adamdrives
Active member
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2010
- Location
- San Jose
My modified 83 turbo wagon has a very strong and unusual exhaust smell on decel coming out of boost. If i'm pulling in 3rd gear and let off the throttle, I get a wave of stench directly in the cabin that's so bad it stings my eyes. The car has a homemade 2.5" stainless exhaust with Ebay cat, cherry bomb resonator, and slightly angled up tip coming out under the tailgate on the passenger side. This problem started after I installed this system with a 90+ mani and 15g. Before I installed the turbo and exhaust, I had the original exhaust and cat with the midpipe cut and the tip coming out the side, right before the rear passenger wheel with no smell. If I have all the windows closed, there is hardly any smell.
At first I thought it was paint or residue on the cherry bomb baking off, but the smell hasn't gone away. It doesn't just smell like rich exhaust, its much sharper and not a smell I'm familiar with. I just replaced my cracked manifold to eliminate that as a cause, but theres no change. I've smoke checked the exhaust and it has two very small leaks at the welds rear of where the rear seats would be, nothing major. I tried putting a turn down at the tip since the pipe was slightly angled up, without much noticeable change in the smell. It's not an exhaust smell I'm familiar with, and I've only had factory catted cars, so I'm thinking maybe its because of the cheap cat, but that's doesn't explain why the smell is so strong when the tip is at the back of the car, not close to the front windows. I can see I'm rich in decel (around 10 afr or so).
The car has no a/c, and I want to take it to the track in Willow Springs where its often 100*+, so windows closed is not an option. I'm thinking that the exhaust stinks because of the cheap cat, but I'm confused as to why the smell is so strong and coming into the cabin if I have any windows open when the exhaust tip is at the back of the car. Is exhaust smell getting sucked into the cabin with any window open normal? Any suggestions on how to proceed fixing this issue?
video to show tip angle
At first I thought it was paint or residue on the cherry bomb baking off, but the smell hasn't gone away. It doesn't just smell like rich exhaust, its much sharper and not a smell I'm familiar with. I just replaced my cracked manifold to eliminate that as a cause, but theres no change. I've smoke checked the exhaust and it has two very small leaks at the welds rear of where the rear seats would be, nothing major. I tried putting a turn down at the tip since the pipe was slightly angled up, without much noticeable change in the smell. It's not an exhaust smell I'm familiar with, and I've only had factory catted cars, so I'm thinking maybe its because of the cheap cat, but that's doesn't explain why the smell is so strong when the tip is at the back of the car, not close to the front windows. I can see I'm rich in decel (around 10 afr or so).
The car has no a/c, and I want to take it to the track in Willow Springs where its often 100*+, so windows closed is not an option. I'm thinking that the exhaust stinks because of the cheap cat, but I'm confused as to why the smell is so strong and coming into the cabin if I have any windows open when the exhaust tip is at the back of the car. Is exhaust smell getting sucked into the cabin with any window open normal? Any suggestions on how to proceed fixing this issue?
video to show tip angle