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Re: [Healeys] 57 Healey

To: Randall <tr3driver@ca.rr.com>
Subject: Re: [Healeys] 57 Healey
From: "Greg Lemon" <glemon@neb.rr.com>
Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2011 19:23:29 -0600
" Back to the point: Healeys shouldn't smell of gas. It is not a normal 
condition"

I have heard this opinion expressed I think a couple times on this list, I 
would respectfully disagree.

Last I checked Healeys have SU carbs which have an orifice or mouth for the 
air intake, if you look inside just a couple inches there is a piston, lift 
the piston and you will see a needle which goes into a jet full of gas, when 
the car runs gas is sucked out to the jet and mostly atomized and burned but 
there will always be some in the bottom of the jet.  The jet and the 
interior of the carb, the piston and inner walls, are exposed to the gas as 
it is sucked out of the carb and are open to the world (there is an air 
filter, but it doesn't filter out gas fumes) a slight smell of gas, 
particularly after running is not at all outside the range of normal.

Now if the fumes are stinking up the garage to the point the significant 
other complains and you are afraid to light matches or make sparks in the 
area that is not normal.

A more debatable point is that the fuel system was never built to be that 
precise or leak free, and a little seapage from the carbs, not drips, but 
some fuel getting out where a seal is not absolutely gas tight, such as the 
jet or float bowl lid, seeping along the surface and smelling a little of 
gas is fairly normal as well, and won't cause any harm, and fixing it or not 
is a matter of your overall worldview on such things and wether the effort 
and potential frustration is worth the reward to you, I will concede that 
this point is debateble, but when I drove SU carbed cars (Healeys, MGs, 
Triumphs) when they were used cars and daily drivers seemed to be the way 
they worked.

Greg Lemon
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