gas in crankcase

howdy,
after a long healey haul[9hrs]i left the fuel pump on overnight.
next day, lit her up, ran fine.checked dip stick she was qt+ over. figured it was the missing fuel. aside from a brief fuel bath,oil change,what could be the worst!!!!! [she smells]
with respect 59er

??? Fuel pump stops when ignition off and key out. If you checked the oil level when engine hot and then again when cold, it will read higher when cold as the oil seeps back down to the oil pan overnight. Are you getting fuel in the oil pan? What did you mean fuel bath? What is the smell, gasoline or oil? We can be more help if you are more specific.

We used to check for suspected gasoline in crankcase by removing disptick, taking it outside the shop, and holding a zippo under the tip. Gasoline presence will let you know right away.
Not going to recommend that...just commenting.
Again, quart over, not good unless it crept drained down, but a quart is a lot. If you are able to ascertain the presence of gasoline in the sump, change the oil and filter. Now.

Then, re-wire the fuel pump so it is not fed independently of the ignition switch.

It doesn't take anywhere near a quart of gasoline to dilute the lubrication properties of oil.

Don't run the engine until the oil is drained and purged. To me, it would be worth the effort to remove the filter adapter from the block, and force clean oil through the pump and galleys.

As TOC says, ensure the pump doesn't run without the engine.

Just speculating here, but to my knowledge even if the pump was live, would it continue pouring fuel into the carbs, through the manifold and into the combustion chamber? Shouldn't the pump stop pumping once the float bowls got full? Could it be that during the 9 hr drive, fuel was somehow being pushed into the crankcase....just a WAG.

If the needles leak, you betcha.

This sounds strange.

Assuming that the fuel pump was left on and the floats were leaking shouldn't the fuel have flowed out the copper tubes in the bottom of the intake manifold?

If there really was a quart of fuel in the crankcase I don't think this engine will be running for very long.

The vent is really atmospheric...you can't pump fuel into a closed space. It also acts as an overflow when something goes wrong, but, usually you smell it before you pump a whole bunch into the crankcase.
If I recall, there is no other way to get petrol into the crankcase.

Michael Oritt said:

This sounds strange.

Assuming that the fuel pump was left on and the floats were leaking shouldn't the fuel have flowed out the copper tubes in the bottom of the intake manifold?

If there really was a quart of fuel in the crankcase I don't think this engine will be running for very long.

Click to expand...

I agree! My experience has always been upon depending on what carb part is in need or repair, the fuel will come out of the carb overflow pipe or the copper pipes attached on the intake manifold. This also applies to the fuel pump being left "on". Before going on a trip I used to turn the ignition key "on" so that the pump was running to see if either of the above was leaking. I usually found that a pump that seemed to be "clicking" moderately(engine not running!), was a sign of a slow leak and either the needle & seat or jet needed attention soon. Most often the "moderate clicking" did not produce overflowing gas unless it was left on for several minutes.

howdy all,
thanks for all the feed back.
yes the pump ran all night[12hrs]as my solid state pump is independently powered, less ignition.
in addition to sizeable outflow beneath bowl vents, via new gross jets,??? the sump was the major reciepent of lost fuel.
when i dropped the oil[burned my eyes] not so when i drained the filter[smelled like oil,not fuel]
my other concern was damaged seals ????? time will tell.....
with respect 59er