Well gang, here's a topic that's been beat to death...but let's give it another swing shall we?

I saw an old forum thread where a guy put a Halloween fog machine in his car and with all the windows up, turned it on which showed all the air leaks in the cabin.  Specifically, he did it to find where exhaust was sneaking into the cabin when driving with the windows were down.

I gave that a shot this evening and found that it is my taillight gaskets, but the strange thing is they are brand new from Motorsport.  We even removed the black trim surrounds and bolted them back to the body and you can see the smoke sneaking around the gasket edges regardless of how tight we make the bolts holding the gasket to the body.

The gaskets are reasonably squishy (I have no idea how gummy these are supposed to be but they are very pliable).  I did notice that the plastic housing has raised bumps where the mounting bolts come through which would mean the gasket wouldn't be laying flush in the areas between these bolt bumps, right?  Was I supposed to install these with gasket maker between the rubber gasket and housing?

Edited May 3, 20231 yr by chaseincats
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Haha!!   Add it to the list for next time!

23 minutes ago, Captain Obvious said:

Haha!!   Add it to the list for next time!

I saw it posted either here or at Zcar.com many years ago. I think I installed a body plug there when I was replacing the bumpers on my 260Z.

And here is a reproduction grommet if you still have the electric antenna: https://www.zeddsaver.com/products/datsun-z-antenna-drain-grommet

In the spirit of @siteunseen, I had to search. One of the earliest mentions of the drain hole that I could find was by @Zs-ondabrainin 2008.

 

2 hours ago, SteveJ said:

Forgot one hole: There's a drain hole for the power antenna. It's near the exhaust.

I slapped a piece of duct tape over it making sure its flush all the way around, thanks.  There's actually 2 of them, that one and a smaller one (about the size of a dime) further down that panel.

Edited May 26, 20231 yr by chaseincats

7 hours ago, chaseincats said:

I slapped a piece of duct tape over it making sure its flush all the way around, thanks.  There's actually 2 of them, that one and a smaller one (about the size of a dime) further down that panel.

If you ever need to cover a hole, don't use duct tape.  Use foil tape.  It is actually the correct tape to use for ducts too.  🙂  It sticks great and will not fall apart like duct tape does.  We use it all the time on prototype vehicles.  I always use it on race cars to cover stick-on wheel weights so they don't fall off from the brake heat.

Update: I haven't smoked the car yet - that probably won't be for a month+ since my friend owns the machine and has a very demanding job - but I did want to share that if you have a gasoline smell in your car, change out the original-style clamps on the vapor tank's hoses to modern belt clamps and that will put an end to that issue I discovered.

Edited June 2, 20231 yr by chaseincats

Final update:

We fogged the car like in that video again last weekend and confirmed sealing the taillight gaskets with Seal 'N Peel (one bead between the gasket and the light housing and a second between the gasket and body) worked perfectly - no smoke escapes there anymore.

That said it didn't 100% fix the issue meaning there were leaks else where which we found due to a shotty weld job done by the PO when replacing the hatch base which must have been rusty.

Fogging:

 - I saw this originally on another thread which I cant find but besides what we did (throwing the fog machine in the car and shutting the door) there's actually a better way to do it.

- Once the car is fully pressurized with the fog machine, the smoke will escape from the paths of least resistance, which isn't the tiny pinholes in the back.  The trick is to have someone hold the smoke machine behind the car and move it around while you turn on a shop vac and let it sit in the hatch area creating a vacuum (just like how the car works while driving).

You will see where the smoke is sneaking in then just wipe some seal 'n peel or whatever sealant you have left and its game over.  You'd be surprised where smoke sneaks in, for example, smoke was sneaking in AROUND one of the rivets I found.

This is definitely worth your time to do at least in my opinion. 

So, is the smell and CO gone when you drive with a window down?

2 hours ago, Jeff G 78 said:

So, is the smell and CO gone when you drive with a window down?

Yep!

I really need to tackle mine now. I get woosie driving home from work. The mornings are fine when the temps are low, but I need the windows down in the afternoons and the fumes are nasty. 

52 minutes ago, Jeff G 78 said:

I really need to tackle mine now. I get woosie driving home from work. The mornings are fine when the temps are low, but I need the windows down in the afternoons and the fumes are nasty. 

Yeah, I finally had enough too.  Even though I used my friend's fog machine, it is definitely worth the price of admission to buy one for this project.  All your local Z friends will be happy to come over and do their cars too I bet haha.