Since I bought my 89' Accord LX-i 5-speed I often smell unburnt fuel inside the car. It is strongest 5-10 minutes after I turn the car off, but sometimes I can smell it when the car is running (much more so by the overly sensitive sniffer of my wife). Any idea what could be the source/what to check? I do not see any obvious fuel line leaks in the engine bay or from the fuel tank.

 

Check the fuel injector/fuel rail orings for worn out and dried orings. They may be leaking quite a bit and fuel will evaporate due to engine heat. I had this happen after removing the fuel rail for other purposes and not noticing orings were dry. I smelled the fuel first but had to look very close to see droplets of fuel, and they evaporated very quickly.

good luck

 

The fuel does evaporate really fast, but it will usually leave a brown stain.
Another method to find leaks is to have a cold engine, dust the injector areas with foot powder,[talcum powder] then cycle the key on 5 sec, off ten sec, on 5 sec, off ten sec.
That will build fuel pressure thru the top end of the injectors along the fuel rail.
If the lower injector seals are seeping, you will find the leaks after a few minutes run time.

 

I finally got back to investigating this problem (kids, other cars, blah, blah). I did find that one of the injectors was leaving brown stains around the intake manifold so I bought an o-ring kit and after driving it for a week it looks clean but still the fuel smell persists. I pulled the back seat and trunk carpet and could not see any signs of a leak or where the smell might be getting into the cabin. I also looked under the car all around the fuel tank. One of the gas cap vapor return lines looked a tiny bit wet but nothing else seemed out of place and I can not smell anything around it. I can't see how that would little bit could lead to such a strong smell in the car. I am stumped???

 

if charcoal canister is saturated you will get a strong fuel odor,, also if vacc hoses are off canister and or damage,,
chk around the canister make sure all the vacc hoses are ok,