Oily smell when heater is on?

[zigstardust65]

I have a '67 Sundial and am planning a long trip Winter. I usually don't use the heater because when it's on, there's a really strong oily smell in the cab. This is only present when the heater is on and is undetectable when the heater's off.

So a few questions:

1. Can this smell be coming from anywhere other than the heater boxes?
2. Is it possible there is oil inside the heater boxes, and if so, how can it get in there?
3. I know there is a bit of oil leaking from the valve cover gaskets on the outside of the heater boxes, could this be the culprit?
4. If the heater boxes do have oil inside, what's the best way to clean them out? (Hopefully the answer doesn't involve yanking the motor )

Thanks in advance for any help!

[60freak]

1. Not really, it's most likely from the heater boxes. Although if the cylinders have junk/gunk on them it can be the culprit to the smell also.

2. Yes, leaky valve cover gaskets

3. Yes

4. Yank them off and clean them out, and make sure valve cover gaskets are not leaking

There always seems to be an oily smell regardless but it should not be a burning oil smell! Best thing to do if you want to be thorough, is to remove the motor and take off all the tin and inspect the cylinders and clean the heater boxes out. Then reassemble. Good luck.

[campingbox]

It normally does not smell.

[Clara]

Generally smelly heat is exhaust smell from a bad muffler.
Sometimes you can reseal the connections, sometimes you need a new muffler.
I've been catching a whiff of exhaust smell in my bug recently, time to check it out. The heat should not smell. Sometimes re-sealing at the donuts makes it good for a couple more years.
stale air heat would send oil smells into the heat if your engine is leaking oil.

I'd fix the the oil leaks on the motor, and check heater connections and the state of the muffler. fix as needed.

You can take the bus to a self serve car wash to clean off the heater boxes.
if oil is dripping inside and burning, it will burn off eventually, but not the stuff on the outside of the heat box. But if you have had an oil leak for a while and just turned the heat off instead of fixing it it may be an icky engine compartment.
Don't pressure spray the fresh air hoses.

engine pic?
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[62DoKaGuy]

I had the same or similar issue in my double cab up to a couple weeks ago. Although it was not a "burning" smell, it was ostensibly only exhaust leaking from several points of connection at the muffler, etc.

I sealed it all up [generously] with hi-temp RTV around the donuts, then re-clamped and tightened everything, giving a day or so before I drove the truck again. It seems to have worked for me in curtailing the smell in the cab, although there is still that old car smell we all know so well. Best of luck, check your exhaust connections, and good luck!


Cheers.
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[Eric&Barb]

Oil getting onto the muffler can get pretty smelly in the interior.

Is the sheet metal around the HE pipes, tight to the pipes? If not need to get new sheet metal welded in place, and probably new pipes welded to the ends of the HEs so the donut seals will seal. Repro HEs do not work well so better to fix OG ones.
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[zigstardust65]

Here are some pics I took before heading out to work. In taking these, I realized the ducts going to the body aren't completely sealed to the heater boxes.

I also noticed the heater boxes are bolted to the muffler rather than using the donut/clamp method. Is this just a different method of clamping them together?

It seems like the heater boxes are pretty well sealed and were gone through before the engine was rebuilt not too many miles ago. I just don't see how oil could have gotten in them?

[Eric&Barb]

HEs look like repros. The bolt on is an attempt to seal there better than the stock setup. That valve cover looks like it is leaking. Having oil constantly baste the HEs, and spray coat the muffler is not helping.
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[EverettB]

[Eric&Barb]

Engine looks nice! Needs stock hose clamps on top and bottom of each fresh air paper tube. Vacuum line should have about half or less of the flex line lengths on each end. Fuel line should be a little longer and end up passing thru the hump of the vacuum line.

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[Eric&Barb]

Oil is not getting so much into the HEs, but the fumes of it burning off the HEs and muffler is getting sucked thru the engine to body seals. If open connection to the body pipes was the main factor the oil smell would be pretty constant whether heat was on or off with front windows slightly open.
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[zigstardust65]

[zigstardust65]

[BarryL]

[Eric&Barb]

[zigstardust65]

[Bruce Amacker]

1. Cleaning the HB's probably won't get rid of your oil odor because your boxes are really saturated, which means the oil has seeped inside and coated everything from the interior. The only possible way that might help is removing them and having them boil cleaned at a machine shop. You need heat and lots of it. Soap and water won't cut it.

2. Fix your oil leaks first, otherwise this is in vain. I recommend WW's silicone gaskets, they're expensive but worth it. Bend the VC bails so they're really tight.

3. Disconnect your heater box to body tubes so you are not pumping oily fumes into the car. Run the engine on fast idle with the heat on so the oily fumes are being blasted into the air. Take an acetylene torch and heat/glow the skins of the heater box to bake off any oily film on the inside. The smoke coming from the boxes will be considerable! Accessing the inside facing surfaces (near the pushrod tubes) will be a challenge. If you don't have acetylene, try propane.

This worked on mine and got all of the oily odor gone.

Good Luck!
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'66 Deluxe Bus
'65 Standard Bus
Build threads:
'66- http://www.leakoil.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2888&sid=54d8dedfb3822f99c7f2ea430cb4e856
'65- http://leakoil.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=4263

[hugheseum]

just one of the many horrible things a aircooled car is privy to......you can fix n boil n clean n spray.....vw heat is nasty shit......also once you have smelled the oily stuff realize the whole tube from front to back has a layer of soot that will be constantly warming/cooling and sometimes even smoking......early buses get it even worse......
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[oldthingguy]

My dad's old 911 and almost every VW I have owned had this problem, I thought it was something they designed into their cars.
Either valve cover gasket or bad heater hose I would say.
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73 914 2.0 - sold
63 single cab
73, 73 and 74 Thing - gone
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60 23 window - gone
57 oval - gone
plus a few others I should have kept

[Clara]