Fuel smell 89 Esprit NA

[lotuseffect]

I have been on a crusade to rid my recently acquired 89 NA of fuel and engine smells that seem to pervade the cabin. First step was to replace the perished 'aquarium hose' that runs from the fuel fillers up over the rear window. I ran new tubing from both fillers to a tee then vented it to behind the RR wheel (I presume this is something like the original should have done?). Anyway, that got rid of most of the constant fuel smell but a strong engine oil/fueley smell still persists esp. when warm. A thorough degreasing of the engine/engine bay didn't cure it either. Am I missing any other obvious breathers? For example, my air box has an approx 6mm diameter plastic elbow exiting from the bottom in the middle that doesn't obviously hook up to any pipe. Should it?

There are no obvious fuel leaks and all the vacuum hoses to the carbs on top of the engine have been renewed and appear to connect to their relevant connectors OK.

Any advice appreciated. Cheers, Si

[GKP]

If the gear lever gaiter (the rubber one underneath the leather cover) is split, the resulting vacuum effect of the car moving throught he air can draw fumes from the engine bay into the cabin.
Might be worth a look?

[Dr.Hess]

While I am not familiar with your particular engine setup, I am going to say that yes, there should be a hose on that elbow under the air box. First off, Lotus in general doesn't put stuff on the car that does nothing. Second, there should be no openings to the atmosphere after the air filter. On other vehicles, that would be a place for the PCV valve hose to connect to.

The service notes say your air box has connections for the Crankcase Breather Valve, and the parts manual shows a connection for something called a Purge Pump, and I have no idea what that is.

I would say that this could definetly be contributing to your fuel smell, and at least is sucking in unfiltered air. If you have no other hoses open, like a DPO removed the PCV valve or the Purge Pump (whatever that is), then cap off the elbow.

While a bad rubber gaiter thingie may be one way the smells are getting in, I would fix the smells source first. Oh, and a Jeep CJ shift boot for U$8 from JC Whitney works great.

Dr.Hess

[abrussich]

I suggest you go to your local dealer and ask him for a copy of the diagram showing the tube routing or your particular model year. The 89 tube routing can be quite a mystery if you are not familiar with the schematic. I thought I had replaced everything and after viewing the schematic found there were a few more to go.
The esteemed Dr. Hess is quite right in regards to frivilous tubing. There is none!
Being an 89, you had best be prepard for the possibility of rusted through fuel tanks. I hope that is not the case, but it is a strong possibility. Not to worry, that is not an unsurmountable task. Just a bit of a pain in the nether regions.

[bojangles]

my car has no smell around the engine but somehow under way some sort of gassey/exhausty smell comes in throught the shifter boot.. I ordered one almost a year and a half ago from jae and am still waiting for it to show up.. I also ordered one from dealer and they dont seem to be able to follow up on it. It is so frustrating to wait for years for a simple part. i have emailed and phoned jae and even paid for the part and it was missing from a shipment last summer.. somehow i am still waiting...
very strange that nobody wants to deal with this part. If anyone can give me any help, please let me know..

[abrussich]

Se reply from Dr. Hess rgarding CJ boot.

[Dr.Hess]

Yeah. The part number is even on my web site and I'm sure JCW ships to The Great White North.

Dr.Hess

[lotuseffect]

Hi guys,

Thanks for those tips. Both my gearlever gaiters are fine.. Also, the LH fuel tank has already been replaced with a stainless one. It could be the right one, but while the smell is fuelly it doesn't smell like pure fuel. Like Dr Hess - my suspicion is a breather pipe or similar. What does PCV stand for?

One of the first things I did was check all the seals in the air trunking, replace the air filter and cap the unknown elbow..but I'd still really like to know where it should connect to.

There is another valve-like fitting on the front, bottom of the airbox into which a couple of vacuum lines run. I'm a little unclear whether this is the CBV, PCV or purge pump though.

I have parts and service manuals on order from the UK (I am in New Zealand, so local dealers and mates cars to compare with are a little thin on the ground) so perhaps that will reveal a bit more. I'm away hunting for the next 10 days, but hopefully it should all be waiting for me when I get back.

Cheers, Si

[lotuseffect]

Well folks - with your advice and my new lotus manuals I'm starting to make some progress. Yeah! My Crankcase Breather Valve (CBV) plumbing was all fine, and I've connected the mystery elbow to where it should end at the purge pump located on top of the RH petrol tank. I've also added a tube to the inlet end of the pump, but am not sure exactly where it should suck from (presumably from outside the car somewhere, but does anyone know where?... and if so, should it have some kind of filter on it?). Mine had remains of clear plastic tubing attached, but it had all decomposed like the usual lotus breather tubing and there was not enough to figure out where it led.

I also found that a lot of my vacuum tubing was leading to the wrong places (including that to the Air Temperature Control sensor (ATC)) - and have fixed that all up now.

The only thing that is still puzzling me is that I have a vacuum line (the central one of the three on the Thermal Ignition Valve that comes off the inlet manifold between the carbs) that doesn't seem to lead anywhere (I've capped it for the meantime). The manual would have me believe it is the vacuum advance line for the distributor, but my dizzy doesn't seem to have a vacuum advance widget hanging off the side to attach it to. Is this normal?

Cheers, Si

[weinerwater]

PCV = "Positive Crankcase Ventilation", which is a small checkvalve to let the crankcase breathe, usually a hose connects to the air cleaner, then to checkvalve, which is connected to a valve cover.When pulled out of the valve cover, you can usually hear it rattle inside when you shake it,basically a metal ball inside that opens and closes from internal engine pressure.

[lotuseffect]

A quick update: I have now identified the smell as definitely coming from the transmission tunnel. I would describe it as exactly how you others have - 'gasey/exhausty' and it became obvious that it was coming from teh gearshift in the course of changing over the bushes at the end of the gear selector levers which necessitated removing the trim etc. I gave the area all the coolant pipes etc run through a good going over with degreaser and hosed it out - and both gearlever boots seem fine - so any other suggestions as to a) possible greasy areas that are getting hot and therefore being the source of the stink? or b)any seals or similar at the ends of the transmission tunnel taht could be contributing to the problem (eg. where the pipes go through the chassis?).

When I drove it with the to gearlever boot removed the air coming up through the gap was noticeably hot, which I suppose is to be expected.

Cheers, Si

[teigan]

i recently did the same kind of snooping around for smells. mine is also exhausty, as opposed to raw fuel. it isn't easy to locate the source because these cars have chambered spaces exchanging air in flip flop fashion, based loosely on speed, direction of travel, and window opening. my car even sucks air out of the boot cavity, as evidenced by never needing to hoover the carpets. the confetti from my last birthday is gone. some of it worked its way into the engine bay, and the rest is a mystery.

[lotuseffect]

Does yours have an engine undertray? Mine is missing and I wondered if that might have changed some airflows around the engine and transmission tunnel. Anyone else have experience of running with and without this part?

[bojangles]

how strange my reply to this message ended up on another.. ????????? about the undertray

[bazer]

fraid u may have to face it. i had same prob and couldnt locate source of smell. turns out it was rusted tank and fuel lingering in foam around tank. 3k to fix the problem doh