I had just finished this last weekend (after near 5 months) restoring the engine and bay on my 70 camino. I kept it completely stock in every detail and with after-market crap kept to a decent minimum; I rebuilt or refurbed or replaced everthing including replacing both engine harnesses from M&H. Only thing I didn't reinstall was the smog tubes on the exhaust manifolds, the smog devise on the driver side inner fender, and the charcoal filter. Actually, I'm missing the last two items. Anyways, its all tuned up and runs sweet. Drove it around a couple of times this week loving life.

Today, I drive up to chevron station and fill it up at $2.98 a gallon ( 8O ), I get back on the road, and idling at the light of a huge intersection in the fast lane with tons of cars behind me, the engine just shuts off by itself. I try to start it, the starter is cranking but the engine won't catch. In the mean time cars are trying to go around me and I'm feeling pretty stupid.
What a camino buzz kill.

Never having been car stranded in my 43 years (minus 17), I was'nt really sure what in the hell to do, decided to call AAA, but then thought I would try one more time to start it. After about 20 seconds of the starter cranking, the car started, and I drove home without a problem.

what the hell happened?

Hmm almost sounds like it could have been vapor lock, or it just got flooded. When it started, did it blow black smoke out?

I honestly am not sure, but I don't think so. Now that I think about it, the only thing I did while sitting at the light was shift to second for a quick start. Oh one other thing, the shifter indicator is off by one position; drive is Nuetral on the indicator, but I wouldn't think this all means much.

I did think about a vapor lock, what could cause this?

Fuel line too close to heat causing air bubbles in it.

Hmmm... the after market stainless fuel line is resting against the short hose between the intake and the water pump; do you think this is the problem?

Hmm I doubt it, but it's a possibility. I would try and seperate it anyways, but, if it wasn't a recurring problem, I would almost rule that theory out. Try and look more at your fuel filters though, and the possibility of fuel pump.

I'll check out the filter in the carb tomorrow. The fuel pump is new - is it common for these to be faulty when new?

Hehe always use this rule....just because something is new, doesn't mean it is GOOD....

I think that rule applies to about 60% of every after-market part I've purchased. :-P

Took the car out this morning to the local car hangout; the engine ran strong and did not provide any problems. I guess I won't worry about it too much unless it happens again.

Sound like you could have just sucked an air buble. Although, something like the silver paper thing under the cap of fuel system treatments could have gotten sucked flat against the pick up, but I don't think that can really happen with GM with the sock over the fuel pickup.

I doubt it was vapor lock. You said you just filled it up. Vapor lock is rare on a full tank of fresh gas. Since it died right after a fill-up I would suspect the gas. If by chance the gas station had just gotten a delivery there could be some stirred up junk in the gas. I would gheck you gas filter right away. Just think, nearly 3 bucks a gallon for bad gas.

Did you use an ethenol blend? Would that make a differance? :? My experiance leads me away from ethonol blends if possible.

No, I don't think it was an ethanol blend; I'm not even sure we can buy the stuff in CA.

I did learn some interesting stuff about vapor lock. It typically happens in the line before the fuel pump from a heat source like the exhaust system especially on a hot day. It can also happen easier because gas is formulated on a seasonal basis. The reason is because of gasoline volatility. Gas is designed to be more or less volatile dependent on rather it's spring, summer, fall, or winter. If they change the gas formulation for a certain season, and the weather warms up, then it can cause the gas to be more volatile and then vapor lock. New cars don't have this problem much because the pump is in the tank. Also engine mounted fuel pumps with a return line greatly reduce this problem. A heat shield under the carb also helps alleviate the problem.

When I got the car it had an incorrect single line fuel pump; I changed it back to a stock 2 line pump (with a return line), but I didn't check to see if the return line was clogged or not. I do have a shield under the carb (1970 396).

I got the info about gas volatility from a Mobil site on gas formulation, but here is another bit of info I found on the net - hope its interesting:

"The true manifestation of vapor lock is when fuel somewhere between the fuel tank and the pump boils into a vapor. In this case, either the vapor pressure of the fuel is too high (****ty gas), or there is an adequate source of heat which literally boils the fuel inside the fuel line. The bubble(s) of vaporized form and collect and start to displace the liquid fuel around it, until there is a column of nothing but fuel vapor in a localized portion of the fuel line. Eventually, the running engine/fuel pump comes to the point where there is not sufficient NPSH for the fuel pump to work. In short, fuel pumps will pump liquid fuel, not fuel vapor. The carburetor fuel bowl soon runs dry, and the engine stops. This is vapor lock at it's finest.
The problem with the premise that you can just let the car cool, is that you don't realize just how much heat it takes to make gasoline boil. For example, fuel lines are typically routed too close to exhaust system components, causing a common source of vapor lock woes. In this case, A LOT of heat is being applied to the fuel line and the fuel that it contains. Fuel moves slowly enough through the line that when the line becomes hot enough, the fuel picks up a sufficient amount of heat to boil. At the onset of vapor lock, the fuel pump merely begins to cavitate (I think it's still a valid term for a diaphram style fuel pump, right?) and reduced pump output creates an engine that sputters and coughs as it runs lean on the verge of fuel starvation. Eventually, the car WILL poo out, and after some time, things will cool down enough for the gasoline to condense back into a liquid form, and then you're back on the road till it heats up enough to boil, etc. It took a lot of BTUs to make that stuff boil, so it'll have to give up that same amount of BTUs to condense back to a liquid. Unless you fix the root of the problem, it'll never go away."