Crackership

Thanks Matt!

Crackership

I didn't have time on Sat to pull the lines off and have them pressure tested... my kids have been ill and I think they've passed their fun on to me

I did run the car for about 20 mins though and very carefully checked every part of the fuel system closely while running it... I can't find any leaks anywhere. I really think it's the lines themselves. I'll call Travis tomorrow and see about having a new set sent out to me.

Question: I have an alignment appointment tomorrow. It would require me to make about a 50mi round-trip. Should I cancel until I figure this fuel smell thing out or is it probably safe to make the trip? I would be far more hesitant to go if I saw any liquid fuel leaking from anywhere... but the smell still makes me very apprehensive.

Obviously, the appointment can be rescheduled, but I would also like to have a seasoned mechanic stick his face under my hood and see if anything pops out to him that is evading me. I'm torn... on the one hand, I'm kinda scared to drive it, but I'm also absolutely baffled and would love to have another opinion from someone who can actually look at it...

Thoughts?

PEvans

If it really smells like fuel, if it were me I would be very wary of driving it. My '86 951 smelled like fuel and when the exhaust got hot it (the car) burned to the ground, and I am not the only one here with that experience. It seems the fires usually start in the fuel rail area.

User 52121

I don't know about you but I prefer Original Recipe 951 over the Extra Crispy version. I'd wait on driving it until you get it sorted.

Crackership

Ok, I cancelled my alignment appointment

On the up-side though, I did some troubleshooting with Travis at Rennbay and we've concluded that my FPR is faulty. I jumped the DME relay port to make the pump run for a while and then let it sit for about 15mins... then I unscrewed the cap on the end of the rail and, it wasn't until I had it all the way off that I got a few tiny drips of fuel out of the rail. No spraying or any sign of there being pressure in the rail.

A new FPR is on its way to me, I should see it tomorrow. Hopefully that's my problem and a new FPR sorts it out for me.

JohnKoaWood

hopefully...

Crackership

skeptical, John?

Crackership

well... swapped out the FPR today... and washed the fuel lines (outside) with soap to try and remove any residual smell... but it still stinks also, the rail is still not holding pressure I have no freaking ideas!! GRRRR!

Crazy Eddie

Forgive me in advance, as I haven't read every post on this thread, but what is the chance that the fuel rail may have a crack in it and is leaking ?
Sorry for your troubles, best of luck
Regards
Ed

Crackership

See, that's the thing... I would have thought the same thing, except for two things... 1: I can't see any leaks or wetness of any kind anywhere on the rail, injectors, lines, anywhere, and 2: Before I put all this back together, I painted the fuel rail black with rattle can high temp paint and the spots that I've spilled fuel on when changing the regulator have washed clean of paint almost immediately.. there are no other spots on the rail that have the paint washing off... I would think the paint would point me directly to the location of a crack, if there were one.

Also, the car is not difficult to start at all, so I would assume that eliminates the possibility of an injector leaking into the cylinder.. I would think an injector leaking badly would flood the engine and make it hard to start.

I am starting to get pretty freakin' frustrated with this...

Crazy Eddie

Ya know I can point out one thing you may want to try?
Tom, was kind enough to lend me a kit he bought for highlighting leaks
It consists of a pair of special yellow lens glasses, dye( that you can put in oil or gas ( tracer ))and a blacklight flashlight ... The kit is really amayzing .. the stuff glows so much even Stevie Wonder could see it ... It really awesome ..
I don't know what they cost but it is really great ....
Good luck
Ed

Crackership

Thanks for the suggestion, Ed. I may have to look into something like that, I have absolutely no idea what else will show me where the problem is...

Crazy Eddie

Here is a similar thing that Tom loaned me
Good luck

Crackership

I just checked and it looks like my local autozone has something like that in stock... Gonna go see if I can pick it up tomorrow. If that doesn't show me the leak, I don't know what will...

Crazy Eddie

BTW It works best in the dark. So if you can shut the lights or wait until night time if you are outside, it shows up much better
GL