I think I was the victim of vapor lock yesterday, but not sure 'cause I don't know exactly what that is. OK, heres what happened; Got up and drove about 4 blocks to the Shell station. Pumped gas. Got in and turned key. It cranked and cranked but would not fire. Cranked it again giving it gas but would not fire. Walked home to get a spark plug socket and plugs. Replaced plugs. Still would not start, but I noticed that a puff of white smoke had come from the tail pipe. I figured that combustion must have taken place so I just kept cranking it and giving it gas until it finally sputtered to life. Haven't had any problems starting before or since. WTF?

 

Vapour lock is when the underhood temperature gets hot enough to vaporize the fuel in the lines or the carb bowl. It sounds like that could have been your problem.

 

Hmmm, vapor lock after driving less than a mile? I doubt the engine would generate enough heat to vaporize fuel in the line in that amount of time.

What did the plugs you removed look like?

 

Black and oily(?) or perhaps they were just soaked by the gasoline in the combustion chamber. Gas actually dripped out when I removed the #4 plug.

 

Not vapor lock, then. That's flooding. After it failed to start on the first crank, you should have floored it once and held it there while you cranked. It would have started quickly after that.

Most likely this is a case of having more choke than needed. Often happens when restarted after running for only a short time.

 

Perhaps that was why the 'choke' light was on!

 

Probably not, the choke light should be on when the car isn't running and off while it is.

 

Consider the choke circuit: The choke circuitry is designed in such a way that it (the choke heater) only gets 12v when the alternator is charging. This prevents it from heating while the engine is on, but the car is sitting still. This design ALSO prevents the choke from getting pulled off if the alternator goes bad. Thus, the choke will stay engaged.

The choke light is mislabeled and should be the alternator light.

 

Now I'm really confused!

The same thing happened again the other night. I took five7kid's advice and held the pedal down while I turned the key and she fired right up.

 

When was the choke light on, while driving, or while trying to restart it?