Gas smell

[TitanB]

I have a 2003 Subaru Forester with 119000 miles on it, i had a really bad gas smell coming through the heater but no leaks other than a small oil leak on my rear main seal. I just got my oil changed and the smell is gone now (not complaining!) but im really confused as to what mightve happened. Google tells me blow-by might have contaminated the old oil, and when it burned on the exhaust manifold it would smell strongly of gas. I don’t exactly trust google, What could’ve actually happened?

 

[Dick Foster]

Right away, I'd check out or start looking and sniffing around the vapor recovery system. It's part of the smog stuff and collects fuel vapors from the fuel tank along with crankcase vapors in a charcoal canister and burns them in the engine after startup.