Fuel leak?
Thread Starter
Staging Lane
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 65
Likes: 0
Fuel leak? Alright guys i got another question. The fuel lines run down the passenger side of the car and in the middle of the car cut to the middle and go back to the tank correct? Well when the car gets hot (All my problems happen when the car reaches alil bit before 210, when the car is cold it runs perfect 
) the whole left side of the car, even from like 4ft away, smells like straight up gas. If i roll up my windows i almost get choked out the gas is so strong. Also when the car gets hot it spits and sputters and loses a considerable ammount of power. I've heard many different things and brought it to several mechanics and they have no idea what could be makin the car sputter. I took it too a respectable mechanic and he ran the car on a diagnostic machine and when the car sputtered the knock retard went to 21 degrees . I am very frustrated with this considering i bought the car 4 days ago. Some help would be very much appreciated fellas. Also the car normally runs 225-235 degrees which i think is too hot even for the GM's.
Oh yea when the car gets hot it wont even run all the way to redline and acts like the rev limiter kicks in around 4800
) the whole left side of the car, even from like 4ft away, smells like straight up gas. If i roll up my windows i almost get choked out the gas is so strong. Also when the car gets hot it spits and sputters and loses a considerable ammount of power. I've heard many different things and brought it to several mechanics and they have no idea what could be makin the car sputter. I took it too a respectable mechanic and he ran the car on a diagnostic machine and when the car sputtered the knock retard went to 21 degrees . I am very frustrated with this considering i bought the car 4 days ago. Some help would be very much appreciated fellas. Also the car normally runs 225-235 degrees which i think is too hot even for the GM's.Oh yea when the car gets hot it wont even run all the way to redline and acts like the rev limiter kicks in around 4800
Last edited by LT1Drew; May 25, 2007 at 10:48 PM. Reason: problem
Anyone lol? 
whoa....well a few ideas here. Maybe somewhere on your fuel rails you are leaking fuel. Look on your firewall and see if oyu see a yellowish brown color. Might be fuel filter improperly installed causing it to leak and stutter at higher rpms. maybe you have an intake manifold leak? Check that all the intake manifold bolts are inplace and that they are not loose.
I would be more inclined to say it is leaking gas from the back part of the fuel rail, but the other mechanics not seeing it, maybe the lines that are going up to the engine bay are a lil off.
stuttering would also tell me maybe fuel pump or fuel injectors.
was this car sitting and/or "stored" for a period of time?
I would be more inclined to say it is leaking gas from the back part of the fuel rail, but the other mechanics not seeing it, maybe the lines that are going up to the engine bay are a lil off.
stuttering would also tell me maybe fuel pump or fuel injectors.
was this car sitting and/or "stored" for a period of time?
Thread Starter
Staging Lane
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 65
Likes: 0
Well the owners kid had it for a dailey driver until he got a ticket of 36 over and it sat for like a week before i bought it. And i talked to this guy today and he said to clean the MAF so i got some heavy duty MAF cleaner and cleaned it...same ****. But what gets me is that when the car is cold it runs like a beast but after it warms up it loses power and sputters. I mean does this narrow the problems down at all?
Teching In
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 40
Likes: 0
From: San Diego
Fuel lines run down the drivers side, not the passenger side. Hook up a fuel pressure gauge and see if the system holds pressure when the pump primes, key on, engine off.
As far as fuel smell, a faulty charcoal canister is know to cause an external fuel smell.
As far as fuel smell, a faulty charcoal canister is know to cause an external fuel smell.
if you have changed the fuel pump lately.check the o ring seal on the tank .also check your exhaust clearance to the tank it could possibly be heating up your fuel and causing excessive vapor pressure.
dont knwo abotu the leak issue....but that sounds similar to a bad fuel filter as well. Might be a combination of things workign togetehr to rob you. Another thing you might want to check, is be sure the plug wire from the coil to the opti is pushed in all the way if there has been alot of MAF cleaning and what not.
as for there being a fuel leak....put some cardboard under your car and keep it runnign for a bit and see what drips down and where....mgiht help ya out that way? might not too thou. in either case couldnt hurt. One other hting you mgiht want to check is sometimes when mechanics check Fuel pressure they forget to put the little protector cap on the pressure check nipple and also sometimes the peice that allows the fuel to flow from that fitting gets jammed slightly open. give that a check too....it should be a black cap on the back part of the fuel rails behind the intake manifold more on the passenger side than the driver side. it should look like the cap from a car tire
as for there being a fuel leak....put some cardboard under your car and keep it runnign for a bit and see what drips down and where....mgiht help ya out that way? might not too thou. in either case couldnt hurt. One other hting you mgiht want to check is sometimes when mechanics check Fuel pressure they forget to put the little protector cap on the pressure check nipple and also sometimes the peice that allows the fuel to flow from that fitting gets jammed slightly open. give that a check too....it should be a black cap on the back part of the fuel rails behind the intake manifold more on the passenger side than the driver side. it should look like the cap from a car tire
