fuel in antifreeze degass bottle

[boat hauler]

I thought I had oil in my antifreeze but people are telling me fuel instead. I have a scum line on the top of the antifreeze. Smells like varnish. How does a guy troubleshoot this? What are the most common ways fuel gets in the antifreeze? Cracked head? Cups? Any easy places to look first.

Man, I am not looking forward to paying this bill. Truck runs great. No smoke or miss as far as I can tell. It does smell like diesel fuel in the cab. Don't know if it is due to this or what.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Tx_Atty]

I had a similar experience, but much higher volume, in a previous truck I had. The dealer (two actually) told me the injector sleeves were pitted and letting fuel by which then got into the coolant system. What that really means I am not sure but required they pull all injectors and replace sleeves. I also smelled it in the cab and one a couple occasions had huge fuel spills under the truck.

I believe I have read here that injector o-rings can create this same situation.

 

[powerboatr]

I thought I had oil in my antifreeze but people are telling me fuel instead. I have a scum line on the top of the antifreeze. Smells like varnish. How does a guy troubleshoot this? What are the most common ways fuel gets in the antifreeze? Cracked head? Cups? Any easy places to look first.

Man, I am not looking forward to paying this bill. Truck runs great. No smoke or miss as far as I can tell. It does smell like diesel fuel in the cab. Don't know if it is due to this or what.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

is it a brown scummy looking stuff, 02 was the first year they put the stop leak additive in the anti freeze and many folks experienced brown nasty looking stuff around the upper edges of the degas bottle, gets worse with time. feels oily to, smells like POOP

i believe their was a tsb or something on it, its been awhile

Premium Gold Engine Coolant:
2002 trucks originally equiped with Premium Gold (yellow) coolant should not have DCA/SCA's added to the cooling system. It should not be mixed with conventional (usually green) engine coolants. Ford is also recommending not to drain the Gold coolant and replace it with green coolant, or to recycle and reuse the Gold coolant. Engineering is checking on compatibility in older systems, but at this time use green if it came with green and Gold if it came with Gold.


Trucks originally filled with Gold coolant:
All 2002 F-Series built at the Kentucky Truck Plant (VIN 11th digit "E")
2002 F150-550 built in Cuautitlan (VIN "M") from 2-4-02
2002 F650/750 built in Cuautitlan from 1-28-02
All Econolines built from 7-15-02

you have to pressure test the system to know for sure if you think its oil or fuel
fuel is not as likely as oil would be,

i see a quick search this is posted at the drama place as well, i guess its good my IP changed and i can look around from time to time
how bout giving us ALL the details on what was fixed like the oil cooler and the other things that was repaired or taken apart
or is it the folks at tds wont answer so.
you try here,
should have come here first


and one more tid bit, if you changed the oil cooler and then got the oil fuel looking stuff in the degas bottle i would look at the cooler as suspect first, maybe a pinched o ring etc, is your oil consumption up or down? how about coolant level up or down???

 

[oi8228oi]

good excues to upgrade to biger injectors....

 

[boat hauler]

Well, I have to be real honest, I haven't posted many problems lately. I have had good luck with the truck. I have been on the "other" site in the past with good luck. Nothing wrong here at all. Actually, I haven't gotten the help "over there" like I had in the past. I am having real issues and want to solve them myslef if possible. I hope I don't offend anyone by not using this site solely. I have had awesome luck with the members here. Again, sorry.

I did replace the engine oil cooler because my mechanic told me that the cooler si the culprit. What a pain in the butt, but I managed to get it off and replaced. All gaskets too. I then went to Midas who did a awesome job of flushing out the old crap and filling the system with my CAT ELC. I then replaced my coolant filter. There has been a problem still with my mystery solution which I am told is diesel fuel.

So that is what has been done to fix the problem. Obviously this hasn't fixed anything except put a ding in my wallet.

 

[Hoss 350]

No offense, there's a lot of good info "over there."

As far as fuel in your coolant, I have a few observations to make...

First, in the powerstroke 7.3, there is no way (as far as I can tell) for fuel to get into your coolant unless you have a cracked head. The crack would have to be between the fuel rails and water jacket. The reason I say this is that there are no other areas where fuel and coolant come into contact with each other.

Second, the crack in your head *may* be letting water into your fuel rails, too, once you power down, and the pressure bleeds off in your fuel system. The water jacket stays pressurized until the engine cools down, so the flow reverses, and you run water through your injectors. So, I'd be looking for steam at startup to see if this is your problem. (But it may not be enough water to make visible steam...)

One way to test this might be to drain your fuel rails after letting it sit for a while, and see if they have water in them.

Are you making oil? Water in oil?

Are you sure it is fuel, not oil in your degas? Oil is far more likely. Oil cooler?

 

[95_stroker]

First, in the powerstroke 7.3, there is no way (as far as I can tell) for fuel to get into your coolant unless you have a cracked head. The crack would have to be between the fuel rails and water jacket. The reason I say this is that there are no other areas where fuel and coolant come into contact with each other.

Injector cups?

 

[boat hauler]

Well, I took it to the dealership. It is fuel in the coolant. He pulled 2 of the injectors and said the sleves or the o-rings around the sleeves were leaking. Injectors looked good I was told. I guess to start off he pressurized the coolant system and saw evidence of a problem at 2 injectors. Pulled them and looked at some sleeve and o-ring and said that looked to be the problem. They said that this isn't a common problem, but it is very possible to happen. Fairly inexpensive parts I guess. Glad it isn't injectors. I would sure love to have new big ones, but can't afford a luxury like that. I just want them to check each of them out thoroughly.

So right now, they are going to check one bank then move to the other. Do you think that there is anything else I should have them do while they are that deep into the motor. I am thinking of having htem put in new glow plugs and the UVC harness. Any other thoughts??

Thanks for your input guys!

 

[Hoss 350]

Injector cups?

Sorry. Braindead moment. I was thinking... well, i don't really know what i was thinking.

 

[Tx_Atty]

sounds like your issue is the same that I had. I would like them to tell me how, exactly, that happens. I sold my old truck immediately after getting it back from the 2nd go 'round on this issue. Not that I am suggesting you sell but I didnt trust my truck nor the dealers anymore. Never had that problem with my current one.