Spousal asphyxia

Love your sense of humor!

Does it have the heavy smell immediately when you turn it off, or only after it sits for a while?

Does it smell heavy while driving?

...and or,  do you have this gas smell after making a left turn ? ( seriously) 

My 1999 VS had that delightful smell when it sat in the Driveway in Shiprock, NM.  It was particularly pungent after I'd filled it up.   This dissipated over the next few weeks in the open air.  Now that it's ensconced in our retirement home garage it hangs around for weeks.  The  daughter, whos sense of smell is that of a MWD Tracker of the nth degree, complains constantly.  The wife not so much so, who's sense of smell is more tolerant of organic odors.   Research indicates it's a duofold source.  When I fill the Tank up to the lip, as I'm want to do, Gas sloshes out of the rubber seal where the gas gauge, thermocouple goes in the center of the tank.   This soaks the Trunk carpets and the and aroma leaches out for weeks.   I've had the Rubber seal at this junction replaced 2x, which usually resolves the issue for a month or two.  The best answer is either don't full the tank up totally, or  when you get the gas level up to the area of the thermocouple, I sit the car on the front lawn for 8-10 hours with the Trunk lid up to allow the sunlight and air to resolve the aroma.  Then when I put the car back in the garage, the comments of the daughter are reduced to a tolerable level.  I personally enjoy the aroma of a gasoline engine, but then I am a child of the 1950's and it's musk to my senses

First, Jethro's questions...
I'll have to smell more closely when I shut her down.  Haven't taken note, really, whether I smell anything heavy immediately upon turning her off.  I'll observe.  I'm just a month or so into this love affair, (again, the Speedster, not the wife), so I'd say I do notice some gasoline odor at idle when at a stoplight, or in stop-and-go traffic.  Doesn't seem overpowering, but I supposed it to be normal.  Perhaps it's not.  Again, I'll observe all of this more closely and report back.

Now, to your question, Alan...  I'll have to jack a few sharp lefts and see if anything changes.  If there's trouble, should I expect a left turn to bring on the smell from up front, or in the back?

Gas smell on a left turn may indicate that the fuel is coming out the vent hose which can be fixed by adding a in line one way PCV valve and also a loop in the vent hose to restrict the flow if, that is what is happening.

I had a terrible odor of gas smell in the garage when I had on dual carbs...now that I have changed to single carb....no smell in garage.

PS...also have another VW in garage with factory single carb ...and no smell

My #2 Engine on the 71 VW had Dual K Dogs.   Never had any garage or  driveway gas odors, although I dislike the 1500 RPM Idle the engine seem to be fixated on.  When I decided on an Albuquerque to San Marcos, Teas commute every other month,a different with a stage 2 street cam, built by VDub in Austin.  It wasuggested I use a 2 BBL Progressive Weber Carb.  With that and a freeway flyer Tranny, I get 40 MPG he road in Tejas at 800 ft ASL, in Albuquerque at 5000ft ASL I'm down to 24 MPG.  Still no gas smell with either set up.   New engine is 3000 RPM's at 65 MPH in  4th.  I can regularly run 80-85 in Tejas heat with Heads at 325 F and oil temp at 220 F max.  Highly recommend VDub for all Air cool engines in Austin, Texas or Foreign Aide in Albuquerque, NM.   No affiliation a very happy client of both.

Thanks, Jim!  I've tried to be very careful about my tank-topping habits -- I really don't overfill, or even get close, I don't think.  I will get my nose down around that carpet, though, and see if there's anything sloshing past the cap.

Congrats to your daughter on her weapons-grade olfactory sense...

Alan... on those left turns, would enough gas be leaking to wet the carpet?

Thanks, Sassy. Twin carb setup here.  We'll get to the bottom of it!

Daughter is one of those Prissy Milli's with a major Princess Complex and the sensibilities of the highest levels, odors, what she see's or hears, tastes etc.  My wife and I take turns on blaming this on each others bad gene donation to the combined gene pool.  Today's may day to be the bad donator .  Both of us are more tolerant of the environmental vagarities of life with my youth in the 1840-1950 time period and wife's 1950-1960 era.  We find life a bit more fun with the unusual occurances prominent currently.

What Allen said.

If it's the vent hose, this will probably be more obvious right after you fill up. The first hard left turn will bring a strong gas smell, but by the time the tank is down to half-full, this will probably go away altogether. Again, that's an easy one to fix. The gas from the vent hose doesn't leak into the trunk, but spills into the front passenger-side wheel well.

If the smell doesn't follow that pattern, it will probably be the gas in the float bowls of the carbs evaporating, which, unfortunately, is what gas in float bowls does. This shouldn't be too strong an odor, but may be worse in hot weather. If you let the car sit for two weeks, the gas in the float bowls will be gone and the odor should be, too. But no one can let one of these cars sit unused for two weeks in good weather, so that's a hard test to do.

It may sound obvious, but if the gas smell is really strong, check for gas leaks. If no leaks, the only known solutions are to get a Miata or a new wife.

Miatas are cheaper.

LOL Mitch! 

I shall experiment with a fill-up, followed immediately by some Starsky-and-Hutch left-hand powerslides, after which I'll sniff that right-front tire to check for evidence of a corrupted vent hose.

I have this visual of you, sliding through a sharp left with a good amount of over steer...     Coming to an abrupt halt... leaping out of the car and running to the driver's side front wheel, then sticking your head down by the wheel.

Not sure if I would laugh or drive the away quickly.

Cory, I had the gas smell in the garage with the same issues, girlfriend has a sensitive nose and at the time it was her new garage. I installed a check valve which has been posted before on this site but here is what I used.

https://www.cyclegear.com/part...ube-with-check-valve

You just cut the hose off of it an attach it to your vent hose where it exits the trunk underneath the car. There will always be a slight smell of gas as these cars are not closed loop and as mentioned before the carbs will always vent a bit.

This cut the smell a Huuuuge amount.

Michael

Carbs, you have to love them the olefactory discharge is "eau du garage" my wife did not like it either ... my subie engine is a lot more easy to tolerate in that area.  

I do have a constant running fan in my garage for air exchange I wonder if that would help you a little with carb evaporation or at least make your significant others who normally have more sensitivities.

Tank venting : Realize that the vent hose needs only the slightest id opening i.e. 1/8" to 1/16" will do.  That's just enough to allow for enough air to equal pressure in the tank.  Route the small id hose from the nipple on the filler neck and add a small in line one way PCV check  valve, run the hose through the trunk vertical wall, put a 360 loop up high in the hose securing it to the upper wheel well , attach the vent hose to the lower nipple on a larger  " catch can " tin fuel filter so that when the gas gets forced up into the filter it is allowed to travel back to the tank , on the upper side of the filter do a second loop and let that side of the vent hose hang downward just below the chassis pan edge. Total cost is under $20. and it works.

Al, do you have a picture of that set-up?  I'm having trouble visualizing it.

Cory:  I'm using one of these as a one-way check valve on my tank vent - it seems to work OK.  My car gets a bit of gas smell from time to time, but I think mine is mostly from float bowl evaporation.

Make sure this is installed so air can get IN, not out.

http://shop.advanceautoparts.c...r4c7EAqEHRoCDD3w_wcB

You may not need the check valve.

I completely eliminated the fumes with just this loop.

Note that the plastic fuel filter in the photo is NOT needed, although I thought it might help at the time. It did let me confirm that gas never makes it that high in the hose, though - so this loop is doing its job.

The important thing is to get the top of the loop as high as possible. The output end of the loop (on the left in the photo) is routed as low as possible to keep whatever gas that might get that far from dribbling down the inside of the fender wall.

And check that the end of the tube that connects to the little bib on the filler neck is secured by a hose clamp. The hose that came with my VS was too short, didn't have a high loop like this, was too large in diameter for the bib, fit loosely, and had no clamp.

It leaked gas at both ends - inside the trunk on one end and down the fender wall on the other.

Loop it up over the hood hinge and down, then out to the back...

My way is similar to Mitchs...I use a larger metal filter in that position as a catch can

This is why I loved you all from afar over the many, many years when I didn't yet have my Speedster…. You're always quick to throw a life ring to a drowning dummy! Thanks!

I'm glad to know that almost all women have a petrol allergy.

Very glad, also, to learn of the several solutions to my problem! As soon as things cool down here on the surface of Mercury, I will make one of them happen!

Thanks, all!

I'm a little late to today's party but I had this same problem Cory and my wife's super power is her sense of smell and she also complained of the gas odor when I first got my car. I made several of the fixes mentioned here and I no longer have an issue with the smell of gas in my garage.

Here's a thread to when I did the fix and it includes some of the previously mentioned fixes and some additional photos:

https://www.speedsterowners.com...c/gas-tank-venting-2

And here's a photo of an inside the trunk loop:

Hi Robert,

there is an easy way to solve this problen comlete: You only have to make the "loop" up to the very right side and back. The loop has to be more right than the Tank its.

On this way, no centrifugal forces while cornering will ever be able to to bring fuel through the tube. (see picture)

I did it like this in all my builds, works perfect.

cheers

I had a problem with the one way valve. It lets air in but not air out.

I filled the tank with cold gas and when it warmed and expanded it bulged up the top of the tank because the pressure couldn't be relieved through the vent. Now I use the loop only.

I currently have too many speedsters. It is a problem. My Intermeccanica had a horrible gas smell.  I quickly learned it was a leaky fuel line. 5 mins of care, tightened one fitting and no more smell in the garage.  These things are to be expected after a couple decades of driving.  The funny thing is, I didn't really notice, but wifey was complaining that her "air-dryed" frillys smelled like gas.

-=theron

Frillys?