De Lorean EuroTec

Is there any reason why we shouldn't just chuck it in the bin and plug up the vacuum pipes that go to it?!

It absorbs fuel vapour from the tank. So you should never smell fuel when driving your Delorean, so yeah it works great

If you remove it and and plug the vac lines be sure to not plug the vent pipe from the tank as the fuel pump will be trying to suck the air out of the tank and as we know how well these tanks are sealed it could cause running issues. I'd put a little filter on the tank vent line so muck can't get drawn down it into the tank.

Lol! So should it be a service item then? If I replace it will that then mean that I can use the fans without blowing a load of fuel vapour inside the car?!

jerzybondov wrote:will that then mean that I can use the fans without blowing a load of fuel vapour inside the car?!

Don't be silly Gez

Its not a service item, the idea is it absorbs the vapour then when there is engine vacuum it sucks it back out and burns it off in the engine. Modern cars have a similar setup, but of course they work.

But surely that charcoal gets all saturated with fuel after 40 years? Like those dehumidifying crystals you can get for caravans etc? Tell me I can put a new one in and the car (and me, and my clothes and my stuff) will no longer miraculously smell of fuel as soon as I go anywhere at all!

jerzybondov wrote:But surely that charcoal gets all saturated with fuel after 40 years? Like those dehumidifying crystals you can get for caravans etc? Tell me I can put a new one in and the car (and me, and my clothes and my stuff) will no longer miraculously smell of fuel as soon as I go anywhere at all!

That could work. I’m aware of a few people that got rid of fuel smells by replacing the canister, which had some sort of clog. Although those people were complaining of a fuel smell from the back of the car, not through the air vents. The canisters main job is really just storage of the vapor until the engine is started and is part of the EPA regulations (for the USA anyway). I’m not sure how much “absorbing” it’s really doing.

The problem is that there are many places that fuel vapors can leak from: roll over valve, sending unit cap, fuel pump boot, etc. If the vapor is coming from anywhere near the fuel tank area, it can easily travel up the water drain hole above the fuel pump, and right into the air intake for the HVAC system. To see if that is your problem, try taking a clean rag and shoving it into that water drain hole.

I've never managed to achieve a fuel tight seal on the fuel pump boot on either of my cars, so that is probably the culprit.

Also on a long run you end up with a tank full of very hot fuel as its heated as it passes through the metering head and pumped back into the tank via the return line. Round and round it goes getting the fuel in the tank hotter and hotter. I dare say when the fuel is hot it will give off more vapour than cold. I know on the Hamburg trip which after hours and hours of continuous running, a few of us were smelling petrol fumes in the cabin.