Hey, y'all.

I'm staring under the hood of my neice's '95 ES300 6-cyl, standing next to the driverside front tire, and I'm smelling this quite strong and fresh whuff of raw gas. I don't drive a lexus myself - nice car, btw! - but
I'm pretty sure this isn't a Lexus design feature. So's emily, which is why she asked me to look at it.

Right before smelling this, I turned the key to run, listened to the fuel pump (sounded great), and then started it. Let it run for about twenty seconds, then turned engine off. Did this three times, then got out to sniff around. (I've been trying to track this down for a while now.) Finally, I smell what she means.

I sniff around the shut down engine. Strong smell coming from the airbox. I open it up, and the smell is very strong on the engine side and nonexistent at the air filter and past. No other engine compartment smell. Strong smell of more raw gasoline at the tailpipe.

Should have mentioned: At the very first start attempt after the car has sat for more than a minute, every time, car cranks abnormally long time, then starts but stumbles for just a few beats. Then everything settles down, runs great. If I turn the car off and start it right back up, it starts right away, no stumble, runs great. Fuel pressure at rail goes from 0 at start, to about 40psi in about 2 seconds from key-on, then at shutoff it slowly bleeds down to 0 in about 15 seconds.

I've checked pretty much every one of the (surprisingly many!) places suggested in archives here, with no luck, and I have one last idea, and I'm wondering if anyone reading this knows any reason why I shouldn't bother with this possibility:

I'm thinking an injector is clogged partially, minimally, open. Fuel pressure drops too fast - hence the hard start while it refills the rails - and the stumble as that extra dripped-in gas burns off. Would also explain the smell from the intake and the exhaust. Can't get codes - needs wire repair first.

Sound goofy? I'm about to pull the injectors and pressure-clean them, and I wouldn't normally ask since that would be simple on other engines, but the three behind/under/through the intake upper manifold look to be . . . interesting to extract. (Do I really need to pull that manifold?)

Thanks for whatever guidance you can give me.

 

Sounds like bad injectors or something with the fuel rail. And yes you do have to pull off the intake - let's just say it's not fun.

 

Any update on this problem? I have a similar problem.
In addition to the strong odor gas milage is only 12,13 mpg. Sluggish start on cold or hot.