Where's that fuel smell coming from

[4banging]

Hi guys. I've got a '92 4runner V6. I recently replaced the knock sensor on it and since then I've had a fuel smell coming from under the hood and have had excessive fuel consumption (25L/100km, 18L/100km before). It also takes a lot of cranking to start now after sitting for any more than 30 mnutes, i'm assuming because of loss of fuel pressure between starts. I'm having trouble locating where it's coming from and wondering if anybody's got some tips to help. I've tried soap and water but can't get it under the intake chamber, no bubbles coming from anywhere else.

 

[KLF]

Usually a strong fuel smell with no apparent leaks indicates a bad charcoal canister.

I'm not sure where you're going with the soap and water, though. Leaks will be vacuum, so you'll just be sucking it into the engine. An old trick to find a vacuum leak is to spray the engine with brake cleaner or ether while it's idling, see if the idle speed goes up. Just be careful not to spray it on the hot exhaust manifolds!

 

[4banging]

I used soap and water because I was expecting the leak to be in the pressurized fuel lines not a vaccuum problem. I found the leak yesterday when i saw some smoke rising from under my hood. I heard a hissing and traced it back to where the main fuel supply line meets with the fuel rail/dampener. After tightening the dampener,atempting to restart the engine and mopping up the spewing fuel I discovered that I had overtightened the dampener from the begining and the crush gasket was extruded out and never pruducing a full seal. I removed the dampener, replaced the copper crush gaskets and dampener and snugged (finger tight plus 1/8th to 1/6th of a turn) the dampener. All is well. No fuel smell and it starts in under 4 cranks. Milage is still to be determined but i'm expecting a return to previous numbers.