Fuel lines & Evap system ?

[tommyturbo]

This stuff always happens when I am away from home. Drove my 90 from my home to the mountains for a few days with my dad. Drive is about two hours, and the elevation climb for the last part of the drive is from 2000 feet to about 6000. Car ran fine, but started smelling gas about halfway up the hill. When I arrived I noticed a very minuscule amount of greasy fuel coming out of the corrugated material that surround fuel lines that run from the top of the fuel tank down to near the fuel filter area. The tank was very pressurized as I noticed when opening the gas cap. So I am guessing the purge solenoid is bad, but wondered what the EEC strategy is for purging the vapor system when climbing hills. My 89 seemed to have a similar problem with building fuel vapor pressure on the same trip.

Is it possible that its not really a fuel line leak, but rather the fuel pressure is getting so high that its forcing it out around the top of the tank someplace? Haven't had any smell of fuel until now.

Since I am not home I have no way to really check much, but it's not the lines at the filter itself, they are tight and dry.

Plan on jacking it up an looking when I get home, and changing the filter and purge solenoid as a precaution.

 

[rubydist]

its entirely possible. its possible that the purge solenoid has gone bad and won't open, and its also possible that the pcm has a problem and won't command it to open - both have been experienced by people here on the forum over the years.

the easiest thing is to remove the 2 vac lines from the purge solenoid and then T them together, leaving the purge solenoid there so the pcm won't complain that its not there. if you hide the purge solenoid under some other stuff in the engine bay, you may still pass your emissions inspection like that.

 

[EL SHO]

its entirely possible. its possible that the purge solenoid has gone bad and won't open, and its also possible that the pcm has a problem and won't command it to open - both have been experienced by people here on the forum over the years.

the easiest thing is to remove the 2 vac lines from the purge solenoid and then T them together, leaving the purge solenoid there so the pcm won't complain that its not there. if you hide the purge solenoid under some other stuff in the engine bay, you may still pass your emissions inspection like that.

So there are no side effects on bypassing the solenoid?

 

[tommyturbo]

Cleaned out the T in the evap system under the radiator, the orifice was clogged up. Also waiting for a new solenoid as well, and will install it once it arrives. Coming home I didn't have any issues with fuel smell.

 

[Fordlover96]

So there are no side effects on bypassing the solenoid?

Ive had mine bypassed for a couple monthes now. Ive yet to see any side effects.

 

[rubydist]

my red 94 had the pcm problem - I had the purge solenoid bypassed for many years and had no issues at all. I live in an area where we have to do dyno emissions tests, and it always passed just fine with it bypassed, just like it did before I bypassed it.

 

[EL SHO]

Thanks guys, I asked this because I was getting that code, but it seems to come and go. Recently I've noticed that after prolonged acceleration on load I can smell a little bit of exhaust fume, but not sure if that's related.