Smelly heat Options

[andreic]

Hello,

another question on my 1972 914. Since it just got colder, I reinstalled the heat boxes and the hoses providing heat in the car. The problem is that now there is a nasty smell in the cabin as I drive, **even** with the heater lever closed. Could it be that old grease on the heater boxes gets heated up and smells? Would this be fixed by putting the heater boxes in a parts cleaner and giving them a good cleaning?

Thanks.

[dr914@autoatlanta.com]

We once purchased a pristine nepal orange 75 2.0 for a great price, but later found out why: The car stunk to high hell! Figuring out immediately that it was a rotting rodent smell, we begun by removing the interior down to the shell, could find nothing. Then we vacuumed and blew out the heater tubes in the longitudinals, nothing! THEN we removed the gas tank and ventilation system (like in a previous post) NOTHING, then we removed the heat exchangers and muffler: Nothing. Then we removed the engine insulator pad: nothing. Now we were getting desperate so we removed the engine and moved it far away from the car, NOTHING The car still stunk! We were facing a bad reality: The smell was inside the body.
Removing the oval access plugs in the inside of the longitudinals and putting a nose to it, we located the smell to the right rear long, and faced the grim fact that we would have to cut this car open to get to the problem. We got a die grinder and cut a door out of the side and partial top of the long and lo and behold a rotting rats nest. After thoroughly steam cleaning and sanitizing, we rewelded the door and put the car back together....no more smell!
However that was not the end of the story, the car was cursed. Several years later the new owner was driving down the interstate on a hot day at a high rate of speed and an injector began to leak spraying gas into the hot engine compartment. The explosion blew the engine lid up, and by the time the guy pulled over to the side, the car was engulfed and burned to the ground even destroying the fuchs wheels. There was nothing left.

[StarBear]

Ah -- rust or fire; maybe about 90% of causes of 914s going to Air-Cooled Heaven. Some are crashes, of course, but methinks mainly these two causes. Neighbor had a Pontiac Fiero - aptly named one day for the same reason, too.

We once purchased a pristine nepal orange 75 2.0 for a great price, but later found out why: The car stunk to high hell! Figuring out immediately that it was a rotting rodent smell, we begun by removing the interior down to the shell, could find nothing. Then we vacuumed and blew out the heater tubes in the longitudinals, nothing! THEN we removed the gas tank and ventilation system (like in a previous post) NOTHING, then we removed the heat exchangers and muffler: Nothing. Then we removed the engine insulator pad: nothing. Now we were getting desperate so we removed the engine and moved it far away from the car, NOTHING The car still stunk! We were facing a bad reality: The smell was inside the body.
Removing the oval access plugs in the inside of the longitudinals and putting a nose to it, we located the smell to the right rear long, and faced the grim fact that we would have to cut this car open to get to the problem. We got a die grinder and cut a door out of the side and partial top of the long and lo and behold a rotting rats nest. After thoroughly steam cleaning and sanitizing, we rewelded the door and put the car back together....no more smell!
However that was not the end of the story, the car was cursed. Several years later the new owner was driving down the interstate on a hot day at a high rate of speed and an injector began to leak spraying gas into the hot engine compartment. The explosion blew the engine lid up, and by the time the guy pulled over to the side, the car was engulfed and burned to the ground even destroying the fuchs wheels. There was nothing left.