How do you guys keep you garage/ man cave from smelling like gas/exhaust?
 

Figured the best place to ask is here. Sorry if its been covered before.



I have a 3 car attached garage and I've filled it to the brim with muscle cars (3 lifts so 6 cars in the garage). These cars are nut and bolt type restoration cars for the most part so they aren't leaking gas etc. even when it was just 1 or 2 cars the garage had this smell. It just smells like classic cars I guess. combination of a gas smell/exhaust type smell if I had to guess.



I'd like a solution to this as if i go out to enjoy them even for 5 min when I come back into the house the smell is on my clothes. If you open the door to the house the smell comes inside. And I'm not referring to starting them up, I'm referring to just them being stored.



I'm guessing there is a solution as I can't imagine these indoor dealers have this issue. Or a lot of the nice man cave garages I see. Is it changing out the gas caps to something different for storage? adding a filter to the garage? the garage is climate controlled with a mini split A/C.



I know the smell of exhaust comes with vintage muscle, but even after airing the garage out this smell never goes away.



Solutions?

To me it’s an aroma not a smell, but my wife hates it! LOL 😂

Try Fans <?>
 

Step #1 and Cheapest; Get a few circulating desk fans and set them up for 24hr operation on "low speed" and see if it changes.
Just a W-A-G attempt.

Sounds like your garage is sealed pretty tight for the climate control and may be part of the issue. It can't breath and let some of that smell/air get out.

All the '69's in your sig should have non-vented gas caps. If any of them have vented caps, they should be changed. You could try putting tennis balls in the tail pipes to prevent the odor from escaping from the exhaust system. Normally, I wouldn't suggest sealing them, but with the A/C, the air should be dry enough to prevent condensation. Maybe try that for a few weeks and see if there is a difference in the level of the odor.

Had the same issue until I installed an attic fan in the garage. Problem solved !

Ryan, I too have a three car with a mini-split but only one lift and daily drivers in my garage. At times have three old cars in the garage. This is what I observed when I had this issue. If I just took my cars out for a quick drive or just started them and moved them the cars with the Holley carbs tended to drip more often than the Quadrajet carbs. During Covid I rebuilt all my Holley carbs and solved that problem. I think it is a known fact that the Holley design is just prone to drip, and dripping carb even slightly will smell up a garage. I make it a practice when I start one of my Holley equipped carbs I get it hot in order to let the gaskets swell and hopefully seal better. Probably just me being silly but I do make that a practice. Regarding the smell in your clothes...forget it part of the deal and not going to change no matter what you do.

Similar experience here. Once I swapped the old (and evidently leaky) speed shop Holley for the Eric restored 4492 my garage raw fuel odors were virtually eliminated.

I've only really noticed that if I put a car away hot as some fuel will evaporate out of the carb vents.
As a rule I let them sit outside for a short period before putting them in the garage.

Agree with Mitch on the non vented caps. Make sure you have no leaks anywhere from tank to carb.

In addition, my experience is that cars with Holley carbs open element air cleaners evaporate gas out the the float bowls more quickly. Air is always circulating to some degree, and speeds evaporation.

If you know it isn't going to be driven for a while, just connect the two vents tubes together with a rubber hose. BUT.... make certain you write yourself a note to remove before driving.

Last resort would be an air to air exchanger, but that is a minimum $500 just for the exchanger, plus your time to install.

I appreciate the responses. And yes the Holley carbs are evaporating because if the cars sit a while you really have to crank away to get gas back to the carb on that initial start.

But what I’m really looking for is an answer to what the dealers it big time collectors do. I see these amazing man cave garages with All the signs and vintage gas pumps and the inside is prestine. I doubt they smell terrible inside. My goal is to build or buy a garage and set it up this way, maybe with a poker or pool table etc for guys nights.