gas smell

Mr.E

Member
Jul 16, 2002
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0
6
Mass
I'm getting a strong smell of gas when I drive my stang. I can't find any leaks. My gas cap is closed. I checked my fuel rails and fule pressure reg. (Kirban) and I can't find any leaks. I'd like to be able to enjoy top-down driving (finally) this year but that gas smell is killing me. It seems I remember someone else having this problem.

Thanks in advance
 
Is it a raw gas smell, like from a leak or a exhaust gas smell? My car is running rich at idel, and it smells like gas. I notice this when i got dumps on the car, when i had a full exhaust nothing.
 
Follow your nose. Mine was a rust hole in the gas tank filler pipe that was concealed by the rubber surround. I think that a plugged gas filler drain hose allowed water to seep past the rubber around the filler neck and sit there. It wasn't until I filled the car up, drove around till the smell was bad, and jumped out to look for leaks that I found it. Looking up from underneath I saw a telltale wet spot on the filler neck where it passes through the rubber surround from the filler door. Sure enough, there was a pinhole rust-through up under the rubber. I copped a good used filler neck at the local Pick-a-part, dropped the tank, installed, and was good to go. I have also seen problems with the vapor recovery system result in a saturated, dripping charcoal canister. Also, you can activate the fuel pump by shorting the fuel pump lead on the test plug under the hood to ground (key on). That way you can pressurize the fuel lines at will without the motor running, so you can hunt down leaks there. I use an old-timey remote starter switch to do it, which allows me to carry the switch with me under the car while I hunt. Pretty handy.
 
another thing that will make the cockpit smell of gasoline is the vac line coming from the canister purge solinoid and going to the uper manifold, they have a tendancy to break behind the dist. Chris
 
I had the same problem. Turned out the stock fuel pressure regulator was to blame. The actual diaphram ruptured inside and the vaccum of the engine was pulling fuel straight into the intake through the vaccum hose. I'd pull off the vaccum line from the FPR and see if there is any fuel in there....this problem took me forever to find.
Good Luck
-John
 
Thanks for the responses. I drove home last night no problem or smell. It was harsh yesterday morning after being stuck in stop and go driving for an hour or so (I'm glad I usually take the train to work).

I'll check the o-rings but I didn't see or feel anything when I checked yesterday morning.

There was no leak from the FPR. I've had that problem before.

A vacuum leak is a real possability. I know sometimes if I turn the wheel all the way(like when I'm parking) it will die. A lot of the hoses are pretty beat.

I do get the raw fuel smell at start-up but that goes away. I got the smell after an hour or more of driving.
 
iapexl8r said:
another thing that will make the cockpit smell of gasoline is the vac line coming from the canister purge solinoid and going to the uper manifold, they have a tendancy to break behind the dist. Chris

Thats what I was going to suggest next. I removed the line from the canister when I did my intake swap and never connected it back, you can see gas fumes coming from there.

Don't mean to steal the thread, but how do you get rid of the canister altogether?