raw fuel smell
 

the boot skinks of raw fuel, new pump new filter and all new hoses dry as a bone, with engine idling i open left fuel cap and petrol squirts out tiny breather hole, on other side it doesnt squirt but tiny hole is wet, any ideas, i thought the smell was coming from the front and have had injectors cleaned and new head seals and orings, all fuel hoses in engine bay replaced.
Fuel tank solinoid in boot stoped working/change over the other day and has been replaced with t piece and ball valves[have fuel gage switch on for tank im using] but the raw fuel smell was there befor this.
Any ideas?
86 series 3 xj6

Has the plumbing on the return lines been changed as well?

Do you observe the fuel return on both sides when you change tanks?

Other possibility is the fuel sender gasket (check via tailight opening) , or a pin hole leak in a tank.

Others may have more ideas.

both fuel tanks have been out, cleaned ans sealed with redkote even though they were good[did it while i was there], i used new hose to the top filler caps but i thought that was a breather where at the moment it is squirting fuel back in to tank.
Replaced all fuel hoses in engine bay this morning

Might help getting responses also to state year model, assume its an injected car?

I would be checking the hoses in the "venting" circuit, starting with the short ones from the filler caps,.. to the vent system circuit.

Being that you had the tanks out,..did you replace the short hoses when reinstalling the tanks ? DId you re attach the old ones ? Neither? That would be where I would start, and work along at other possibilities.

When I did my restoration, I either forgot to re attach one of the hoses, or it was not on snug enough ( I shamefully admit I DID - like a fool ,re use the old hoses...working at installing fuel tanks..... late at night, its easy to get a bit dinggie, and make poor decisions..."what the hell was I thinking? - these are 30 year old hoses...")..... not having new ones on hand, for the re installation,..oops, - took me awhile ( later on )to find mysterious fuel scent. Learned a lesson " when reinstalling something, re check your work , especially if the item you are working on, will be buried by other items that will have to be dissembled to get back and do corrections. ..my 2 cents..a related problem I discovered I had was, the water drain lines under the filler caps, both were full of trash and water had started to puddle under the caps..

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