, to warm it to the steel line temperature....losing heat in the process.
 
No mention of run issues.

I'm thinking the heat coming off the engine is heating the bottom of the gas tank is causing the fuel to boil - Not sure how clothespins on the fuel line would prevent that.

In my youth, I too remember seeing clothespins on the fuel line but that was a supposed fix for vapor lock.

If the termites get to your cloths pins, you may consider a more modern solution :)

mvphoto7967.jpg
 
Termites won't eat modern plastic clothes pins. Can't tell, but is
the thinking that heat is conducted up the gasline and heating
tank of gas to boiling??!! Doesn't that model have a gas line
with a hose section in it? ???
 
(quoted from post at 19:28:33 06/10/14) noticed gas bubbling out around the fuel float sending unit [/img]

I'm not entirely familiar with what you're describing as the "fuel float sending unit". Is this the sending unit for the gas gauge?

Where, exactly, was the gasoline in your case? Is the gas cap vented?
 

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