Engine FIRE!

[portsample]

Wow- today was my lucky day. Usually I start and drive off. Today, I started and went inside to get a new blade for a wiper, came out and noticed moderate amount of smoke coming from under the front of my Nov 1999 build F350. Shut it off, popped the hood, opened it and was very surprised to see a wee tiny fire burning behind the plastic fuel filter cover. I jumped up and was able to blow it out quickly (like a candle on a birthday cake). Below is a picture with labels...

The fire seemed to be related mostly to spilling fuel and a tab of hanging electrical tape...no other damage apparent. The fuel appeared to be leaking out from around the base of a white plug on the back of the fuel filter housing...my Chiltons is not clear, I think that this is the fuel heater...it is circled in the attached picture. The base of the white plug appears to have significant heat damage. Also, one of the terminals on the glow plug relay appears burned...this is also circled in the picture.
Any thoughts on this gentlemen? What is the white plug? Anyone had this problem? Recommendations? One relevant note is that I live off of the road system in rural Alaska and have no Ford diesel mechanic locally.

Thanks gents.

[jethro]

first off welcome to the .org second you got very lucky my friend had you not caught that you would not have a truck. not sure what it is but here is a bump atleast

[excursionMark]

luckily diesel fuel wont light up and that was only the plastic/ rubber burning but that relay could be aih or gpr idk on the pre 99.5 engines

[JER-1]

Good luck
JER-1

[cpayne6335]

It looks like your fuel heater to me. I have a late 99 too, and it looks like mine. For the terminals, it looks like the AIH. I am not sure what could have caused the fire, but you got lucky.

You might want to change you fuel heater plug to fix the leak. Not sure what part of Alaska, but you might need your fuel heater, so a complete change might be a good idea since it does get cold up there.

[portsample]

It was the "water in fuel" WIF sensor, here's a picture of the little SOB:


The part number appears to be E8TZ-9J308-A.

[amfw]

how much did the sensor cost you?

[forddieseldoctor]

The relay is your glow plug relay not an intake heater relay. The glow plug relay is easily identified by the yellow and brown wires coming off of the one large lug.

[atvrider93]

its kinda weird that you had both of those 2 fairly small things going at once and not right next to each other. maybe there was a short somewhere

[UNDERCOVER_73]

man your lucky!! Welcome btw.