Hot bike with bubbling gas?? WTH?

[FireCapt41]

On my recent trip to South Carolina, we stopped for a break and I could not get my SEi started. I had smelled gas for a few minutes then when I went to start it, I believe it was "flooded" I looked in the tank and the gas was literally bubbling. What the heck was that???

I have heard the 85-87 injection will act up, specifically when it is hot. We were riding in 98-100F heat but I was on 3 or 4 bars which is normal for my ride. The only thing I can think of that may have been different was that I was trying to fill the tank as full as possible and the two times I did that, I could smell fuel when I was riding but both times, the tank would have been at least half empty. Did I need to leave a little room for air in the tank?

Any thoughts/suggestions??

[wildhorse]

The heat radiating off the engine will cause the fuel to boil from time to time, Suggestion would be to give the bike 5 minutes to cool down before fueling in extreme temp conditions and whatever you do, make sure there is no form of ignition around when you open the tank up. That boiling will cause excessive vapors and you wouldn't want to be around that torch if it were to ignite.

[FireCapt41]

I did start opening the fuel cap when we took breaks and that seemed to prevent it later in the trip. And no worries on the vapor issue,,,,,,my buddies laughed at me because I had my fire extinguisher out when I popped the cap the first time. They laugh, but it's just to tease, they love having a firefighter/medic on the trips with them.

[wildhorse]

The only problem with having a fire extinguisher out is that when and if ignition hits, you are already burned and the extinguisher is just an after effect.

[sparky65]

On my recent trip to South Carolina, we stopped for a break and I could not get my SEi started. I had smelled gas for a few minutes then when I went to start it, I believe it was "flooded" I looked in the tank and the gas was literally bubbling. What the heck was that???

I have heard the 85-87 injection will act up, specifically when it is hot. We were riding in 98-100F heat but I was on 3 or 4 bars which is normal for my ride. The only thing I can think of that may have been different was that I was trying to fill the tank as full as possible and the two times I did that, I could smell fuel when I was riding but both times, the tank would have been at least half empty. Did I need to leave a little room for air in the tank?

Any thoughts/suggestions??

I've owned my 85 LTD five years at least and it has always started and ran good except for a battery that was'nt up to the demands on it so I bought the best battery I could find with a higher amp output,that fixed that problem.

Now to the problem..this summer has been very hot here, above normal temps. and the heat is causing a bit of a problem starting it when its running hot and I stop for fuel.The engine turns over fine but does'nt start immediately like usual, a friend on this site clued me in to what is happening,the gas is hot in the tank and the pump takes longer to overcome the pressure buildup.This makes complete sense because it never happens on cool days only on hot days, 30 degrees Celcius.
Even so it still always starts if I give the throttle a quick twist "But" then the "Fuel system" light comes on and stays on til the next time the engine is shut off and restarted which resets the sensor. The sensor thinks something is wrong when the throttle is twisted without the engine running, thats a pretty lame explaination I know but it gets the point across. I'm going to listen to the pump the next time this happens and won't hit the start button til I hear the pump shut off after turning the key on which should indicate pressure to the injectors has been made.