MG Car Repair: points, vapour lock, fri

Question
This is a follow up too my question last week,,
I did get my points set at .015 as you said and put a new condenser in also, car seems to run smooth.But my ordinal problem is still there, I drove the car on Fri, it ran great for about 2 miles and then it was like you turned the switch off, just went dead, while it was still rolling I started it right back up , cut off again , like it had no fuel , would not fire, managed to get it home, put a new fuel pump on and changed the fuel filter , nothing helped, still cutting off on me, I did notice the last time it cut off I pulled the choke all the way out and it keep running enough to get me home, that is the way it has done in the past when my fuel pump was bad, so I am at a lose as to what is causing this, if it would totally quit maybe I can find the problem, but when I get it home it will fire right up and run.

Any idea's will really help.

Thanks so much

Answer
HI Steve.  This sounds like a vapour lock.  I hear of this quite often, especially since they started adding Ethanol to the fuel.  I guess you are using an ethanol E10 blend.  Basically, the exhaust manifold is getting so hot that it is radiating heat to the fuel lines, carburetters and inlet manifold.  The fuel is literally boiling before it gets into the engine.  Once you open the bonnet, you let all the heat out and the problem goes away.  

This is not good news, and it will not be easy to fix.  

You may need to fit a heat shield to cure this, or you may get away with some heat lagging around the fuel lines in the engine bay.  

Do you have a mechanical pump bolted to the side of the engine?  If so, this will also be overheating.  You may need to fit an electrical pump outside the engine bay, preferably near the fuel tank.