Petrol leaking through heat exchanger

[flyingpenguin]

Hello,

I would like to introduce myself as new to this forum and to VW camper vans, I have a 1972 1600 bay window camper van, all has been pretty good touch wood, except for the carburettor which is an EMPI carb, firstly the choke kept sticking which was looked at and seemed to be fixed, however I had a nightmare the other day when I returned to my van and I found petrol pouring out from underneath, I called the AA (luckily someone had already called a fire engine and they chucked a tad of sand underneath)the AA guy couldn't locate the problem and felt that it was possibly the float valve in the carburettor which had got stuck when I parked the van and gravity was sucking the petrol through the carb and depositing it through the exhaust, so my question is:

Is this possibly the issue or could it be something else? and would anyone know the best way of resolving this issue?

Many thanks in advance

Ean

 

[Mags]

Hi Ean, Scary stuff and as you might know our buses have a poor reputation for going up in flames, not something anyone wants to see.
There is a ton of stuff around about fuel leaking and fuel hoses etc so I'd suggest you familiarise yourself with the path it takes from the tank to the Carb to check for any previous bodges and then the carb itself.
Get under the bus and check the pipe from the tank, over the gearbox and through the tinware on the back of the engine. Make sure the metal pipe through the tinware has a good grommet protecting it, this is source of wear and leakage. you should then have a rubber pipe going to the pump and then up to the carb hopefully without a plastic in-line filter which is again another source of leakage. If this is all good you might have a problem with the float in the carb, this would allow fuel to keep entering the carb despite the chamber being full and leak somewhere. If this looks likely then pull the carb off and take a look at the float bowl. You could also have fuel leaking from the pump assuming its a standard mechanical pump.
Check all your pipes for cracks or damage and replace if needed. If any of this is beyond your technical capability get someone to help or get it to a garage, don't risk it otherwise.
Mags