If that's a leaking injector, it's probably just one. I wouldn't be too worried, just keep an eye on it. Diesel is a lubricant so you won't be running dry or anything. That being said, it's definitely not good lol. It's possible it's from a past issue and it's been sitting in there. And it's not like your engine is worn down from it either.

 

Do you replace injectors one-by-one? Seems most places I look sell them in sets of 8.

I'm not sure how to think of fuel dilution in the oil. If I have to make a discussion out of it I'd start with the piston rings as the source over a "bad injector".

I think the worst part of this is the only real way to tell seems like you got to tear the motor apart. I'm hoping I'm wrong. The only other thing that could answer part of the questions would be a compression test on the cylinders. If that was all within specs, then how do you figure out where the fuel is coming from?? There's only so many areas that cross oil and fuel.

What oil have you been using?? Do you have any way to monitor the Engine Oil Temp?? I was told before that was part of the whole 6.7L design to have higher oil temp to fight fuel dilution.

My first thought was piston rings as well, but the bigger sympom of that is blue smoke from burning oil and Im not having any of that. I tried doing some research before posting here and almost every instance of "leaking injector" involved oil leaking out from an injector, not an injector leaking too much fuel into the engine. Oil is Motorcraft 10w30. Im monitoring oil/coolant/exhaust temps with Torque. On the last trip I sat between 200-210 most of the time with some of the long, gradual uphills going to the mid-230s. Highest temp I hit was 245 (heard the jet-engine of a fan engage at full speed and reflexively backed off).

Outside of vacations I typically drive < 150mi/week with that being 60/40 city/highway. Since I got the truck in May id say 30-40% of my driving (mileage wise) has been towing a camper and the other 60-70% is typical run the kids to school type driving. Could the large % of my driving being around-town type driving result in fuel in the oil?

The lab report noted 15 minutes of idle? Do you routinley do extended idles? Even in colder winter 5 or so minutes max to let it warm up. Extended idles used often will increase the fuel dilution.

Typically no, I dont do extended idles. The instructions from Blackstone were to let the engine run for at least 15 minutes prior to sampling. I didnt have any plans to go anywhere, so I assumed idling would be fine...apparently not.

 

I'm not sure how to think of fuel dilution in the oil. If I have to make a discussion out of it I'd start with the piston rings as the source over a "bad injector".

I think the worst part of this is the only real way to tell seems like you got to tear the motor apart. I'm hoping I'm wrong. The only other thing that could answer part of the questions would be a compression test on the cylinders. If that was all within specs, then how do you figure out where the fuel is coming from?? There's only so many areas that cross oil and fuel.

What oil have you been using?? Do you have any way to monitor the Engine Oil Temp?? I was told before that was part of the whole 6.7L design to have higher oil temp to fight fuel dilution.

 

The lab report noted 15 minutes of idle? Do you routinley do extended idles? Even in colder winter 5 or so minutes max to let it warm up. Extended idles used often will increase the fuel dilution.

 

I'd not hit the panic button just yet. Aside from the oil report there doesn't seem to be any indications you have issues. Maybe wait and pull another sample to see what happens on a second report. While I see potential benefits of oil reports, this is one time were it's causing more harm than good. Harm to your mental operations versus the motor operations.

By the report did you do an oil change??

 

I'd not hit the panic button just yet. Aside from the oil report there doesn't seem to be any indications you have issues. Maybe wait and pull another sample to see what happens on a second report. While I see potential benefits of oil reports, this is one time were it's causing more harm than good. Harm to your mental operations versus the motor operations.

By the report did you do an oil change??

Fair point on the chicken-littleing. I changed the oil on Thursday last week and got the report on Friday.

A long time ago I used to keep track of everyone at TDS who did oil tests for the 7.3 and 6.0. It was two massive amounts of data. When I showed it to a Ford Engineering director, he said he didn’t think any department at Ford had such extensive testing.

To the point, peoples data, and especially since I played with mine, showed if you idled to warm the oil for an analysis, it would be higher in fuel. Drive, don’t idle.

I’ll try to grab some data in a little while.

If you dont mind sharing the data that would be awesome!

 

A long time ago I used to keep track of everyone at TDS who did oil tests for the 7.3 and 6.0. It was two massive amounts of data. When I showed it to a Ford Engineering director, he said he didn’t think any department at Ford had such extensive testing.

To the point, peoples data, and especially since I played with mine, showed if you idled to warm the oil for an analysis, it would be higher in fuel. Drive, don’t idle.

I’ll try to grab some data in a little while.

 

So this is 6.0L data, but we saw it with the earlier 7.3L, but it was not as critical. As soon as I saw the data I started to look at the different ways to heat my oil. Then I started to ask people what they did prior to sampling. The trend was there; idling increased the fuel contamination of the sample, while sampling after normal driving did not.

The other thing I did with the spreadsheet was to recalculate the wear debris based on the oil's miles in service, parts per mile, as Blackstone just "interprets" the situation when they look at miles. I'd rather have a hard number than their "quick look". 35k miles and the engine was still breaking in, iron for one dropping.

B001 is me. I've included just a few pages, not the large pdf. I did push up to 7,000-mile intervals since I was lightweight highway driving. I showed that two minutes of running vs 15 minutes of idle was drastically different. So was a normal 20-mile drive to the shop. It's older data and specific to those motors. B027, did his own thing, an AMES oil advocate who wanted to do longer oil change intervals, something that is not tolerable with the 6.0, especially with long operating idle times he did normally.

 

I have always driven at least 15 minutes at operating temp before taking a sample. It was ingrained into me doing turbine oil samples. With internal combustion, while IMHO it should be done hot, the real key to solid data is to always do it the same way. No matter how you do it. Doing one hot and the next cold and the one after that at idle for 15 minutes is throwing a lot of variables in there.

 

I had pretty bad fuel in oil dilution in my 2015 350 took her to jenny craig she don’t make oil anymore and way more smiles per gallon! just saying

 

U lost me lol can ya explain like I’m an idiot

 

Thanks for sharing @TooManyToys! Seems the data you gathered is pretty definitive. Guess Ill go for a joyride before oil samping from now on.

@reddog7.3 alas Im stuck in the United States of Overregulation with bi-annual visual inspections of all the naughty bits. Wont be an option to me.

 

sorry bout that and i might be telling you something you already know but have you ever cleaned out your intakes and egr valve /throttle body it’s a bit of a job but the amount of coal that builds up in there is unbelievable and idling hrs and incomplete or halfhearted regens really add to it. all that coal restricts airflow truck will love you took me about 8hrs taking my time by myself half that time was cleaning the coal out.

 

I am at 25K miles on my 2020 F250. I sampled oil at every oil change beginning with 15K and noticed that fuel in oil has gone down. The higher levels correlate to winter time warm-up idling. I speculate that there is more ring bypass at idle rpm. My fuel % has gone down to a trace from 1.5%. A third sample will tell the tale.

 

I speculate that there is more ring bypass at idle rpm.

Cause the cylinder pressure is lower, as cylinder pressure increases the rings seal better. In some ways it's normal, which is also a conversation about blow by. There's some amount that is normal.

These newer 6.7L motors need VERY little warm up on cold days. Now what's cold to you, might not be cold to me. I'd say temps down into the 30*s...sure a little warm up doesn't hurt. I wouldn't let it idle longer than 5 minutes with temps that low. Plug in the block heater if you really want to help cut down the warm up times. The block heater can be run for about 3-4 hours before starting the motor. The block heater doesn't really need to used overnight.

 

And this is why I ordered my '22 with the supplemental in-cab heater, so I don't feel like I need to idle it for 10-15mins before I go to work when it's zero out.