I have unusual problem. My Z stinks from the inside AND from the outside. Exhaust smells like it should BUT thats not the smell thats bothering me.

As soon as the engine warms the smell becomes stornger. I had a small heater hose leak INSIDE car (that small hose on the pass side) but i cannot imagine that it causes the smell. Im thinkin that the smell comes from the engine (because its stronger outside) and then travels trough vents inside. I dont know is it leaking coolant somewhere or something but i need to get rid of it, driving long distances is PITA because of the smell.

pleez help!

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240zgoldie.blogspot.com

Actually i might have found solution to this. One local 240z owner had EXACTLY the same issues with his car. He changed head gasket 3 times (!!!) after he found out the true problem. It was the carb/manifold gasket. Phew. Its thousand times easier to replace than the head gasket.

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240zgoldie.blogspot.com

Hmmmm.....this is curious. I would hope for 'cooked' transmission fluid or something like that, because it would be a quick fix........just a guess.

One very cold winter a cat climbed up into my buddy's radiator area and was killed when he started his car (parked beside mine in the parkinglot). Made no difference what he tried over the next year ~ the cat "remained" with the car, especially in summer.

Maybe you have a nest in the exhaust area? Could you run your engine while the car was on a lift, then sniff around under it?

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1970 240Z

Could be cooked tranny oil but the smell seems to be coming from the engine. Changing the heater core hoses helped about 23.5% but there is still that smell outside.

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240zgoldie.blogspot.com

I had my Z running and inspected but the smell aint gone. Well some of it is, but now its pure exhaust smell. And its "quite" annoying..

I wonder do anyone has any experience on Black Dragon weatherstrips? It seems that MSA has NLA hatch inner weatherstrip (except the oem part which is too expensive) BD has one for 50 bucks, but is it worth trying?

I've read about smoke machine tip from classiczcars.com forums, im going to try that in order to pinpoint the leak.

I have sealed tail lights wit 3M sticky stuff and all the grommets that are in hatch area but that aint helping... it almost seems that the smell is coming from the front... I tought about the cooked tranny oil but i cant smell anything coming directly from tranny.

This is something i must do and quickly, last summer trip to southern Finland was all exhaust hazy one. I bet that is not the healthiest way to drive..

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240zgoldie.blogspot.com

With the car warm but off, have you sniffed around it to zee if you can locate the source?

Because this seems to have started last spring, I wonder if an animal (mouse?) might have crawled up into your vent or intake systems and nested (or died!) over the past winter.

Open your intake air filter and zee if you maybe have unwanted guests in there. Also, the intake vents (from either side of the radiator, down each fender and into the cabin) are favorite places for mice to live during the winter. One buddy removed his vent elbows (those black plastic corners on either side of the radiator support, marked "L" and "R") and blew his leaf blower into that tube. Acorns and mouse nests flew out his vents.

Final thought ~ (a guess) ~ is the center air box itself (with the rotating drum fan in it). There are many places for critters to hide in there. Make sure there isn't something stagnant in there.

Maybe a tube would help you sniff remote areas, like a "nose stethoscope". Just make sure the neighbors don't think you're snorting cocaine from your Z!

What does the aroma smell like? Something dead, something chemical, something burning?

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1970 240Z

Its 100% pure exhaust, so if the dead mouses smell like burning fuel...
I've contacted the Vintage Rubber, they seem to have nice reputation on weatherstrips.

By the way, does S30's have some sort of rubber between door and quarter window where the door chrome meets the window chrome?

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240zgoldie.blogspot.com

("By the way, does S30's have some sort of rubber between door and quarter window where the door chrome meets the window chrome?")

No. It's a naked metal-to-metal contact.
The leading edge of the Quarterlight ("little back window") and the trailing edge of the chrome door window frame meet perfectly, if your doors are hung properly. BUT, there is a thick, soft rubber weather strip which circles the entire door opening, which lays right up against this junction from the inside. If that's positioned correctly, it keeps water from entering the cabin around the doors.

("Its 100% pure exhaust")

Figures.
Exhaust leaking into the S30 cabins has been a 42-year old problem. When the cars were factory new and all the rubber was fresh, it didn't happen. My 1970 Z never leaked fumes when I owned it the first time, and I put 122,000 miles on it before I sold it. When I found it again and bought it back, it had been taken all apart and painted, and it leaked exhaust into the cabin.

The old 1970/71 carz had the horizontal air vents on the lower part of the hatch. As they got older and the rubber began to deteriorate, fumes began sneaking into the cabin thru those vents. The rear of the S30 looks beautiful, but it's not very aerodynamic. There's a lot of turbulence right behind the car which sucks exhaust upwards and into the car thru any leak it can find around the hatch. Datsun changed the vents to the side pillars in late 1971/72 to avoid some of this.

Our Z Guru Bryan Little has a white 240Z. He had the same problem with his car. One day while we were washing his white Z, we opened the hatch and noticed a sooty dark-brown exhaust "path" along the driver's side of the hatch, about 1/3 of the way up from the trailing edge. It was obvious that exhaust had been sucked into the cabin at that spot for some time. We wiped it clean and he made some adjustments to the hatch weather stripping and it cured the problem.

The 'height' of the hatch is adjustable. You can move your hatch latch slightly, to make the hatch sit lower (push down farther to latch). That eliminates a LOT of open space for exhaust to sneak in thru.

Another thing I've heard is that once you break the integrity of the original gasket around the tail lights (like removing them from the car), you can expect exhaust to get sucked in no matter what you do. I've struggled with that, myself.

So the biggest offenders in this matter are the tail light gaskets and the weather stripping around the hatch. Don't waste time searching around the top of the hatch; the aerodynamic 'swirl' doesn't reach up that far. It's all in the bottom half of the hatch, both sides and across the rear, and around the tail lights.

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1970 240Z

Thanks Frank! I ordered new hatch inner W/S from Vintage Rubber, i have el cheapo one currently installed, its not that good.

I tried to seal the tail lights with 3M seal but i guess i have to double check that.

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240zgoldie.blogspot.com

I found out that the antenna drain hole was the cause! 70% of stink is gone!! Yeehaa!!

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240zgoldie.blogspot.com

Hmmmm! Never even considered THAT!
I wonder how many of us here could seal that hole and avoid most of our exhaust fumes?


Thanks for that.

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1970 240Z

Such a small hole, such a big problem!

That's true, the hole is in tricky place, and there was remnants of old rubber there, but i could see directly inside car from it. Now i dont have to wash my clothes every time i drive her

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240zgoldie.blogspot.com

It's crazy that it was that bad. What did you seal it with?

I put a 3cm (a bit over inch) thick rubber tube and taped a cork of a soda can to it. it holds the odour away and if there is any moist in there, i can always take the cork off, drain it and put it back My wifey helped me to seal it with 3M body sealant. I also sealed the tail lights with same stuff

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240zgoldie.blogspot.com