Euphoria while driving my 911 - normal reaction to driving a 911 or exhaust fumes??

[ruby911]

Bought my second Porsche a couple weeks ago (went from 986 to 84 Carrera - gratuitous newbie photo below) and am loving every minute of it. My problem is I am finding that I am getting dizzy and light-headed after some seat time. I started to poke around to see if I could uncover some exhaust leaks and found that the shroud that connects to the blower motor was disconnected - an Ah Ha moment. So , I reattached it, but I still appear to be getting exhaust into the cabin.

In continuing to research what the problem could be, I ran across someone discussing how heat exchangers could fail, releasing exhaust into the cabin. Does this make sense? Being a new 911 owner, I am still trying to figure everything out and am not 100% clear on the role of the heat exchangers, so I am not sure I buy in to that or not. Can anyone shed some light on how/what a heat exchanger might fail leading to cabin exhaust.

Thanks in advance for the help.

[mtnfir]

That is a beauty. Very nice color. Does the dizzyness happen at speed with the windows open?

[richde]

a leaking exhaust should make you sleepy, yes?

[Miguel Antonett]

Pretty car and welcome to the forum.

There are many threads on that subject, do a search; and yes, sometimes exchangers and headers leak gasses that flow into the cabin via the heating system. Keeping in mind that most of our cars leak oil onto the hot manifolds creating that "peculiar P-car" smell. Meanwhile open the windows/sunroof and enjoy the car.

[tshih]

Congrats on a beautiful new acquisition. Sounds like its time to get SSI's and get even more heady (giddy, pun intended!). More power and less exhaust leaking into the cabin.

[ruby911]

Yes, a little sleepy. I have been riding around with the sunroom open trying ventilate, but damn it is cold in Atlanta right now.

The SSI idea has crossed my mind already......new sport exhaust too.

Thanks for the feedback, I will search more on the forum - what a gold mine of info.

[ossiblue]

You have yourself a beautiful car, and this is from one who prefers the earlier models!

The others have covered the exchanger issue fairly well, just be aware--as a new 911 owner--that any breach in the large hoses in the engine compartment, or any holes in the metal of the exchangers themselves, or any leak in exhaust manifolds/muffler which allows exhaust to be sucked in by the fan, can introduce toxic gas into the cabin (in addition to any expelled by the driver or passenger .) As you can see, a close inspection of the engine compartment/exhaust system is in order especially since you have experienced some potentially dangerous symptoms.
Welcome aboard.

[gsmith660]

You could get some smoke tubes and a blow dryer and or bypass power to your heater blower and blow smoke into your muffler to see where the smoke comes out at.

[Zeke]

Why not get a battery powered carbon monoxide tester at the hdw store? You can always use that in your home after you determine what the levels are in the car. If high levels are detected, get the car on a lift and go thru the system at the back. The only way an HE can fail is that one of the head pipes itself has failed. You would certainly hear that. As L.J. said, leaks can be a problem, but the system is pressurized. Only the intake cooling fan can bring in the fumes. On that note, what kind of muffler do you have? I have found that centered exhausts allow the exhaust air to travel into the engine compartment. This is especially true on the long hood cars that don't have the lid gasket in place.

Also check the engine compartment seal all around the engine sheet metal. If the engine has ever been removed, chances are there's a breech.

[Bart_dood]

Why don't you buy a home smoke/carbon monoxide detector and put it in your car? I think you can buy them for $40 or something from home depot.
It will give you some peace of mind that you aren't being gassed, you can try various heater settings and see if the alarm is set off which might help you narrow down where/if you have fumes getting in the car.

[crustychief]

Nice looking car. Welcome to the best source of 911 information on the web.

[Emission]

Originally Posted by milt

Why not get a battery powered carbon monoxide tester at the hdw store?

+1

Inexpensive, and effective.

- Mike

[Bill in OKC]

I had a '63 Volkswagen that needed the soot wiped off the inside of the windshield every so often... I was too poor to get it fixed -in the Army in Germany- so I drove with the windows down and used the heater to keep the windshield defrosted... I'm not recommending this to anyone but I know exhaust fumes can happen and if you suspect a problem don't take any chances.

[canamfan]

Nice car!!! Do a lot of (re)searching for "heat exchangers" and how the HVAC works in these cars before you start tearing out, blocking off or buying tons of new/used items you may or may not need and regretting it later. It's actually a pretty simple system and if you understand it you'll probably figure out where most (if not all) of these leaks are coming from & will be able to retain (if that's what you wish) the factory system. Pesonnally I like heat & A/C & when I learned the system I kept everything OE & it works great (how many old cars can give you a/c & heat @ the same time for either the driver & or passenger?).

[SCWDP911]

the right color picked you!

[w21055]

Welcome to the board. Good to see another Ga member join.

[ruby911]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I went yesterday and bought a detector at the hardware store - we'll see where this takes me.

Everyone have a safe Thanksgiving.

[450knotOffice]

ruby911, I love that car of yours! I want to eventually get a deep air dam like yours. Love the color too.

[ruby911]

450knotOffice - thanks for the compliment. If interested, the airdam and tail came from DP Motorpsorts out of Germany - www.dp-motorsports.de

[gsmith660]

Got mine from AIR I think it looks close to the same. I almost painted mine a color close to yours looks nice.