Fuel Smell

Alright need some ideas of where I'm getting a fuel smell from. When I come to a stop is when I get the strongest smell though I can smell it a bit while driving. I've found no signs of a leak. I've replaced all the rubber lines going to the tank and replaced both the filler neck and vent line. I've also dropped the tank to change my fuel sock on the sender and replaced the rubber seal. Thought I still had a possible tank leak but I've checked when stopping in my driveway and see no signs. Dont see any fuel pooling on the intake or leaks from the fuel pump. Exhaust runs all the way past rear bumper. What are your guys thoughts?

Jus' thowin it out there, charcoal cannister?

Was gonna say, you still got the charcoal canister/emissions stuff under the hood?

Yes it still has a charcoal canister. Guess I'll check to see if its clogged/cracked/flooded and the lines are good.

I'd bet the charcoal canister is full or you have a couple cracked/leaking lines from the carb to it

Check the fuel pump while it's running. I had one fail with a leak that sprayed sideways. It ran fine but spit fuel out. Somehow it never caught fire as it sprayed right at the exhaust. Have you checked the carb inlet?

I had the same issue with a crack in my fuel pump spraying fuel sideways onto the exhaust manifold. It was a small amount, and evaporated very quickly, but still gave a strong fuel smell.

The original fuel rubber hoses also developed small cracks that were not visible until you bent the hose in a u-shape. Sometimes the cracks let fuel seep out, or even spray out under pressure.

one of the problems with fuel leaks is the gasoline dissipates fast and leaves no or very little visible residue to actually see
I have had a jug like this on my shelf for 20 years...use very little vs. what the directions say. and such makes whatever is rusted, leaking or spraying glow with a UV or flashlight.

so really handy: defining what rubber thing is bad,...what rusted thing among many rusted things is "bad".
(got a nice pic somewhere of a gas filler line on a 2002 gmc,.. with a section of rusted steel all glowing as all the steel was infused with the dye,...which was pretty good vs. dropping the tank to find perfectly good smaller lines..and breaking good stuff to do it).

https://amzn.to/3QNzrBr

this recent smoke machine thread also comes to mind,...

https://www.gmsquarebody.com/threads/smoke-machine-advice.49394/

and I just found one of those pics I took of the gas filler line's metal section on a gmc of 2002.
(orange pointer is a yard marker snow stake)
so the dye went through all that metal ... ...at the time like 5 years back the filler assembly whole was like $120 for a 5.3 type.

I don't think I have a good pic of where I have caught gas spraying dye under the hood,...but I remember the dye stays put....
I notice some lines leak when they are cold/ very cold in ambient air temp getting deformed / brittle,...others leak as they heat with engine temp and get soft and loose.
...and yeah. changed whole expensive assemblies, chasing gas leaks is sometimes the only thing....but nice when you can just swap the damaged piece for a few bucks. (and its easy to get at).

this pic is a from about 2020, of a 2002 yukon XL that has lived in upstate NY its whole life....(on rock salt / salted sand roads...still going next year a classic truck,.. had it almost 10 years,..but only put about 2000 miles on it a year,..8 feet of room behind the front seats, with heat for your tools / materials .)

edit: pic is big and slow to load/ link I guess.




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75gmck25 said:

I had the same issue with a crack in my fuel pump spraying fuel sideways onto the exhaust manifold. It was a small amount, and evaporated very quickly, but still gave a strong fuel smell.

The original fuel rubber hoses also developed small cracks that were not visible until you bent the hose in a u-shape. Sometimes the cracks let fuel seep out, or even spray out under pressure.

Click to expand...

My 66 Chevelle caught fire that way. A fuel hose,previous owner installed Edelbrock performer and used a piece of rubber fuel hose to mate carb to existing fuel line. A pin hole in the fuel line was squirting just like a squirt gun. I saw the fuel stream still coming out of the hose,spraying the distributor. I now run steel lines only,on the pressure side. Does anyone know of a factory built Chevrolet from the 60s on up that didn't use steel line from the fuel pump to carburetor? That's another thing that makes some fuel leaks hard to find sometimes,the are on the suction side,not under pressure so they don't leak until you shut the engine off and then they just seep out small amounts of fuel,so not a nice puddle like the pressure side.