Loaned out my 2002 Ford 7.3 PSD to a friend who lost his job and had to sell his house and move. They thought they were doing me a favor by filling it up with 42 gallons of GAS.

They ran it approx. 7 miles before it dawned on them that it was a diesel. I had it towed and removed the gas. The dealership removed the tank, replaced the fuel pickup, sending unit, treated the tank, blew out the lines, replaced the fuel filter assy., and gravity fed the fuel rails.

The truck ran, but with reduced power and lots of blue smoke in the exhaust. Replaced the injectors. The dealership stated that the sleeves? for the injectors looked good. They don't feel that there is any other damage to the engine as it runs too well.

My problem is that the truck still has blue smoke in it on cold start ups. It didn't before. The blue smoke dissapates as the truck warms up. It doesn't seem to blow blue smoke under load. I was looking for advice as what might be the cause of it.

No fuel additives are in the diesel. I also have a second 7.3 using the same fuel and no blue smoke.

Help please.

 

bump

question: How did they get 42 gallons IN? talk about perseverance.

I am guessing they cleaned up the rings really good and that is why she's smoking, but I'm not that really qualified. I'd run a compression test either with a gauge or with AE cold before I got nervous about damage.

 

Smoke on a cold start is normal. Mine chugs quite a bit until the cylinders warm up a bit. I wouldn't be too worried at this point, but definitely keep an eye on it.
BTW, welcome to FTE! Lots of good info in here... if your truck is stock we will fix that in a hurry!

 

I hope they paid for all that dealer work!!

This is why my truck never gets loaned out. There are about three people that I'd trust with my truck (not counting a few of y'all!! ).

 

Agreed Joe! I have a locking gas cap so someone would probably have to call me first to figure out which key they need, at which point I would say "GREEN NOZZLE ONLY UNLESS YOU WANT TO DIE!!!"

 

That will screw you up at a BP station, I know that for a fact.

 

Out here 98% of them are green, but I have come across a few that weren't now that I think about it.

 

Guess I'm lucky that no one wants to borrow my truck, my family says it's too high and too long for them to drive

 

Yep, all but BP stations use green for diesel. They use green for everything else and black for diesel.

 

Sounds like your dealer went overboard. Don't know why they would have needed to replace the pickup and sending unit. If the truck was still running alright when he stopped it, chances are good no damage was done. The blue smoke probably has something to do with the new injectors. Blue = oil. Some how oil is getting in to a cylinder or a coulpe of cylinders while engine is off. How long has it been since the repairs?

 

I added this decal for a last chance reminder, just in case sombody wanted to do me a favor and fill her up.

 

That's neat, but as long as the keys are in my pocket, I don't need any signs.

 

I guess the first question is, did the truck start to run bad before they pulled over, and if so how bad? Usually gas that's run too long, or too much will damage the injectors which you've already had replaced.

As others have asked, how many miles has the truck been driven since the work has been done? You will get some oil in the cylinders during an injector change, along with air in the oil rails, so it usually takes about 50 miles of driving to clear up the symptoms from an injector change.

Welcome to FTE.

 

The injectors were just replaced last week. The truck has an aftermarket exhaust, Hellwig Bars, Bilstein shocks, and in the immediate future Landyot Radius Rods.

I am also planning on converting it over to run on WVO like my other one. That is if the engine is not toast.

The smoke that comes from the exhaust is out of the norm for this truck. Prior to the event, it had less smoke (and it wasn't blue) than my other 2003 7.3.

Thanks for the info.

 

The truck was spitting and started to run rough when they shut it down.

The truck was run for almost a month after the incident and prior to the injectors being replaced. The truck started to lose more power, was smoking more, and had a rough idle.

It has approx. 100 miles on it since the injectors have been replaced.

The rubber gasket/items on the Fuel sending unit, pickup, and filter were distorted/destroyed. The screen for the fuel pickup was on the bottom of the tank. The filter cover for the fuel filter was distorted. I insisted on keeping the parts and they are pretty bad.