" Back to the point: Healeys shouldn't smell of gas. It is not a normal
condition"
I have heard this opinion expressed I think a couple times on this list, I
would respectfully disagree.
Last I checked Healeys have SU carbs which have an orifice or mouth for the
air intake, if you look inside just a couple inches there is a piston, lift
the piston and you will see a needle which goes into a jet full of gas, when
the car runs gas is sucked out to the jet and mostly atomized and burned but
there will always be some in the bottom of the jet. The jet and the
interior of the carb, the piston and inner walls, are exposed to the gas as
it is sucked out of the carb and are open to the world (there is an air
filter, but it doesn't filter out gas fumes) a slight smell of gas,
particularly after running is not at all outside the range of normal.
Now if the fumes are stinking up the garage to the point the significant
other complains and you are afraid to light matches or make sparks in the
area that is not normal.
A more debatable point is that the fuel system was never built to be that
precise or leak free, and a little seapage from the carbs, not drips, but
some fuel getting out where a seal is not absolutely gas tight, such as the
jet or float bowl lid, seeping along the surface and smelling a little of
gas is fairly normal as well, and won't cause any harm, and fixing it or not
is a matter of your overall worldview on such things and wether the effort
and potential frustration is worth the reward to you, I will concede that
this point is debateble, but when I drove SU carbed cars (Healeys, MGs,
Triumphs) when they were used cars and daily drivers seemed to be the way
they worked.
Greg Lemon
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