Smell in car during driving

B

bikemaniac

Senior Member
Hi,

I posted a similar thread a few weeks ago, but now I have more information:

I have a special smell inside my car, especially at high speed driving. It is not gasoline and it is not exhaust. I tracked it down to the oil filler tube and have now routed a hose from the oil filler tube to under the wheel arch away from the engine compartment such that the fumes are going outside and not inside through all the cracks in the body.

This action helped a lot removing the annoying smell!

But it is still there - but not so intense anymore. Now I concluded that I might be running the wrong oil. Without going into an oil discussion I use a modern semisynthetic 10W40 in the car. This is based on hours of reading on the internet. Thus I am not running any single grade mineral oil. The question is: Will my annoyning smell be gone if I simply switch to an old fashioned single grade mineral oil? Does anybody have information on that topic and maybe experienced smelly situations too?

Lucas
 
that smell is probably blow by from a tired engine burning oil, that pipe you modified is a draft tube, either rebuild the engine or hook up a pcv valve from the draft tube to the base of the carb to suck the fumes out of engine, draft tubes work pretty good when moving but not at all when stopped
 
The engine is rebuilt. I had "plind" from this forum test drive it and he told me the engine is very strong and powerful and has a lot of low rpm torque. How do you fit a PCV valve to the model A carb?
 
How long ago was it rebuilt? Maybe the rings are not seated yet. Maybe the paint is 'curing' when the engine warms up? maybe something on the exhaust. I use Calyx to dress my exhaust manifold and it smells at first.
 
Mitch//pa said:
What did plind say the smell was
Click to expand...
From the oil filler tube/pipe. There is a slight blow-by, also when idling - but he says it is normal. Thats why I fitted a flexible pipe/tube to the oil filler to divert the motor oil gasses away from the engine compartment.
 
Y-Blockhead said:
How long ago was it rebuilt? Maybe the rings are not seated yet. Maybe the paint is 'curing' when the engine warms up? maybe something on the exhaust. I use Calyx to dress my exhaust manifold and it smells at first.
Click to expand...

The engine was rebuilt 42 years ago and has been driven approx 600 mi in total now (by me). It was rebuilt back then and put away straight away.
I fitted a new exhaust manifold and used a high temp gasket material commonly used for sealing exhaust systems. I also sealed the clamp area where the manifold i clamped to the muffler pipe. I painted the entire manifold and clamp area with white paint to see if I could visually detect any soot particles escaping from a leak - but nothing.

I am very sure that the engine oil is the problem because my flexible tube removed some of the smell problems - but not 100%.

Lucas
 
Even new cars aren't SMELL PROOF! You are being slowly gassed by smells of rubber, plastic, adhesives & God knows what else?? Fumes "gum" up your windows until they turn AMBER color! !!
Best way to clean the glass: SCRUB them with TERRY CLOTH & WATER ONLY, then dry with TERRY CLOTH. ANY so called cleaners just make it WORSE.
Trust me, I've worked for new car dealers & fought the window problems & this is the BEST/SIMPLEST method. Some customers thought their cars had DEFECTIVE GLASS, even!
Bill W.
(NOW, I'm going to learn how to paint my shell inserts, OH, just remembered that Vermin don't got none!)
 
bikemaniac said:
Hi,

I posted a similar thread a few weeks ago, but now I have more information:

I have a special smell inside my car, especially at high speed driving. It is not gasoline and it is not exhaust. I tracked it down to the oil filler tube and have now routed a hose from the oil filler tube to under the wheel arch away from the engine compartment such that the fumes are going outside and not inside through all the cracks in the body.

This action helped a lot removing the annoying smell!

But it is still there - but not so intense anymore. Now I concluded that I might be running the wrong oil. Without going into an oil discussion I use a modern semisynthetic 10W40 in the car. This is based on hours of reading on the internet. Thus I am not running any single grade mineral oil. The question is: Will my annoyning smell be gone if I simply switch to an old fashioned single grade mineral oil? Does anybody have information on that topic and maybe experienced smelly situations too?

Lucas
Click to expand...
Hi Bill;
I once drove all the way to the Grand Rapids convention with a smell I couldn't place and never located it untril I got home. The problem turned out to be a bad conection at the high tension wire in the coil. This with a round trip of about 650 miles... Bob F from Nobleton Ontario
 
Just before Christmas 1968 I was driving my Austin Mini from Montreal to Edmonton with a two-four of Molson's best on the back seat. Fell asleep somewhere near Kenora, but had enough sense to pull over and shut down. It as a lot below zero and I did not notice most of the bottles froze and cracked. Never did get rid of the smell before I sold the car.
 
I need to pick up this thread again: The plan is to do the cross country trip coast to coast in mid august and onwards. Thus, I need to make the arrangements with the shipping company very soon (shipping car from Denmark to New York).

The following has been changed:

1. The oil filler cap has been removed and replaced by a flexible hose that extends below the car (the hose is maybe 1,5 feet long). That way the fumes should stay away from the engine compartment.
2. The multigrade oil has been replace by a single grade 50wt oil.

My initial drives showed very promising results. No more smells. But these drives were rather short.

Today I went on a 200 mi drive. Dry summer weather and very good driving conditions. The engine runs great and has plenty of torque. Idling is perfect without any hickups. Gas mileage is very good - something like 22 mpg when driving the country side with a max speed of 40-45 mph.

BUT: After ½-1 hour I start to feel a soar throat - just like when you are getting a cold. Then windows are open because it is warm outside. However I cannot smell anything bad at all. When I made my first rest stop the soar throat slowly went away. When I picked up driving again - the soar throat came back again after a while. Then, after maybe 100 mi of driving I can smell that annoying smell again - just like last year with the multigrade oil and the normal oil filler cap. It is def NOT the smell of gasoline or exhaust gas - something very synthetic - very hard to describe. But I cannot smell it all the time, usually I smell it driving at high speed and remove the foot from the throttle while coasting to a red light. While I smell this I still have a soar throat. The carb looks bone dry and I cannot smell anything from the engine compartment when idling at rest. The exhaust smells normal - like an old carburated engine where you smell a small amount of unburnt fuel.

My problem is, if I cannot solve this smell and soar throat problem very fast, I will not do this epic road trip and sell the car. The stupid thing is, I need to drive at least 100 mi before my body reacts - thus any changes to the engine/system is problematic from a time frame point of view.

I am writing this message about 1-2 hours after having parked the car and everything is OK again. But something is totally wrong from a health point of view when driving the car.

Lucas
 
Are your floor boards sealed up tightly. Check around the rear by the exhaust. maybe your sucking exhaust fumes into the cabin. Carbon Monoxide is colorless, orderless, toxic gas. :p:p

I have a '55 Ford Ranchwagon and I ran the exhaust straight out the back. Little did I know at the time due to the shape of the car it created a low pressure area on the back of the car and exhaust would get sucked in thru the rear window. Running the exhaust out the side cured the problem.

Since the Model A exhaust ends under the car maybe it is getting sucked in somehow. Just a thought. :cool:

Good luck
 
Before I fitted voltage regulator cut outs to my 2 cars, I could smell the batteries out-gassing as they over-charged and electrolysed the acid. I do have a very acute sense of smell, as the chemists who work in my factory will attest!
Could this be a factor in what you are smelling?
My charging rate sits at 3 amps, lights on or off. It peaks at 10 amps just after using the starter, and falls to 3 amps or less in a very short time as the battery regains lost charge from starting. System is standard 6 Volt. The 10 amp recharging phase is now too short to make a detectable odour in the cabin.
The smell was unpleasantly acid and irritating to my throat.
I use John Reagan's Fun Projects regulator/cut outs by the way.
SAJ in NZ
 
Hi Bike,

1. In the early thirties, many commercial fishermen and sports fishermen installed Model A & B engines in their boats where these engines were installed far forward.

2. Vehicle engine compartments have no solid bottoms; hence, the rear bottom of the engine compartment's openings can allow fumes to escape.

3. Boat engine compartments have solid bottoms which do not allow engine fumes, (heavier than air) to escape; hence, nauseating engine fumes travel rearward just about at human nose inhalation level if sitting down.

4. A very common "smell & odor elimination" marine concept, (prior to the later modern PCV valves), was often fabricated as follows:

A. Connect one (1) end of a 3/8" diameter copper tube to the side of the A-6763 oil filler tube to extract fumes out of the crankcase; and,

B. Modify the A-6766 oil filler cap with wire connected crumpled up copper screen, (soaked in oil), to help filter dust and to help restrict inward air suction flow into the crankcase; and,

C. Run the other end of this copper line in front of the engine, and connect it to the out-side of a cast metal A-9600 Air Maze elbow.

D. With engine running, the carburetor intake opening will extract petroleum fumes from the crankcase and direct them rearward through the exhaust and out to the rear.

E. There actually are some who have more sensitivity than others with reacting to the inhaling of "heated", volatile petroleum products.

F. In the late 1940's I rode in boat outfitted with a modified Model B marine engine with such a crankcase fume extractor ...... it worked.

(In paragraph B above, occasionally clean the oil soaked copper screen).

Hope this helps.
 
Last edited:
I think 50wt is too heavy. Most A's run with 10-30 or 10-40. But if you're driving 3000 miles with a 45-year-old rebuild, you'll probably be changing your oil at least every 700 miles, maybe every 500 (my preference), so you have ample opportunies to make a change. Good luck on your journey. Please keep us posted with photos.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top