Petrol smell in car

[Bumpa]

My 1977 1850HL is on a long round trip from home in Scotland to the south coast. My passengers, and even I, have remarked on a smell of petrol inside the car. I can't do much investigation while away from home but this puzzles me. Opening the bonnet and having a good sniff, hot or cold engine, gives no hint of fuel smell there.

I recommissioned this car about 3 years ago after a 26 year lay-up and I checked the tank carefully and found it in excellent condition. I renewed the entire pipe under the car and no petrol drips under the car.

So that leaves the filler neck and associated bits which I can't look at for the moment. Is there a known problem in this area that could cause petrol fumes to get into the car? What should I look for once I am home again on Sunday?

My good lady tells me that all cars of this vintage smelt of petrol and that's what made her so travel sick as a child. Is she right?

[soe8m]

The breather hose from the tank to the filler neck does crack sometimes where it sits at the fueltank.

Jeroen

[Bumpa]

The breather hose from the tank to the filler neck does crack sometimes where it sits at the fueltank.

Jeroen

That sounds possible Jeroen. I assume it is accessible when the boot liner is removed. Something that may be related, or may not be related, is that it is hard to fill the tank without fuel blowing back out of the filler. Any comments?

[geeksteve]

Possibly perished and collapsed.

[Carledo]

You can check this breather hose by removing the millboard cover in the n/s/r wing.

I've had a lot of trouble personally with this hose as I use it for a fuel return on my EFi equipped cars. On my cars it sees considerable fuel passing through bits of it and even E5 rots the original (and probably 40 year old) hose very quickly indeed.

On a standard car the breather hose only sees fuel on rare instances where the tank is brimmed full of petrol, so they tend to last better on standard carbed cars, still the E5 will get it eventually!

I also had a lot of trouble getting ethanol proof hose in this (1/2") diameter for any sensible price. 5m is roughly £100 and 2m nearly £50! It's a long hose too, just over a meter in length, though i'm thinking on my own cars of using some 12mm copper plumbers pipe to make up the bulk of it in future, having done it in expensive Gates Barricade hose throughout on the Dolomega!

Steve

[geeksteve]

I've had a lot of trouble personally with this hose as I use it for a fuel return on my EFi equipped cars.

I put a fuel return fitting into the bottom of the filler neck - seems to work..