Fuel tank venting options

[Hindsight]

For those who aren't using a charcoal canister:

I'd like to ditch mine and all the hoses, values, wiring, and solenoids associated, but before I do, I want to be sure I'm not going to have a constant gas smell in and around the car and garage.

I've done a lot of research on this, both here and on google, and it seems a lot of people claim the way to fix it is to run the fuel tank vent line as far vertical as possible (preferably using solid metal fuel line), then 90 degrees back down to where the vent terminates. Supposedly this "traps" the fuel vapors, and/or possibly allows them to condense on the side of the line allowing the liquid fuel to run back to the tank.

Curious to see how accurate and effective this is... if anyone has any experience with it, or other venting mechanisms.

[wleehendrick]

I've already ditched the entire OEM evap system, but like you, don't want a smelly garage (or I should say don't want to listen to my wife complain about it!). I plan to run the vent line through a small, passive (unpurged) charcoal canister. Some folks have used one off a Miata, and I've seen DIY with PVC pipe and aquarium filter charcoal.

[Hindsight]

Thanks for the reply. My concern with adding an un-purged canister is that in short time, the carbon will become fully loaded to the point where it can't hold any more fuel vapors and at that point, it would become as useful as an empty container. But that is just theory - I have no experience personally and have been unable to find people on the internets claiming that it has or hasn't worked. I've read about people using unpurged canisters but no report-back on whether it continues to contain the odors or not.

[Jaime]

When it gets warmer in the garage, the vapor pressure of the fuel will increase and the garage will smell like fuel. The only way to avoid it is to trap the vapor in a medium such as carbon, or don't have a vent. There isn't any sort of trap setup that will prevent the vapors from coming out.

I just went with a tiny canister from a scooter that cost me fifteen bucks and hooked up the purge line and solenoid. In the past few weeks, I started mounting the body, so I had to get my fuel filler pipe altered to fit my Boyd tank properly. The temporary cap I put on the fill port wasn't all that great and I was surprised how much more fuel smell I got from a leaky cap compared to my vent setup.

[Hindsight]

Do you know for sure that the ECU will activate the purge solenoid, given that you have removed all the other sensors/valves related to the evap system?

[Jaime]

Not validated yet.