As of 5/29/2016, this situation appears to have been RESOLVED!

My son made a really bad, bad choice. He pulled up to a pump to fill up the Excursion with diesel, and mistakenly grabbed the e85 Flex Fuel nozzle, pumped about 10 gallonsis situation a of E85 into an almost empty tank, drove down the road, and within 1 mile the truck shuddered badly and died.
I've had it towed into my driveway.

I consulted a previous customer who runs a performance diesel ago in town and he is telling me that the injectors are fried and have to be replaced. I know he is not telling me this to get work because he knows I do my own work.

I know that I have to do the tank and flush and clean the lines and replace the fuel filter.

QUESTIONS:

1. Is it mandatory to replace the injectors?

2. I've been planning on selling the Ex this summer. Whose remans are the best bet? Full Force? PIS? Others?

3. Should I also go ahead and replace the fuel pump (the vehicle has about 190k miles on it).?

4. What other components are now suspect? (I'm not doing cups to just so it afterwards.)

Thanks guys.

 

I'd get all the gas out; drain the fuel rails and everything. Put fresh diesel in and start it, then kind of go from there.

 

I would flush the system, then see how it goes Pete. I know you wouldn't "just get it running and sell it off" so clear out the tank, blow the lines out, clean the fuel bowl, put in a new filter and go from there. At 190K I would think you are on borrowed time with regards to the fuel pump. Mine made about 193 and my dads was about 195 if I recall correctly. Riff Raff has the stockers for $119.

Edit:Pika, you posted while I was typing.

 

Yep, do this.


It doesn't happen often, but it has come up where someone gets gas in the tank and drives it until it runs horrible or dies. Drain out everything, put diesel back in it and after a few chugging tries to start, they crank up and run like nothing ever happened.


You'll know shortly after a few drive cycles if any damage was actually done.

 

I had a d-max at work that the driver put gasoline, long story short cracked and melted piston for some reason. Good thing the HEUI system is more forgiving. Do as these guys say and clean out the gas and put diesel and give it a try.

 

My neighbor put gas in his 2001 F250 7.3 and drove it till it died. We dropped the tank and got it nice and cleaned of gasoline, drained the fuel filter housing, replaced fuel filter. We also drained the fuel rails as best we could, we even drained the return fuel line to the tank. We cranked it over a few times, it started, coughed and stuttered and finally smoothed out. That was two years ago and it's still doing fine.
Bill

 

I agree with all the above. Besides, what you got to loose. On rebuilds, I'd say Rosewood, he dose nothing but 7.3 diesels. But they are all good. Let us know.

 

Agreed. Do this. The only thing I'd add is a double shot of lubricity additive or ashless two cycle, or greater than 5% bio blend in the first tank.

I'd say better than 50/50 shot you'll never know it happened by this time next week.


Then again, how nice is the Excursion? If it's really nice, he probably screwed up the injectors and the whole truck. I'll give you $100 for it now.

 

You're funny, Chris! Too, too funny!

OK, guys. A little time to think and reading all of your consistent feedback has me hopeful. My drill operated siphon pump got burned up the when I had to siphon 35 gallons of gasoline out of the Excursion tank several years back (it only ran for 30 seconds before we shut it off, and the gas never got into the engine at all before we got it siphoned and cleaned out), and I simply never replaced the pump.

Tomorrow, on the way home from work, I'll pick up 5 gallons of diesel in my in - bed spare tank and the Topsider pump at Northern Tool. Then we will proceed to do the "clean and flush" routine and see where that takes us. I'll have to order the new fuel pump and just take my chances on the one I have until the replacement gets here, and hope that the heavily lubricated diesel fuel will restore the lubricant film throughout my fuel system quickly, and HOPE HOPE that the injectors are not damaged and behave properly.

I'll keep you guys posted with my progress after tomorrow.

Thanks again.

 

Good luck man! That's a ****ty deal.

 

Ah the dreaded dieseline, im a fleet guy and have seen this many times 6.0's 7.3's dmaxes. easy way is disconnect fuel line on frame run a hose to a can or pan. then you take out the fuel pump relay and use the fuel pump to empty tank. Throw 2 new filters in, put 5 gal or more in tank then go fill it up.

 

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Sounds good and what is done to remove fuel in lines and such past the pump ?

Kyle

 

The only way to get it all out is to pull all the injectors and lines to clean them. 2nd best might be to drain and fill as above and then crack the lines loose at the head and run the pump till you get clean fuel. That leaves fuel in the heads but unless you want to spend that kind of time with the injectors etc. Damage was or not done when it was driven.

 

I'll bet a nickel you'll be just fine doing what Pikachu suggested

 

Well, given that the E85 is 85% ethanol, and not JUST gasoline, I'm also concerned about the impact on elastomers in the system... fuel hoses, seals, o-rings, etc. I expect the Viton o-rings at the fuel bowl will hold up fine, but am not sure how well the rubber fuel hoses will hold up... I'll check those carefully when I disassemble the connection points, and replace the hose if necessary.

My plan right now is to use a newly acquired Topsider pump to evacuate the tank (I do NOT want to use the aged pump to pump out 10 gallons of 85% ethanol fuel, because that may just finish it off before I even get the replacement pump in hand (ordered last night for Saturday delivery).

I'll drain the fuel filter housing first. Then, once the tank is pumped out, I'll drop the tank out of the vehicle and disconnect the fuel lines. Once the tank is cleaned out (I've been needing to do this for a while anyway because I am sure that I got a bad load of diesel with trash in it a while back), I'll install a new pickup foot on the uptake tube just because I have a spare one and the one in the tank does not have the screen in it any more which allows trash to catch adn build up in the hard elbow on top of the tank.

Then I'll use my 5 gallon spare diesel can as a sump and cycle the aged stock pump to suck diesel up and hydraulically push the E85 out of the system WITHOUT starting the engine. The flow from the return line will get collected in a separate container for later disposal.

The next step will be to clean the tank and re-install it. I'll use a second 5-gallon diesel can to pre-fill the tank with fresh diesel with a double-dose of lubricity additive. Then, I'll see if I can get the engine fired up and let it run to see how well it smooths out.

The last step will be to install the replacement fuel pump this weekend -- assuming that the engine is running well by that time and the existing fuel pump makes it through this exercise.

After all, my son only ran the truck about one mile, but then again, within that one mile the E85 made its way into the injection system which is what shut him down. That said, I'm hoping it was not long enough for costly damage to the injectors, but we shall see soon enough.

There is no rain in the forecast until Sunday, so the drain and flush routine begins tonight after work.