[Healeys] Fuel smell in 100 - what did it turn out to be?/Scotland - Italy - Scotland final trip report.

mike brooks hypercubic at yahoo.co.uk
Thu Jul 17 13:23:12 MDT 2014


Robert,

We just arrived home in Scotland last night. Since I do all the
driving and had just done 10 hours I decided to leave a reply until this
evening. I am copying this to The List - hope you don't mind.


The short
answer is I'm not sure. The 100 had been running fine down through England and
France. We had been over the Grand St Bernard Pass at over 2000metres high
with no problem. it was shortly after we filled up with petrol for the first
time in Italy that we noticed the smell. The car still seemed to be running
fine. The smell lasted the whole five days we were in Italy, mostly at high
altitude. The car, whilst still seeming to run OK was only doing 17 mpg rather
than the usual 25 - 27. However, most of the trips were short ones, and all of
them were up and down serious inclines. After we left Italy, over the Petit St
Bernard Pass into France, the smell continued intermittently. But after two
more fuel fill-ups in France, we noticed the smell had disappeared (well,
reverted to the usual "Healey Smell" we are used to!!). After that, the 100
continued to run well, and returned over 27 mpg up through France to the ferry
at Calais. Once back in England,
 we continued north and after two fuel fills I was convinced the Healey was
pulling better than ever. And calculations showed even better mpg figures of
28 and 29 over two fills. I don't have a clear conclusion. However, I have the
following thoughts:-

 - did we have a bad batch of fuel in Italy?
 - did
running at high altitude make the engine run so rich that we were smelling
unburnt fuel?

 - what about ethanol? UK is less than 5%, France is 10%, don't
know about Italy.

Others may have ideas.

I've just added up the total
mileage - 2633 miles, 96.44 UK gallons of petrol = 27.3 mpg. Only issues with
the car were a broken boot prop bracket and several door seals coming adrift -
easy fixes. Not bad for a self-maintained 58 year old car?

On another subject
we called in to the Heritage Motor Museum at Gaydon. I had always wanted to
see it, had passed it on the M40 several times times, but had never planned
properly to stop in the past. I can report, for those who haven't been, that
it is a must for anyone interested in British cars. There were only two
Healeys there, both 3000's. But there was an A90 Atlantic. Highlights fo me
where the several famous prototypes, production firsts and well-known
competition cars.

All in all it was a great trip. Where next year?

Regards
Mike Brooks
'56 BN2
Scotland
 

Reply to: mike.brooks at alumni.warwick.ac.uk 
________________________________
 From: Robert Duquette
<robert.duquette at me.com>
To: "hypercubic at yahoo.co.uk" <hypercubic at yahoo.co.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, 16 July 2014, 20:35
Subject: Re: [Healeys] Fuel smell in 100
What did it turn out to be?

I had a similar issue with my BN1 last summer.  I
could smell gas.  The rear carb was dripping on to the exhaust manifold.  It
was just a loose nut ( bolt? ).

Robert
I intend to live forever, or die
trying.

On Jul 10, 2014, at 04:55 PM, "hypercubic at yahoo.co.uk"
<hypercubic at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:


We're still in val d'aosta and the 100 has
started to smell of petrol. It
>still seems to be running fine. I've been over
and tightened up the obvious
>connections in the fuel system and can't find
anything obvious. We're
>planning to exit italy via the Petit St bernard pass,
heading for an overnight
>in Oyonnax on Saturday, then heading north taking
two or three days to Calais
>for the ferry back to UK. Does anyone know of a
garage on our route through
>France that could have a look at the 100's fuel
system for me?
>
>Mike Brooks
>56
>BN2
>
>Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
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