TVR Tasmin, Investigating Smells

It seems like I’m stuck in a never-ending loop of dodgy fuel hoses. The TVR is no different.

After I paid for the TVR and whilst waiting for the transporter to collect it, I was let in on a little… issue… the car had. This is what I was told, as a little “oh btw” side note

And last but not least – I never cured a petrol smell from the tank and guess he hasn’t either … I couldn’t leave the car in the internal access garage cos it stank the house out.

Well, that could be interesting, since my only garaging is internal access, under the bedrooms, and my driveway is too steep to park a classic car on (not to mention uncovered).

When the car arrived, there was no obvious smell. I suspect that was to do with the fact the tanks were empty. Once I added fuel, a noticeable smell was present at the rear of the car. It wasn’t enough to stink the house out, or even the garage, but with only 10L in the tanks I can only imagine it gets worse the more full they are.

I have receipts for one of the tanks being removed and repaired in 2011, along with all the fuel hoses as the “recently replaced” filter was leaking. This dashed my hopes that it might just be a simple case of dodgy old fuel hoses causing the issue, as they had been replaced (we’ll see).

Today I jacked the car up and had a look. Unfortunately I found that due to differences in early and late chassis, despite seeing this car up on QuickJacks, I cannot line mine up with the chassis tubes to safely lift it. The later cars have body mount plates on the chassis, where mine doesn’t.

Oh well, the old jack and stands come out to play again

You can spot the silver fuel pump in the top left of the above photo, behind the exhaust. The tanks are more or less above the pump, on each side.

A quick look around and I suspect I found at least one of the causes of the fuel smell. The main feed hose from the tanks to the pump has horrifically perished

The way the hose has been run also causes issues too, with the hose being squished flat in at least two places as it goes over chassis tubes (top and bottom photos are good examples).

It’s not cheap hose either, being Aeroflow. The Tee piece between the tanks has been replaced with Aeroflow parts.

The small hoses from the pump are showing signs of perishing too. All in 8 years, and minimal use.

So surprise surprise, despite being done before, it’s all dodgy looking and buggered. I have my suspicions about the filler and balance tube couplers, but I’ll deal with them if replacing the under car hoses doesn’t help. They looked ok from what I could see under the car.

I have ordered new 5/8″ fuel hose for everything to the pump, a new brass Tee piece (to replace the Aeroflow one), a new fuel filter, and I still have stock of good 8mm hose for the other hoses. Once it all arrives I’ll drain the tanks, rip it all out and start again. Hopefully that sorts the fuel smell, and may even help the system run better if the hose isn’t being crushed.

One last little thing; I gave the other side of the rear window a polish today too. Now you can see through both sides. It’s far from perfect, but much better.

Interestingly, from the inside, I’m pretty sure the clearer spot on the left was my test patch. I’m going to buy a foam polishing cone and try polishing at a higher speed and see what happens, especially with that pitted yellowing. Just need to take care with the surface heat, not to cause more damage.