The other day I thought I could smell fuel when I stopped at lights. So when I get home I look around the filter and it appears to be a little wet and I can see some fuel in the front valley. I grab the cap, it feels loose, so I hand tighten it and all is good. I drove it the next day no problems. Well about an hour ago I go out and start the truck, jump out, move another vehicle out of the way when I notice the truck is running awful and I can smell diesel. All of a sudden I notice diesel running out from under the engine compartment so I shut it down quick. What a mess!!! Diesel all over place. I happen to have an extra filter behind the seat so I drain the bowl (carefully, not wanting to spill diesel on all the fresh diesel on the truck and driveway) and put in the new filter.

NOW it won't start. It acts like the batteries are dead. Will hardly turn over. I notice when I turn the key on, the tach and speedo peg out for a few seconds then fall back to zero.

Does this sound like some serious damage has occured?

 

Well the first place I would start is to check/charge the batteries. And also check the connections. The bouncing gauges sounds like low voltage to me. Let us know what happens.

 

That's what I thought, even thought I've never had battery problems. I hooked up the charger in quick start mode and it would only crank for a few seconds and of course wouldn't start.

 

Did you drain the bowl dry? I don't drain the bowl very much when I change fuel filters. Sounds like you have air in the fuel line and all you can do is crank it til eventually it starts. Make sure the drain valve, to drain out any water in the fuel filter, is closed too.

 

Thanks thegrinch and vancouverpower.

Does anyone know why my batteries would all of a sudden be dead. I didn't crank and crank on it. The first time I turned the key after shutting it down and changing the filter, the batts seemed dead. Is there something that maybe could've been shorted by all that fuel flying around under the hood?

 

Fuel on the belt? Belt slipping, not chargeing.

 

I did notice the belt, pullies and or tensioners were pretty wet with fuel. It only ran for about 30 seconds. Think that was enough to run the batts dead? All this happened in the dark and the cold. Please keep the ideas coming. I need to tackle this mess first thing in the morning when I can see something.

 

Orezona,
I had a similar thing happen to me about a year ago but I didn't loose my batteries with it. My problem turned out to be the high pressure fuel lines running thru the valley to the fuel filter. There are 2 of these lines in the valley. There are also fasteners that keep the lines stable and hold the lines down. My fasteners allowed the lines to vibrate just enough to wear a hole into one of them. Now these are high pressure lines and handle a lot of fuel. I lost 10 gallons of diesel on my 14 mile run for the house. I left one hellova trail of diesel all thru the neightborhood. I had it towed to the stealership and they replaced those two lines for me. Well, as luck would have it I started smelling diesel again this weekend when I got out of the truck and sure enough I had worn a line in two again. The fuel had just started to drip on my driveway so I caught before it got really bad. Now it cost me $200.00 to get this one fixed and I talked to the mechanic about it too. He told me he cushioned this one really good. I guess time will tell. Oh, I drive some pretty rough roads here in Oklahoma so there are lots of opportunities for vibrations to occur..
Batteries??? Unless you were already on the brink with the batteries I'm not sure why they went down.

Good Luck with both of these problems! Hope your solutions are simple!
Paul

 

If one of those lines is broke would it pump out diesel while cranking or would it have to be running?

And thanks for the help.

 

I don't know the layout in your truck, but the diesel may have run onto the starter or some other connector that connects straight back to the battery and created a short. If it was my truck, I'd give the engine bay a real good clean and charge up both the batteries. Just my 2c

 

This morning I noticed both "green eyes" on the original motocraft batteries were now ORANGE. I put two new walmart EVERSTART MAXX-65N batteries in, started right up and took it down for a good pressure washing. I guess the two originals were about done and this was the last straw. Now I just need to figure out how to get all the diesel out of the hood liner. Everytime I start it up I get a strong diesel odor through what ever vent I have open at the time.

Thank you to everyone that provided their ideas.

 

Be careful with washing the underhood liner. The liner is intended to isolate engine noise and also if you notice the plastic caps that hold it in place, they are designed to melt in the event of an engine fire and drop the liner down onto the engine to try and snuff out any fires. My liner in my 97 and the ones in both my dad's 95's were torn from where the belts had frayed and pieces of the belt had torn the liner. I am not sure how to go about cleaning the liner though....maybe soak it with some simple green and spraying it off with a low pressure water hose????

 

I have the hood open now trying to let all the soapy water and diesel run out. Looks like I'm going to have to pop out the liner wash it good like you said with low pressure and put it back when it seems clean. What a mess. This is all because a little while back I purchased a fuel filter at International (not knowing it wouldn't work) got home, took out the old one only to realize the different size. So what did I do? I put back the old one, took the wrong one back to international, and hadn't got a new one yet. Because I didn't want to use the spare I had behind the seat. Sometimes I think I'm stupid but not sure. So once in a while I have to prove it to myself.

 

Just take it out, even if you did have an engine fire, the fire would just suck the air from under the truck, and continue to burn. If it realy is that soaked, just remove it. the thing doesn't stop that much noise either, some truck were sold without them.

good thread on the hood liner. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...ght=hood+liner+


Diesel Rod