OldCarBum

Yes it will

OMF

I see you have cast iron manifolds on your engine, If you still looking for clues about the exhaust gasses have a look at the heat riser on the right side. Mine was leaking out there and getting into the cabin 10 years ago....I fixed it, and no matter how convincing I am about the repair, my wife still won't get in the car because of the smell so long ago. She hated walking through the office smelling like an exhaust pipe....LOL!
Those breathers will work just fine to let built up pressure escape from the engine, but they will leak oil all over the valve covers. Putting a PVC type breather on should reduce the oil drips.

You might want to look at cleaning or replacing that air filter....it looks really dirty in the last pic

Vincent McMahon

Thanks Sstocker. That's what I'm trying to avoid once the weather gets better and shell drive around w me. Good advice and I'll switch the air filter out soon.

davidbii

Yeah. Adding a PCV valve will reduce the smell. Crankcase fumes are bad. I didn’t realize until I stopped running a PCV valve and noticed the new aroma.

L-46man

I'm taking the counterpoint. Plumbing the PCV back into the system WILL NOT increase blow-by. It will DECREASE emissions coming from an open breather however.

Blow-by is created by A rings not sealing (well) .B Valve stem seals not sealing.

Evacuation of the pressures built up by these two items will not create MORE blow-by....Put another way the explosive compression of the gasses leaving the cylinder in the above two ways VS. the inches of vacuum created by engine vacuum at the base of the carb is TINY-TINY. The Delta P is huge.

At least for this discussion, re-plumbing the PCV will burn those emissions just blowing out the breather/separator into your breathing space.

Unkahal

cv67

most these oldcars stunk some esp with the choke on how soon we forget.
Run a cat if you want that will clean things up.

78EAGLE2B

Beautiful car! My exhaust smells too. The War Dept. makes me go outside after chewing my *** out.

RowdyMT

I’m having the same issue in my 73. I’ve owned several old cars and chalked it up to typical non-cat, carbbed, car smell. Until my wife was doing laundry and had me smell the clothes I was wearing. They were saturated with exhaust/gas fumes. It was bad. I inspected the exhaust and didn’t find any leaks. It’s got to be coming from the engine compartment. I noticed a difference when I shut off the heat. I hadn’t noticed it was running. Any ideas how fuel/exhaust fumes could be entering the heating duct? Bad exhaust manifold gasket? Hole in the heater core? My stock pcv is routed back through the air filter. Should I put it to vacuum?

mysixtynine

I just noticed from your pictures .. Your carb has a manual choke.

Do you know how to use it? Not many folks will have a manual choke on their car today?

Just want to make sure you checked that it comes off all the way?

cv67

Ive always routed my pvc to vacuum. Crankcase vapors can have fuel in them

Vincent McMahon

mysixtynine - good catch. I've kept the choke pushed in all the way but I'll double check the linkage.

Couple things I've done so far:
I also took apart the dash/console and had a slow leak fom the oil gauge. Got that replaced and cleaned up the residue. I think the reside was adding to my mix of smells.

With dash out, shined some light from the interior out and noticed a few spots in the firewall that needed some patching up.

Replaced valve cover gaskets and the breathers were sending more than just fumes. Got a breather with PCV valve to hook into the carb.

Next on the list is checking carb with vacuum gauge to lean it out. Cold, road salt, and snow preventing me from getting it out.

Thanks again everyone for the suggestions.

DC3

I have the same issue on my '73. I currently have the engine out waiting on a new one to arrive so now is the ideal time to tackle this. I came across a few things that might be contributing to the problem.

I discovered an exhaust slip fit joint near the transmission cross member wasn't clamped and there were signs of a minor exhaust leak at that point.

I discovered my Sanderson cast headers were also leaking a bit of exhaust due to loose bolts and one torn header gasket.

I also discovered a few minor holes in the firewall and transmission tunnel that could be letting air in.

But, I'm wondering if getting the smell inside the car isn't somewhat due to the Astro Ventilation system. It is my understanding the air is drawn into the system from the cowl area. If engine fumes are getting into this area, they could easily get into the car especially if the seals on the vent doors aren't perfect. The hood has weatherstrip at the cowl area which I'll be inspecting to make sure it's making a good seal. Another possible factor along these lines is that the cowl induction system on my car is not functional. I'm not running the factory air cleaner assembly and the parts to operate the cowl induction are missing so it's just an open air vent at this point. Thinking I might seal the opening to prevent any fumes from leaving the engine compartment and getting into the cowl area. For my new engine, I plan to find a way to get cold air from over the top of the radiator so I don't need the cowl induction system to work. I thought about just sealing off the Astro Ventilation system. I did seal off the rear deck vent when I added Vintage Air but I like having the fresh air intakes in the front as they allow me to temper the air a bit when the heater is on as it puts out too much heat on milder days.

DC

OldCarBum

One problem of allowing air to flow over the top of the radiator is that you are now taking away the air flow to be forced through the radiator which could add to an over heating issue seen when people have removed the radiator top seals.
As part of my resto/mod of my '73 I'll be adding some type of vent to the hood behind the radiator area which will allow air to flow in and won't take away from airflow through the radiator.
Part of my plan is to remove the charcoal canister and add a marine type canister to the rear of the car, which will reduce the airflow restriction out the driver's side front fender vent.
You might also check your charcoal canister to see if the filter needs to be replaced and it the charcoal is saturated.
I'll be replacing the original ac system with a Vintage Air ac system which will open any air flow restriction to the passenger side front fender vent.