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fuel in crankcase

6K views 21 replies 7 participants last post by  R&Rpowerstroke 
#1 · (Edited)
Need some help guys. Four days ago i changed my oil, when draining it about 22 quarts came out. I know i only put 15 in last oil change. The oil was thin and smelled like fuel. I put the new oil in and have since drove about 100 miles and just checked my oil today and it smelled like fuel again. Now last month i started the truck and it smoked and knocked real bad for a few minutes so i shut it off. Could a injector have been stuck open for those few minutes? I know the injectors squirt about 3cc every time so maybe fuel got into crankcase? I did a relative compression test and all cylinders came back within 1% of each other. Also did contribution test and all injectors looked similar, I only have access to Launch scan tool and it wont let me shut compensation off. The truck is a early 03 6.0 How should i go about finding where and how the fuel is getting to the crankcase? Maybe i should just check oil level every week and see if it goes up? Maybe the new oil smells like fuel from the old oil? The truck runs good now but smokes a bit on start up if not plugged in. It's been 32 degrees and below where i live. Could a o ring on a injector be bad and let fuel come up into rocker area? There is no fuel in the coolant.
 
#2 ·
Forgot to mention last month on that one bad morning of smoke and knocking i had the truck on a SCT street tune. I had the tune on the truck since June and the whole time on street tune i had a injector 5 balance fault. The day it smoked bad i changed the tune to economy and since then no injector 5 balance code fault. Before i had the street tune i had the truck on the xtreem street and was getting a fuel delivery code. I don't know if this info is important but i figured i would let you guys know.
 
#3 · (Edited)
I did a bubble test today, i cranked it 4 times, each time cranked it for about 20 seconds. On one of the times i got two bubbles like the size of a 10d nail head. No champagne bubble like i see in the videos. I only got those 2 small blurbs. I watched the bowl for a few minutes after the test and no bubbles.Also when i took the cap off i could hear a small amount of pressure releasing. The truck has not been started since 24 hours ago. Did it fail the test? BTW the two bubbles came from tank feed not the middle filter holder thing.
 
#7 ·
I'm not any kind of expert on this, but if the bubbles came from the tank side of the bowl, I'd say you were not getting combustion gasses back in the fuel system from a cracked head so you passed that test. My guess would be a stuck nozzle. Maybe it fixed itself, but probably not. It's worth some more checking I'd say.

How is the oil level now? Has it gone up since you first found the problem and changed the oil? I'd guess the smoke on startup is probably more just condensation due to the cooler temperatures, but have you smelled it? Does it burn your eyes?

Maybe @kaya , @toren302 , @LoxDiesel , @nighthawk285 or one of the many other more capable diagnosticians will drop in and comment.
 
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#8 ·
The oil has not risen, but i have only put 140 miles on the truck in six days. The truck is a toy i don't drive it much. When i start it now i get a small haze until the ECT temp gets to about 80 degrees. The truck exhaust smells like regular diesel exhaust and does not burn my eyes. The truck has not smoked or chugged since that time a month ago. I did the paper towel test on the new oil and its normal. I beleive the truck passed the bubble test also. I hope a master tech will chime in.
 
#9 ·
A bubble test will not point you to your problem since fuel is leaking on the UPPER oring into the crankcase. Or the body of the injector/injectors themselves are leaking. I have made a tool I use to pressurize the fuel rails on each head individually with a shut off valve and a 150 psi gauge.



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#10 ·
Agree with lox. I'd keep an eye on the level for now tho. If the level isn't rising, gonna be hard to find a problem. Report back if it comes up any
 
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#11 ·
I will keep an eye on the level. It may be a while i only drive the truck about 100-150 miles a week. Now if the oil level rises most likely i have a o ring bad on the injector right? At that point the best way would be drain the oil then leave the plug out and turn fuel pump on and look for diesel coming out right? If there is, remove the valve covers and turn fuel pump on again a look to see which ones are leaking the fuel? I spoke with a ford diesel master tech and told him about the morning i had that terrible knocking and that massive amount of smoke, he said i probably had a injector stuck open and each time it fires it dumps 3cc of fuel and if i ran it for 3-4 minutes i may have gotten 5-6 quarts of fuel in the oil. I asked him wouldn't that have hydrolocked the motor and he said not always true, because the engine was running some fuel was going out the exhaust and some was dumping into the pan, he did say if i had not shut the truck i most likely would have blew a hole in the piston. Who knows?
 
#12 ·
That doesn't add up. Fuel would just be pushed out of the exhaust it wouldn't make it to the pan like you think. Last one I had would take around 1000 miles of running before it would **** down while hot because the oil at that point would be too thin for the hpop to pump.


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#13 ·
I didn't think it sounded right. My guess is a o-ring when bad and the fuel is traveling up past the injector and into the rocker area then down to the pan.
 
#14 ·
I checked the oil today it is just below the full mark. When i changed the oil i put 15 quarts in. The oil stinks of diesel but still looks clean. I guess time will tell.
 
#15 ·
I had a question, if i hooked up a fuel pressure gauge to the truck and turned to key to fill the bowl and if the pressure dropped right after that would it tell me if a injector was the problem? I feel like a injector is the problem or should i say the only problem it could be.
 
#18 ·
Hopefully it's just a bad o-ring like you said. If you don't find anything obvious, which you should based on the quantity of fuel leaked, check for and injector bore crack. Search in google for "6.0 injector bore crack repair" to see what I'm talking about and how to repair it without pulling the head. Hopefully not that, but something to check for while you're in there.
 
#21 ·
So today i check oil again, i have 168 miles on the truck. The level was over the high mark, so i put the dip stick back in but didn't put it all the way down i let the plastic part rest on the tube and pulled it out, t. he oil level was at the full mark!!!! Wow who knows how much diesel is in the oil my guess is 6-8 quarts! So for now its parked with the battery tender on it. How long will it take me to remove valve covers and possibly change injector o rings? I have never done this before.
 
#22 ·
Look up DTR videos on YouTube, also maybe look at the Superduty Service videos. The Superduty Service video shows how to tell which injector has a blown o-ring. Between both you should be able to get an idea of how long it will take you.
 
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