fuel leak and smell

[crazymike]

have a fuel leak and bad smell mostly in passanger fender well... look further into it and see behind the altenator theres a metal tube that looks like a fuel line that is about 6 inches long but doesnt go anywhere but does come from under exuast manifold on passenger side from engine... looks maybe like a fuel over flow?? im not sure but thats where the fuel is comeing from, it drips pretty good from there but dont see where anything would attach to it.... would think if its a over flow it would run back to tank, no? and why is it doing it? it idles and drives fine but a bit of power loss and small fuel aconomy loss.... so why is it leaking from this tube and wht is this tube?

any help for this forum noob would be great

thx again
Mike

[gcop]

Thats the drain line for the fuel bowl. there is a yellow lever on the back of the fuel bowl, where your fuel filter goes, make sure it's closed all the way.

[crazymike]

thank you

[purduefarmboy460]

hope we got you all taken care of in the chat room mike, good talkin with ya, visit us often!

[No-Neck-Shrek]

You probably have a leak around the o-rings that seal the drain valve to the fuel filter housing. If so its an easy fix to replace the 2 o-rings, it seems that the "new" fuel is the cause of the leak.

[crazymike]

ya, i got it figured out... the kit from ford here in canada is 81 bucks!!! basterds!!!

[PPS]

It sounds exactly like the problem my son and I fixed this last weekend. A leaky valve that the o-rings were the problem. You can get at it by undoing a couple wiring harnesses to make room for a torx wrench, especially if it's curved like a allen wrench. Very tight space to work in, but possible. The alternative is to remove the canister and remove it from the engine. A previous message noted the size of the o-rings were 1/2 inch OD, 1/4 inch ID and 1/8 thick and made from Vitron. Have fun

[cowboy1111]

I suspect you have the same problem that I have. There's a small plastic valve on the side of the fuel bowl that connects to the drain tube you are referring to. When you replace the fuel/water seperator, you are supposed to open that valve and drain any water from the bowl. Over time, the valve and/or O-ring inside of the valve becomes hard, brittle and cracks. This causes it to leak and fuel to drip from the drain tube as you are seeing. In my case, it's almost a constant flow. Ford sells the drain valve kit for around $70. It's held in place with 4 screws. I bought the kit yesterday but plan to disasemble the old one today after I remove it and just replace the O-ring with a new one. I'll return the kit to FoMoCo.

This seems to be a common problem. When I went to the parts counter at the dealer and told him what I needed, he went into his warehouse and came back with the part without even looking it up on the computer. I told him it must be a common problem if he knew what part I needed without looking it up and he said he sells at least one valve kit per day.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

[bamaboy473]

Do any of our sponsor vendors carry these O-rings? I'd be ready to buy a set while supporting a sponsor and saving me time 'n aggravation.

just to be sure (because I noticed dripping today, but only while the Excursion was running) The fuel dripping is coming out of a vent hose that's on the right side attached to the front of the frame, a couple inches behind the outermost belt pulley (and lower, of course)

[pipelayerjdh]

Is it common for it to leak onto the engine valley?