Hello,

I have a 1996 F350. I noticed today when I left the truck idling in the driveway that diesel fuel is dripping underneath, just behind the oil pan. I pulled the cover over the oil filter, and see the filter housing is wet, and diesel sitting on top of the engine. I don't see any leaks yet, but looking for ideas on typical locations. Any information or suggestion is greatly appreciated.

Thank you

 

You are going to have to clean it up in the valley and see if you can find the source. Could be the fuel pump, fuel lines, fuel filter canister, etc. Only way to tell is get it clean and watch for the leak or stuff rags down in places to see what gets wet.

 

Get yourself a little mirror and a good light. It will definitely help in finding the leak in the valley.

 

There have been several "fuel leak" threads in just the last few days/weeks. So look a few pages back on this forum and that will help you.

 

I went thru this on our '96 this past spring/summer.

If you've never had the bowl off, call Bob at diesel o-rings and order his kit. Clean up the bowl and the screens and get the new hoses and clamps too. I had a couple orings dribbling as well as the thermostat for the bowl heater. I did a post on fixing that, permanently. The other item that was wet was the lift pump. The weep hole is down at the base, by the mounting bolt boss on the passenger(?) side. You can't get a mirror in there; I found it by sliding a couple paper towels around the mounting bolts and going for a short drive. Don't know why but it never leaked while at idle. If needed, there a good writeup that's been posted many times with the details. Doing it without pulling the turbo is pretty easy though it doesn't go fast, even with my little hands. And I used a stock (unbent) craftsman 1.25" combo wrench on the banjo bolt.

 

Thanks for the feedback, on this and other posts. After spending several hours here is what I have. Any additional assistance is appreciated. On the left side of the fuel filter housing is what looks like a pressure gauge of some type? Round, with electrical connection. That drips some. I took it off, cleaned it out with air, put it back on, and the drip is less, but still dripping. What is this part? I expect I need to replace it, however that is not the only leak. After I cleaned it out, and returned it, I ran the engine at idle and the drip was once a minute. I looked underneath the truck, and the drips were once every 10 seconds. I took off the filter cover, and canister just looking for leak spots. It is possible it was not tight, but not convinced. I cleaned out the valley tonight, and ran the engine. Initially I got water droplets, but I am sure that is just condensation, as they stopped. I could not see any fuel leak (using mirror, and light). I ran the engine up to 2000 rpm for a minute, and there were one or two drops in the valley under the back of the pump. After doing this several times, one time there was several drops. I had hopes I was about to find it, but not so. I looked for wet spots on the pump, and saw none. I repeated the steps and no luck. I am going to run it some, to see what will happen, but my confidence is low.
Part of me says to replace the pump, but I hate to do that unless I have some sort of belief that that is the issue. I did have wetness from in front of the fuel bowl all the way to the back of the engine. I was able to get it dried out by the pump, but too many lines in the way to get under the fuel bowl. Any more suggestions?

 

Maybe the fuel bowl is rotted in the inside and leaking down below it. Happens, some have taken the bowl out, cleaned it real good inside and out, and where there are holes in it just jb welded it with good success.