[x33rs]

There are things you can do to combat it. We daily drive our classics without issues, using the crappy 91 pump gas we have, with at least 10% ethanol.

For starters I never run any less than the highest octane offered. Lower octane just exaggerates the issue.

I make sure all fuel lines are away from any major source of heat. I find the factory routings to be sufficient. Both the Z and the bird that we daily drive have their factory fuel lines in place.

Proper venting of the fuel system is important and if not vented properly, can sometimes trick one into thinking it's vapor locking.

I also like to use a thick carb gasket (1/4" minimum) to help absorb some of the intake heat. The added benefit is a slight increase in plenum volume. If you want this to be more effective, a 1/4" thick piece of wood is the best heat insulator, with a pair of paper thin gaskets, it's better than the one piece 1/4" thick gasket deal. 1/4" still allows all the factory hook ups without disturbing anything, with the only change that the divorce choke rod needs a bit of adjusting to compensate for the height change.

I always make sure the fuel pump is healthy, some weaker pumps can exhibit a surge issue, or have more trouble pushing/pulling hot fuel.

Lastly, on cars that came with a return style fuel system, I always use it. I see many that are bypassed and the pump dead headed. That keeps the fuel stagnant in the system unless the needle and seat/seats are open.

However even with that said, our Z which is a factory dead head/non return system has never shown any problems with vapor lock, and it's been driven daily for 2 years in the AZ desert heat.

I also make sure the cooling system is up to snuff. I prefer to run cooler thermostats (160-170). The cooler the engine, the cooler everything else is under the hood. Typically our Z runs 185-ish on the hottest summer days when ambient temps approach 110 degrees. It runs cooler during the cooler months obviously, but stays in the 165 range. There is a ton of debate what people feel engine temps should be but the bottom line is, if you want to run a hot stat like a 195, you're going to increase your chances of vapor lock.

I've experimented with blocking the heat cross overs with success but these days, both of our daily drivers are still using their divorce chokes so I have the cross overs open for proper cool weather operation. This hasn't caused any hot start or heat soak issues to date.

Some may suggest to install a pusher pump, which does help fight vapor lock. Frankly I've never found the need for it. I still run the stock mechanical AC pumps on both cars.

Make sure your fuel sock in the tank is in good shape. I run an oversized sock on the cars that is much larger than OEM. I sourced them for a 70's pickup truck and swapped out the smaller units on the cars. Don't recall the part number off hand.

Other little tricks I do is check all OEM brass fittings (if equipped) and I find most internal dimensions are small. I drill them while still leaving enough flare for the fuel line to seal. I also take the shorter metal lines that fit in the cabinet blaster and run glass bead through them at high pressure in both directions in an attempt to extrude hone and soften/enlarge the turns. I've yet to CC one to see if there is a difference, but plan to next time I do one.

It's all just little things in an attempt to help the fuel system.

Of course you can try wrapping things. I tend to not do that because I don't want to disturb the factory appearances.