It was down to around 10 last night with 20-30 mph wind gusts. I plug my truck in, but have it on a timer to come on at 8 am since i don't leave for work until 11. The kids bus was late this morning & after waiting 10 minutes past its usual time, I decided it was time to drive them to school. The timer had only been on for maybe 1/2 hour at that point. It was hesitant, but fired up, then I ran inside to grab something my daughter had forgotten & was back out in maybe 1 to 2 minutes to find a patch of fluid about 1 foot wide & 6 foot long running down the driveway. At first, I was thinking tranny fluid, but to my surprise.. it was diesel fuel. I'm sure it wasn't the smartest move, but since the truck appeared to be running fine, I decided to chance it & run them to school since the school is only 1/2 mile from our house.. I left a trail out of the driveway, but then it seemed to quit. by the time I got home, it had pretty much totally quit & just a few drips. After looking to see where it was coming from, it appeared to be running from the top of the motor as there is some fuel in the valley. I just changed my fuel filter last week & used the fuel bowl drain. After some reading already this morning, i've seen several posts about the o-ring's in the fuel drain valve.. I've never had this problem before this & can understand that this may be my problem.. My concern is the amount that came out so quickly & then now it seems to have quit altogether.. Has anyone else had the same issues with the o-rings & had it leak that much???

My other question is, why does the fuel end up in the valley if these or rings are leaking if there is the drain line that goes down along the cylinder head??

 

Anything that collects in the valley, oil or fuel, will drain to the rear and through a weep hole that is cast in the rear of the valley. It will run down the back of the engine and drip off of the transmission inspection plate (auto).

The factory Buna-N o-rings in the drain valve will become fuel saturated with the ULSD additives and become soft and "spungey". When cold, they will shrink and harden, allowing fuel (or oil) to pass by the seal. There are elastomers that are far superior than the Buna-N that Ford continues to supply in their drain valves to combat the effects of the ULSD additives today.

Other potential leak points include where the fuel line connects to the rear of the passengers head. The sleeves become brittle and will crack from being cooked by the downpipe for thousands of miles. Once these sleeves begin to leak, warming them up usually does not stop the leak.

 

Gregg, check the fuel bowl cap. I had this happen a while back, started leaking on the back side of the cap. I guess I may have tightened it too much. Changed the filter and gasket and that fixed the leak. It was leaking as bad as you are saying.

The valve can leak fuel into the valley if the o-rings are bad.

 

Thanks guys.. I was out trying to determine where the leak was coming from & of course, now once it is warmed up.. I can't see it leaking anywhere.. I posted some pics of the leak in an album in my profile. (I still can't figure out how to copy images into the posts) Since I just changed my filter & used the drain valve.. do you think that's what my problem may have been? I was just concerned because of the amount. I know a small amount looks worse on the ground, but its still WAY more than a "drip" so it really had me concerned...

 

That is quite a bit of fuel.

 

I agree, check the cap. You can also *gently* tighten the screws on the drain valve which will at least temporarily solve a leak there. I think they are a torx t-10 screw.

 

I dried everything out the best I could today & was looking over everything with the truck running. I couldn't even find anywhere that appeared to be leaking. Is it possible there was some water in the valve assembly that froze & moved the O-ring allowing it to leak that bad? Its just so baffling to have it leak that bad upon start up & after it warmed up I can't find any signs of a leak at all.