Interior of car always smells like it's been sitting inside a machine shop , could this be caused by running no cats ?

Dan

 

could be other things??

 

How exactly would you describe the odor? Fuel ?

Mark

 

Dan, I told you about giving rides without DEPENDS

 

I ran into that same problem. Mine was the X-Pipe connection came loose right under the shifter part of the console. It seemed like it was coming in from there.
I know that you just finished a bunch of work on you car. Maybe you need to put it on a lift and retorque the bolts of the exhaust.

 

Dan

 

Seems like fuel / exhaust smell . I was figuring it was exhaust getting into the cockpit somehow .

Dan

 

Did you vent the crankcase away from the valve covers to open air. If you just put a breather on the valve cover, or no breather at all, it will smell up the interior. I ran vacuum lines from the cover to the front of car for good air vent. Solved the problem

Good luck

Dom

 

No cats
Non teflon braided lines
leaks
breather

 

Catless is your problem. Mine are gutted and I smell like I just got off my motorcycle after a ride, and it completely stinks up my 2-car garage. My wife hates it too and my next project will certainly include cats.

BTW After about 2 days with the garage cracked the smell becomes tolerable.

 

Yeap, gutted cats are your problem. It will smell exactly like your standing next to a motorcycle thats running. You should check for leaks just in case but, other than that, thats the smell of good ol' pushrod power.

 

I agree with all of these, but you can get away with non-teflon braided lines and not have fuel smell. I've never had problems using Aeroquip hose with Aeroquip fittings in the past, and have even gotten away with Aeroquip hose and non-Aeroquip fittings... but I can tell you that the Aeroquip guys have warned me about Russell fittings specifically, and mixing/matching other fittings with their hose and vice versa.

I have been advised that Russell fittings tend to tear or cut into the hose upon assembly (which sounds ridiculous, but who knows) which can lead to incredibly tiny leaks. Also, the tolerances and OD of Aeroquip hose are matched to the tolerances and ID of Aeroquip fittings, but not necessarily other manufacturers. Probably close enough to not have an issue most of the time but probably not close enough to not have an issue all of the time.

Finally, the guys advised me that (of course) keeping tension off the hose is important, so be sure to use swivels at the ends of your hose. I guess some guys try to get away from the more expensive swivel fittings and end up twisting the hose which makes it prone to failure and can also lead to tiny leaks.

With all that said, teflon (or PTFE or TFE hose, all the same thing I think?) can't hurt... it's just more expensive and potentially unnecessary if you do it right.

Oh, one more thing! Z06VET, I know you had some custom fuel system work done on your car. Getting fuel into or out of the back of the fuel rails can be tough because the firewall is a tight fit against the rails -- just be sure that your shop didn't notch the firewall near the fuel rails to make everything fit right. I did that on my convertible and the AC stunk terribly because the AC filter/inlet is right there just behind the firewall, and it was sucking up nasty PCV vapors from the engine bay. A little bit of fiberglass work fixed that problem right up but it was real nasty until I figured out where the smell was coming from.

 

Dan

 

Hey Dan,

I just wanted to follow up since you and I are/were sorta in the same boat. I just finished installing the ECS fuel system on my Z06 (which I can't say enough good things about). I did mine a little bit custom (routed the hoses through different locations, mounted the pump away from heat, and a few other small tweaks) so it took a while and also costed a little more in plumbing.

Turns out when I primed the pumps up and filled the system with fuel I started smelling gas. It wasn't a whole lot of smell but just enough that if the car sat overnight in the garage you could get a nose full of odor. I put the car up on the lift and started sniffing around. The braided stainless hose had the smell of good ol' V8 horsepower (you know that smell!) Unfortunately, some of the fittings on the end of the hose smelled like Chevron 93 octane.

It seems the guy from Aeroquip really did know what he was talking about. Some fittings don't seal as well as others on the same hose. Mind you, there was no visible gas leak -- but you could definitely smell it. I went to the Aeroquip shop in town today to confirm with the guy that their non teflon hose does not leak gasoline odor and he assured me that was true. So I replaced a few of the non-Aeroquip fittings with Aeroquip and a lot of the smell is gone. Also, I can't smell the scent of gasoline near those fittings, so they must be sealing tighter than the old ones did.

I just thought I'd pass along my results in case it might help you. The key seems to be matching the hose to the fitting and not mixing them up. Clearly it will work if you don't match them, but it only takes a slight deviation in tolerances for you to start smelling gas.

I'll also note that some of the non-Aeroquip fittings in my fuel system do not smell of gas either. So it's not a 100% guaranteed thing that not matching them will result in smell, but I am a believer at least that not matching them will increase the chances that you'll get a smell.

 

Good find Tony!

 

Might be the flanges where axle back bolts to the h or x pipe. Tighten the bolts and/or check the gaskets.

 

I ran no cats for a week before I had new high flows on the way...smells everything up.