Running rich -- or is it lean???

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robedney
Minor Fan
Posts: 177
Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2011 6:02 pm
Location: Berkeley, California USA
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Running rich -- or is it lean???

Post by robedney »

So, I've got Mildred back on the road and she made the commute every day last week. On the first morning -- before coffee -- I'm driving to work and sitting stopped at the occasional red light. You know how it is when you're driving an old car that's new to you -- your senses are sort of tuned in, alert to any problems. At one point I'm noticing that she smells a bit rich, which surprises me. A few minutes later she smells as if something's dropping a tad of oil on the exhaust pipe, which surprises me. Then -- of all things -- she smells as if she's powered by one of those older diesels, which really surprises me.

After some pondering I realize that the fresh air intake for the heater -- which I've just re-connected -- is right at the front of the car, through the front grill. Whenever I stop behind something with a tailpipe on the same side, the car in front's exhaust has a more or less direct line into my fresh air intake and into my car, where the sleepy droid behind the wheel is busy doing olfactory exhaust gas analysis on the wrong vehicle.

Given the rarity of Minors in these parts, I'm now probably the only driver who adjusts his stopping distance based on the placement -- left or right -- of the tailpipe of the car in front. Old (original) VW bugs, by the way, get a considerably larger buffer zone than nearly anything else. They're invariably gaggingly rich at idle, and they all sport twin tailpipes.
1967 2 door coupe, "Mildred"
Transportation with economy, whimsy and heart.
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