Maybe this is normal, but since that post about the alternator coming apart a week or so ago, it’s been on my mind. So my question is, after I have my speedster out for a drive, there’s a faint smell of rubber from the engine. Is this normal or should I be concerned? Tension on the belt itself appears to be correct.
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Worrying about a symptom after reading about it from someone else is a common malady of “The Madness”. You are not the first to experience this. 😉
Are you sure it’s a rubber smell, or could it possibly be a slightly leaking valve cover gasket, dripping oil down onto an exhaust pipe and causing a cooked oil smell? Take a look under both sides of the engine at the valve covers to see if you might have a slight gasket leak. Wiping the bottom edge of the valve cover with a rag should tell you if it is leaking or not. If you find a leak, it is a super-easy fix with new cover gaskets. You can buy them 10 at a time to have spares on hand (I swear I must have 30 of them.)
Otherwise, these engines get hot and they have their own “heat aroma”, but it is really hard to diagnose a smell when we don’t have “smell-it-on-the-net” on here.
Definitely a rubber smell……now, it’s not overpowering and honestly I think it’s always been there (that could be good or bad) but I’ll keep an eye on things……I’m likely making something out of nothing
@NeenahSpeedster posted:Definitely a rubber smell……now, it’s not overpowering and honestly I think it’s always been there (that could be good or bad) but I’ll keep an eye on things……I’m likely making something out of nothing
My car smelled that way, too. The belt I was using (Continental) lasted about 7000 miles before it started to look a little frayed and I replaced it.
I didn’t think of that, I have the same belt with a spare waiting……maybe I’ll switch it just to be safe…….I’m almost at 7,000 miles exactly.
I am reminded of a story I heard once about a guy who was planning to sail single handedly either across the Atlantic, of maybe around the world, in a sailboat. He was gearing up in a marina in preparation. Locals were stopping by to kibitz. One noticed he was replacing one and another part in the mechanicals and asked what was the problem, as he had a brand new boat to start with. The man explained that he had bought every replacement part he could think of in preparation and was busy installing all of them. Reasoning: to find out what it takes to R&R each part, and also to be sure that if one fails, the one he now has as a spare (OEM by definition) will fit correctly and work. A lot of this thinking could be applied to running our plastic clown cars.
@El Frazoo posted:A lot of this thinking could be applied to running our plastic clown cars.
Absolutely!
