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REALLY odd smell...

W

wontgrowup

CEG'er
Joined
Nov 17, 2002
Messages
140
Location
Western Massachusetts
Here's a brief explaination on my prob:

3.0L conversion into 2000 SVT Contour....just started getting the strangest smell I've ever experienced...can best be described as a "chicken soup" smell coming from the very front of the engine, right by the radiator. Doesn't smell like anything electrical, coolant or oil related. There are no fluids leaking, no smoke observed, nothing chaffing or binding that I could find, nor any of the Jet techs here at the Base.

Had a CEL for a cam position sensor- swapped out the sensor, CEL went away; had a blown gasket between the flange on the y-pipe to cat-temp fixed with JB weld around flange- no air leaks...The last CEL the previous owner had was for the gasket leak on the exhaust flange (O2 sensor CEL), but it wasn't there following the JB "fix".

The car runs, idles, drives well....coolant temp is right in the range it has been....A number of us are stumped as to what this smell is....any thoughts?
 
I would love it if my car smelled like Chicken soup every time I drove it.

Yum :)
 
Did you put on new exhaust manifold gaskets? I replaced mine when I did a swap and they smelled like that (i'm guessing kind of a sour smell) for a good 3 weeks. A little spilled oil down the front of the engine made it worse..
 
Hmmmm....

Hmmmm....

The gaskets were new.....maybe that's what the source of the smell is. The weird thing is it becomes more pronounced if you drive +20 minutes at a steady speed....It could just be transient...we'll see.

LOL on the soup:) that would be nice when it gets cold, huh??
 
I think i've figured it out...

I think i've figured it out...

It appears the overflow for the coolant emptied out and got onto the block....thus the sickeningly sweet smell. now, however, I've noticed the 3.0L has lost alot of it's mid range/low end....I think this car "likes" certain brands of fuel....I'll wait til the tank runs down and will refill it with another brand to see if that solves it...
 
You know my 3L swap made a funny smell. I thought it was maybe synthetic oil leaking on something since I'd never run Syn. before. When I pulled the engine to part the car out no leaks at all.
 
greasemonkey1489 said:
Did you put on new exhaust manifold gaskets? I replaced mine when I did a swap and they smelled like that (i'm guessing kind of a sour smell) for a good 3 weeks. A little spilled oil down the front of the engine made it worse..
Click to expand...


swap has been running for at least a month or so before he bought it.
 
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