I have just had my first issue getting the engine to turn over. Plugged in the block heater, which i had forgotten had existed, and i'll try again in maybe 3 or 4 hours. It's -2 degrees F outside here.

However, in my trial getting the engine to turn over, in the extremely cold still air i noticed a small bit of "exhaust" floating in from around where the passenger's feet would be. Putting on a mask i started the ignition one more time just to get to watch where this was coming from, after pulling down the underside of dash over by passenger. I noticed that the "exhaust" was coming from the firewall but it was too tough to determine where exactly. I didn't want to keep turning the ignition repeatedly for fear of doing damage or just draining the battery.

This HAS to be part of the problem with getting a slight fumey smell in the cabin. This is a different smell, due to the fact that it's the engine struggling to turn over. It's seemingly much more toxic smell than usual and i got he hell out of there as soon as i could.

But should there really be a leak in the fire wall that leads to raw exhaust coming into the cabin? I understand the heater pulling from the engine bay. But the heater switch is off and there is a trickle of exhaust coming in by the passenger's feet. It's not rising up from the floor just in front of seat. It's starting at the firewall around 8 inches up and floating towards the seat.

What should i look at to solve this?