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Heater question

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danielnorton

danielnorton

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The hose that comes from my heater to the vents inside the car has a few cracks and breaks, so you basically get engine smell in the car even with the heater off. The hose that is there is back and ribbed hard (but bendable ) plastic, is that the right hose and if so, any advise on replacing it on the cheap?

this is the hose that you can see when sitting in the passenger seat (basically in the glove box area)

As a side note, I have some spots in the engine compartment where gas has spilt and I get a strong gas small through the heater/vents, any recommendations on how/ what product to use to clean it up?

Less than I week till I see her again, already got an order of parts for my first project /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Spray on rinse off engine cleaner works preaty well.

Those tubes from moss are plastic hose. check the hardware store for something useable. Or maybe home depot. In any case they are cheep and I do not think the orginals are available, you might try wraping them with elec tape carefully.
 
do you have the fresh air intake installed? Its the 4 inch round hose under the hood that goes from the heater box to the hole in the radiator support. It brings in fresh air to the passenger area. If you dont have it dryer vent works pretty well.

mark
 
And it comes in two colors alum and white. Used it for about 15 years, clamp on both ends and one in the middle attached to something handy, worked well.
 
Got the air intake ready to install, this is inside the cab, I have a feeling the PO replaced whatever was originally there (inside the cab) with a similar kind of hose as the air intake, but maybe 1.5 inch diameter... probably not the best idea as it is cracked in a few places.. I guess the trick is to find a flexible hose that is the right size and can take the heat.. since the engine smell was pretty bad, I used some duct tape to seal it up for now.
 
For the vent ducts/hoses, look at a vacuum cleaner shop use replacement vacuum hose (just be sure to measure the diameter. The L-end pieces in the footwell should be reusable!
 
Now there's another neat tip.
 
I've driven my bugeye over 20 yrs without the hose for the heater and have never smelled any gas smells. Any spilt gas should evaporate pretty quickly. Maybe you need to investigate a little more and find out if it is a continuing problem that needs fixin. Hope I'm wrong, but.........
 
You are right kc. If it smells it's raw fuel and is leaking from somewhere or you are running very rich and it needs tracing. RISKY to ignore!!
 
I just came in from the garage, and Miss Agatha runs. I get no smells out there. During the restoration process there was old grease and oil smell but that is long gone.

No reason your garage should smell like fuel unless you have a problem.
 
It's a strange thing, my sister had the car in her garage for a week, no smell.
She drove it 3 or 4 times, no smell.
When I went to pick it up I left it running for maybe 10-15 minutes on a really steep hill (her driveway) smell started.
After sitting overnight and airing out smell was out of cab, but when I turned the heater on I got the smell again.

never any gas leak while it was in her garage, but after I pulled out (the night it sat on the hill) she saw a small gas puddle.

No more puddles since.

I was thinking that I had used too much choke to start the car (on the hill) and that might have been the cause.

Any advice on where to start looking for possible leaks etc?


EDIT: When I'm running the car and have the hood open, I can stick my head in close and I don't smell fuel at all.
 
Might have been a carb overflowing a bit because it was on a hill??

Start looking for leaks under the car, sorry could not resist that.

Carbs and fuel connections.
 
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