Gas smell

[Perry]

We took my folks up fourwheeling this weekend and his Explorer (92 four door) smelled like raw gas. We looked under for any leaks, but found nothing.
Today we jacked it up and looked for a leak but nothing. Has anyone had come across this problem before???
My dad said he has looked under the hood but found nothing.

 

[Joe Dietz]

The gas fumes are most likely coming from the Carbon canister aka fuel evap canister. Its on the drivers side uner the hood. Its black with two round caps on it.

According the '93 Ford service manual the canister will not go bad...even over time. The canister is designed to capture the extra fumes that come from the intake manifold when the engine is turned off. This is an emissions thing.
Once the vehicle is running the canister purge solenoid should pull the fresh air in those two black caps. The carbon will release the captured fuel and the engine will
burn the fuel.

Several Explorers, including my own '93 with 158K have had this gas smell. Some have replaced the evap canister. I'd suggest that you are better off starting with the canister purge solenoid. This is located near the upper intake manifold plenum. Follow the tube from the canister to the intake manifold. You will find the solenoid. I replace the solenoid for $26.00 and that was Ford's price.

My theory on the gas smell is that the evap canister is "full" because the solenoid is bad. The gas is never emptied from the canister by the solenoid. The carbon can only absorb so much...when it can't absorb any more you get the gas fume smell.

Replacing the solenoid worked for me. I changed my solenoid with excellent results. In my situation the gas smell was always worse on hot days. We have just had 17 days in the
90's and no gas smell.

 

[Tommy2000]

Wow

What a great piece of info, thanks!