Today I decided to change the fuel filter a little early, because it's been nagging at me that the truck smokes blue at startup like its second job is fogging mosquitoes. Opening the filter housing the fuel in there was the nicest blue color. Like 2 stroke fuel, with to much oil. And the filter was black. If memory from all the posts I've preemptively read serves. This would indicate that I have under-performing Injector O-rings, is correct?



Also, I'm pretty sure the relay directly behind the fuel bowl is the GP relay. Please, correct me if I'm wrong. So is it supposed to get hot enough make it look like someone put a cigarette out on my arm? I assume not. But I have a sweet little double cigarette burn on the underside of my arm from the studs on the top of it. I assume this means it has bad juju; but I'm no expert, I'm just a dude stumbling his way through the land of Powerstroke maintenance.

Thanks,
Joe

 

I've seen fuel filters that black before without any oil leaks, but if the fuel filter is fresh and gets that black, and the fuel in the bowl has a oily tint to it, then yes injector o-rings are suspect.

As for the relay, there's not one where I would call directly behind the fuel bowl. If you don't have a GPCM, then there are two relays. The shorter one to the rear of the engine is the GPR. If the large posts are that hot after driving around (hotter than the other metal parts under the hood), then it may be time to replace it.

Then again, if everything under the hood is 200 degrees, then most anything will burn you if you lean on it. Take a volt meter and test for voltage with the key on when you stop or after you let it idle for 5 minutes. The large post that has / used to have a rubber boot on the wire is supposed to be hot at all times. The one with no rubber boot is only supposed to be hot for up to the first two minutes after the key is turned on. If both large posts show voltage after several minutes, it sounds like the little disc inside the GPR is sticking of has spot welded itself to the connected position. (not great news for your glow plugs)

 

Joe, to reiterate what Chris said above,

One of the first signs of a failing GPR is the studs getting hot. Replace with a 200 amp rated relay. The glow plugs draw around 100 amps and the contacts can easily weld over time. If your contacts have welded, then you should plan on replacing the glow plugs. They will be damaged by continuous power.
The filter can be checked after a couple of months to see if it is black again. If it is, it is time for o-rings. One advantage to fixing this problem: the injectors then have a more reliable high pressure oil supply. If there is enough of a leak even on one injector, the injection pressure can be too low to run that injector properly.

 

To clarify I changed the fuel filter probably in the last 10-15,000 miles. I have no idea how many months ago that was without looking back in my records. But it was probably 6 months. I generally do 15-25,000 miles a year on the truck, depends on where the work is.

Also if I still check it again in a couple months. Will I need to buy a new filter again? I've been trying to change them around 10K. Which would mean I wasn't early. Dang, I need a white board in my garage to keep track of maintenance.

Also the relay in question is the one in the back and to the left of the fuel bowl. Sorry to have created confusion by claiming I had a relay directly behind the bowl.

 

Are you consuming oil? I just went through a similar issue and ended up replacing injectors.

 

New O-rings come with every injector, so that's not defining exactly what the root cause of your oil consumption was.

I'm reasonably sure JoeF250 is consuming oil - unless he's no longer using fuel. The oil is in the fuel. A simple Cody test will confirm in minutes what months of driving will only lead you to suspect.

 

Tugly, any chance you could link to or describe the Cody test? I've never heard of it.

And yes the truck does use oil. But it also has a bad oil pan gasket so I'm not sure where the leaking ends and the using begins.

 

my filter was black and it was injector orings, not a hard job to do and Riff Raff has them at a good price




While there do a armature clearance check as well since it can cause the smoke from retarding the injection


http://dieselpro.ca/Poppet%20Valve.pdf


Ebay has kits for 70 bucks with shims and tools

 

Here is the Ebay site I ordered my kit from.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/94-03-7-3-POWERSTROKE-injector-tune-up-shim-KIT-w-special-Tools-to-install/201596495902?_trksid=p2047675.c100623.m-1&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D38530%26meid%3D390382881e374652815804bc564c5980%26pid%3D100623%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D201437349082&rmvSB=trueAlso, here is a video on checking the clearances.

Hope this helps.
Ed

 

Tugly, not sure how to read your post, seems snarky. I had internal orings of injectors bad, don't think you can test for that. As for the oil consumption comment, you were kidding on that, right.

 

if a big enough oil leak, you will have better mileage but have to keep adding in engine oil


A cody test will show leaks around the injectors, not sure about internal orings


I remember when cranking over mine manually after doing the injector orings it sounded like it was boiling over (motor was cold) once the cranking was stopped, that was the air escaping back through the HPOP


getting better fuel mileage and adding in a gallon of engine oil every 100 miles means an oring leak


black fuel filter can also mean algae if it is slimy

 

LINK to another thread where Cody himself describes the "Cody Test"... look at Post #5 in this thread... https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...cody-test.html


Having read hundreds of posts from Rich (Tugly) and observed his demeanor is many, many threads, he was not being snarky... he's direct and to the point, generally quite witty, and is sometimes even poetic, but I can't recall ever seeing him get snarky with anyone since he joined us here in FTE. He'll have to speak for himself, though, to explain his consumption comment because it frankly left me scratching my head a little as well.

 

F250
Thanks for the link the procedure seems simple enough. I tried searching "Cody test" on the forum search and came up with a bunch of threads referencing it none describing. Which is odd as the one you linked to is clearly named Cody test. Gotta work on my search-fu I guess.

Next question. So with it being brought up that maybe this test would be ineffective at detecting leaks between fuel and oil passages. Since my truck is stock and has deadheaded fuel rails. If there were a check valve between the fuel bowl and head I would assume that a person could install a pressure gauge on the fuel side and watch for a pressure increase when airing the oil rails. So is there such a check valve?

 

Naw... not snarky. Sorry if the text came across that way. Tone and inflection is missing on the forum, and that can make a huge difference on the message. I was aiming for lighthearted comedy with the fuel consumption remark - but I'll be the first to admit that I sometimes miss the broad side of barns.

Being more clear: You mentioned swapping your injectors to address a similar issue, and you asked if there was oil consumption. That didn't clarify if your situation involved oil consumption or not, nor was there any mention if any other troubleshooting was done to isolate whether the injectors were the root cause of your similar issue. Before assumptions are made or money is spent - I quickly offered up that swapping injectors would solve an O-ring problem (very very common) just as quickly as an actual injector problem (a bit more rare). While your post is great in that it shares your experience (personal experience is always helpful here), taking the step of replacing injectors to see if that fixes the OP's black oil filter might be premature.

My thought is to conduct a quick, easy, and free test that can isolate whether it's O-rings or not - then go forward from there.

 

Trugly, thanks for the response. Probably should of have linked my post on oil consumption issue.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-use-help.html

The forum was helpful and thought it would be of some help for Joef250