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MG MGB Technical - petrol smell

I can smell petrol now and then in my BGT and mostly at standstill.

Traced it to engine breather hose which goes to atmosphere.

Any explanation? Only 6 month old engine.

Thanks
Keith

Hi Keith.

It sounds like a float chamber problem of some kind, either a problem with the float or the valve.

HTH.. Don

Don

What year? Only the very earliest cars should have an open engine breather, from Feb 64 various sorts of closed-circuit breathing were used (which probably precludes all GTs) and there were no open breather pipes.

But being petrol, it is probably a carb overflow pipes, and unless it is actually dripping on the ground the float and valve is probably OK. Some fumes always emanate from these pipes with a hot engine, particularly after switch-off, which was why they were routed to the charcoal canister on North American spec cars. To test the valve disconnect the coil and leave the ignition on without starting the engine. The fuel pump (assuming SU) should not click more than once every 30 secs, but the real test is whether anything drips out of the overflow or not. You may need to leave it for several minutes (hence disconnecting the coil) if it is a very slow weep from the valve, to allow it to fill up enough to overflow.
Paul Hunt

This thread was discussed between 07/01/2004 and 08/01/2004

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