Hey All, You've all be so helpful already to me. Thank you! I got another one though!! Ahhhh

Well, I smell gas from time to time when I am driving. Sometimes just when I get in the car.

I've been driving the car now for about 2 months putting on about 1000 miles. (this after the car has sat in a garage for years)

This past weekend I had trouble at one start-up. Ok not too bad.
Then yesterday I felt it wanting to stall when I pulled up to stop lights. I kept foot on gas soft to keep it running.

Today I checked my oil and I feel like I smell a teeny hint of gas on the dipstick. I don't know if this is just in my head.....
I also pulled the plugs today, they all looked fine and they didn't smell weird at all.
But also today car ran well, very well.

Since I decided to bring it back into the light of day from the garage I have done:
New battery
New Fuel Pump
New belts
New Spark plugs
New fluids
general clean-up
door locks haha

Any thoughts or help on my dilemma ??
why smelling gas?

Much Much appreciated
thanks

 

Also recently changed oil last week.

 

this is actually pretty normal (gas in the oil thing) for rotary engines. if you do normal intervals on oil changes, the oil will smell a little like gas towards the end of the cycle. if you have gone past an oil change or let the car sit, it will be a few oil changes before it goes back to normal. it may still be a good idea to pull the injectors and have them cleaned and flow tested since it sat for a while.

on the other end of that, is the car running better now that you have done some maintenance? it seems like you just had some bad gas that may have been fouling some things up. let me know if there are any issues even after this work.

 

I might be concerned that the evap fuel canister is overwhelmed and the system is dumping raw fuel into the engine instead of recycling it.

Just a guess and my .02, so let"s see what the rotary experts, which I am certainly not,have to say.

 

it has to do with the oil metering pump. the pump returns oil in the same way that the fuel pump returns fuel. the excess pressure goes back to the pan, but inevitably takes a small portion of gas with it since it comes in such close contact with the fuel at the point of injection. this is amplified when the oil is broken down with either age or thermal effects. this is also another reason that i change my oil every 1000-1500 miles.

 

Hi Wsoape - You 1st mentioned that it may still be a good idea to pull the injectors and have them cleaned and flow tested since it sat for a while.

I'm not too keen on how to go about that at all... Seem most nessacary to you?

And from your 2nd post on the topic you mentioned about changing oil every 1000 to 1500 miles.. that doesn't seem too horrible to me, could that be my remedy??

Lastly, I mentioned that it was just a hint of gas smell on the dipstick.. but I am smelling gas in the car.... not every day but every so often, no ryhme or reason when and when not.

I did put in cheap gas over the weekend, I must admit. About 5 gallons.

 

i just realized that i haven't gotten the year and model from you yet.

the gas smell could be an injector getting stuck at random. other than that, i don't know what else to say other than the possibility of an evap can like v1 said, though i am not sure that all of the models had evaps. most of them just had direct returns.

the cleaning and flow testing can be done by injector rehab, but you will have to pull them yourself. it's not really hard to do, but will take some time. i will try to find a write-up on it.

i always promote doing maintenance more often than recommended. oil is a lot cheaper than a rotary rebuild and the results of doing oil changes at those intervals could save your engine in the long run. expecially if you are turbo.

along those lines, i do have to call you out on the cheap gas thing. keep in mind that your rotary can take extremely high octane without damage. cheap gas will only clog the peripheral ports and cause them to barely work or not work at all. you might not be able to tell a difference over time, but you could tell all at once if you cleaned them. i do have to put cheap gas in every now and then also, but i try not to make it a regular occurence.

 

Yeah I felt like it may have been a mistake at the moment i put in the gas. Still not sure that's the reason I have this issue, but knowing this car sat for a long time and just getting her up on the road for a couple months now, I know I should give her the good stuff.

BTW - it's a 1988 RX7 SE - non-turbo a little under 82,000 miles on it.

 

Check the pulsation damper on the primary fuel rail. These are a known weak point on the S4 models. After time the screw backs out & the diaphram ruptures allowing fuel to start coming out. A lot of RX7s have met fiery deaths due to that one small part.

 

pulsation damper on primary fuel line.. easy to find?