Quote:
Originally Posted by XYZ
However, the important and pertinent concept involved is that gasoline expands and vaporizes as ambient temperature increases.
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Another important concept is that if you have a reasonably modern car (since the '80s, at least) the fuel system is sealed. Just for simplicity, assuming your car is parked for a few days with a full tank, around here the gasoline might warm up to 100 F in the day, yet drop to the mid-50s at night. Yet no gasoline will escape from the tank: what expands and vaporizes during the day will condense and contract at night.
Indeed, you don't even need a modern fuel system. During the '70s oil embargo, I worked in a junkyard (in California's San Joaquin Valley, where it gets pretty darned hot). Because gas was so expensive, we started draining the tanks of wrecks that had sat for years, and using that gas. Cars kept running on it.