Hello, While standing behind the ideling 78' 308 GTS today I noticed that if I put my hand by the two left exhaust pipes I feel a pulsating exhaust flow while on the right side I feel a very smooth even flow. About a year ago I got one new cat...should this be a concern? ODOR... While going down the road (not at very high rpm's but fully warmed up) I detected an odor...not gas...possibly clutch?!?! (was doing "city driving") Got a new fly wheel and clutch kit two years ago. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Yours,
The 308 mufflers are known to have an very uneven distribution of flow between the left & righth side. Something about the assymetric way they're made inside. You can search the old Fchat archives for several discussions. Odor is hard to tell. Altho a clutch odor is fairly persistent, you can usually pull over & it'll still be there. When you say it wasn't a 'fuel' odor, does that include the stink you get out of a catalytic converter when an engine is running rich? Or do you mean it just didn't smell like raw gasolene?
It was not gasoline. Probably clutch and /or gearbox?!?! How does this odor eminate and why only at certain times? How does it "get out" to the atmosphere if it is in a closed, sealed environment?
The clutch is NOT a sealed environment. There are several ventilation openings around the bellhousing. The openings are approx 10mm wide and 100mm long. They are below the level that you can easily see by looking down thru the bonnet, but they are there. The trans itself is sealed of course. However, what you could be smelling is trans oil leaking from a differential seal down onto the hot exhaust manifold. Much easier to see from under the car. If the smell is somewhat rotten egg like, then it could be an overly rich mixture feeding unburnt fuel into the catalytic coverters.
If it only happened once, is it a major concern? I am not due for any work until April. That is the next time it will be up in the air. Thanks again.
