Happy thanksgiving all!

I bought my 1973 p914 last march. It's is 99 percent original. Equipped with ac

Now that the weather is nice in az I have had the p914 out and about. Problem is that while i drive, the cabin smells like engine compartment. It permeates everything ie my clothes, the seats, my lunch bag etc. I have to drive with the windows down (as thought that is a bad thing). There is no exhaust. I have had Carbon monoxide in the past, I know the signs.



I would like to heater but is only makes it worse

I have the vent and defrost closed.


Please help
Daniel

The only way that the engine fumes can get into the cabin is through the heater tubes. . Old heater control boxes most of the time have deteriorated seals, so even with them pulled close, some air will be blown in by the engine fan. . . you can eliminate most of it by making sure the cables to the control box pull the levers to the full closes position. .
Other possibility is your heat exchangers have become filled with oil and girt over the years. . and your getting baked oil fumes. .

You're most likely leaking oil onto the heat exchangers, and it is burning off. That can make its way into the cabin, usually through the warm-air passages, sometimes not. Fix the leaks, and the smell should eventually dissipate.

If the oil has gotten into the hoses inside the longitudinals, it can take a very long while to dissipate, BTW.

--DD

here are are pictures of the belly of the beast
one side is capped off, with a bottom os a soda can not sure why...
over all the engine is pretty clean
i noticed on the left side, the heater fan sources air from the engine compartment

The factory capped the passenger side as they went to a single outlet blower. They didn't feel the need to feed air to both HEs. The factory cap was a plastic cap on the passenger side "J" tube.

A splitter was made to fit the outlet of the fan to be able to direct air to both HEs.

We all know what your cabin smells like SLITS... :luckyjoe:

Welcome to the Aircooled World...

and



The air from the heater originates from the engine compartment. The engine always smells like dirty cooked motor oil. That smell gets sucked into the engine fan and the auxiliary boost fan and into the interior.

Don't know how bad the smell is in your car but having an "aroma" of oil in the 914 cabin is not rare.

there is a visible oil deposit where the head vent hose is leaking. you're missing the tin grommet for the j tube on the dr side. under tin air is leaking inside the engine compartment. ALL penetrations in the tin need to be sealed with the appropriate grommets/seals. my guess is you have some built up up gunk in the cooling air shroud and the rest of the heating duct work. over time the interior of the heat exchangers get coated with the crap. the inside of the he's can be flushed while they're in place but it's pretty messy. when the engine gets hot the off gas fumes are being pumped right into the interior.

clean the interior of the engine compartment, insides of the j tubes, branch ducting, and replace old warm air hoses.