Oil level rise on dipstick.

[Tom Mix]

About 2 mths ago diesel was accidently filled into falcon Ed unlead tank. Ford dealer Mt,d tank added 20l pet. When I picked up was white smk exhaust, stalling, backfiring. I added more pet got home. Since about 3 tanks pet used, running well. However, oil level on dipstick rising, now 1" over full. I think injector prob putting pet into crankcase. Any. Ideas anyone? Thanks..

[Tiny]

I reckon you're on the right track. Leaking injector topping up your oil slowly.

I'd give it an oil change & run some injector cleaner thru the tank & see how it goes.

[hinekadon]

if its a leaky injector its putting petrol in the oil and you can smell it on the dipstick , the oil goes runny-er than normal when cold

[Godzilla]

This happens a lot on performance motors running on E85, they run them on the rich side and the oil needs constant changing due to thinning out with raw fuel.

Having said that ive never seen the oil level go up to any great effect from petrol contamination.

Pull all your spark plugs out one at a time and lay them out in the order that they sat in the engine, one (or more plugs) will be seriously black from the over fueling.

Then you know which injector to replace as they are cheap enough, dont forget your fuel filter too.

[george65]

I really can't see that much fuel being injected. If the cylinder was that rich the thing simply wouldn't fire at all. For raw petrol to run past the rings..... Seems a very unlikley thing to me. Oil level rising an inch would be something around 1 Litre of of petrol. If it was going past the rings I would think it would be coming out the exhaust or the exhaust would be smoking like a Diesel Rolling coal. Also if there were a lot of fuel in the sump, that would start to boil off once the car got up to temp. the vapors would go back through the PCV into the engine and cause it to run rich. I doubt the computer would adapt fast enough to the changing mixtures to compensate so again I would think there would be poor performance and maybe smoking although the cat could take care of that possibly.

Usually rising oil level is water. Either from blown headgaskets or cracks in the block or head. The thing backfiring could have easy caused a leak in the headgasket. Petrol backfiring is lean which would be caused by the diesel reducing the mixtures but if there were diesel present which the petrol would light off, it's easy to see how this could cause a distinct rise in Cylinder pressures. That could potential cause other problems than just the headgasket.
If I recall correctly some of the earlier falcons had a lot of head gasket problems so they may have never been overly strong. Water in oil may not show up as a creamy mixture either.

Diesel would not harm an injector, much the opposite from a lube POV. Diesel is pretty Dry these days but it's Lubricity is stall way above that of petrol. the only think I can think of that diesel may have done was clean parts of the fuel system behind the filter and stuck an injector open that way.
If an injector was overfueling that much though, it would have to be noticeable through the thing running like a dog and having a noticeable uneven running. No way it's going to be driving as normal.

First thing I would be getting would be a leak down test on the cooling system. If it's not holding pressure, you can bet it's the head gasket.

[gordon_s1942]

Normally when water mixes with oil it goes milky and has the consistency of cream.
I blew the head gasket on an XB Falcon many years ago and luckily I suspected something was wrong and checked the dipstick to see that effect because when the head was lifted, one piston that was at bottom of the stroke, was full of water (overnight) and I was glad I had checked first and not tried to turn the engine over with all that water sitting there. I have no idea what position the valves were in but I have wondered what if any other damage might have been closed if the both valves were closed and the piston rose............

[george65]

but I have wondered what if any other damage might have been closed if the both valves were closed and the piston rose............

None.

The starter is not strong enough to bend a rod and the engine would not get up enough speed if it did fire to do anything either.

This thing about bending rods on startup is another wives tale/ left over from 30-50 years ago. Modern engines with their Compression rations and Cylinder pressures have to withstand a lot more forces than old slow revving, long stroke, low compression engines of the past.

I had a vehicle that had a blown gasket and I drove it to work for a week. Every afternoon the thing would be locked up so it' just keep tapping it on the key till it did turn over after pushing the water past the rings. Nothing was bent or damaged.

Some years ago after my encouragement a mate fitted a DIY water injection system to his vehicle. He had a mental miscalculation and confused the 300ML / Minute injection rate I told him with 3000 ml min. The thing was running with water and steam coming out the exhaust of his 2L engine and ran like a dog. In his fiddling round, he filled a cylinder with water and locked the engine.... several times. He kept bumping it over till the water pushed past the rings and then started the thing.

Once he woke up to his error and reduced the WI to what I suggested, the thing ran fine and does to this day, about 8 years later. There was an instant improvement in performance due to the very severe flushing the thing got but I sure wouldn't recommend the method. I told him it might take several hundred KM for the water to clean the engine and make any difference but he managed it far quicker than that. He still has the WI on the thing and swears by it.

[enf]

Had a similar problem on a VC Commodore eons ago.

Turned out to be the modulator valve on the auto transmission. Transmission fluid was being sucked into the engine.

I found out doing an oil change one day. Stuffed the pan under the sump plug and left it to drain. It filled up the pan and overflowed while I drank coffee.....

[loanrangiel]

Had a similar problem on a VC Commodore eons ago.

Turned out to be the modulator valve on the auto transmission. Transmission fluid was being sucked into the engine.

I found out doing an oil change one day. Stuffed the pan under the sump plug and left it to drain. It filled up the pan and overflowed while I drank coffee.....

Had the same problem on a mates XC falcon, car was billowing smoke and we assumed it was in need of a re-ring which we did with engine in situ .
started up after the poor mans rebuild and it was still smoking, turned out to be the auto modulator which dumped ATF into the inlet manifold.
Had the auto rebuilt and all good.

[Tom Mix]

Thanks for replies esp george65 who put me on right track. I just used sucker from bottom of sump removed 2 litres of dark oil. with water bubbles in it. I too thought water made oil milky. The oil left is clean annd correct level. Next trip I will add sodium silicate (water glass) to coolant to seal head gasket. Will see how goes not much to lose now. Make s,s by dissolving silica gel in water with a little caustic soda. Anyone heard of Duetz blob test-. a drop of oil on blotting paper-shows what is in oil, didn't work for me.

[Tom Mix]

Amount of water in oil. changes appearance. In my case water dissolved up to 2000ppm then more water makes emulsify then more ater makes water liquid beneath oil.

[Tom Mix]

Years ago. had hz 253 man new 15mpg in effort to get more mpg fitted water injection, doesn't,t do anything except slow rate of burning. Out in bush one day having few beers I parked on hill so water ran into engine. Went to start no turnover! Rolled backward while turning starter started. Bent cconrod car no good after that, wasn't,t much good before! Lost $6k when reposd.

[george65]

I have used water injection for over 10 years. There is a LOT of misconceptions about it. One is it increases fuel economy. It does not. It will do a variety of things depending on what you want it to do but increasing economy is a fallacy. There are scientific reasons why it usually does minutely decrease economy, probably not enough for most people to realise but it will do it.

WI is great for a number of things. I run veg oil in my vehicle, have for 15 years and I use WI to keep the engine free of carbon buildup because I have the injector pump well turned up and the thing will run very rich off boost. I also have a tendency to short shift and use the engines torque which also makes it run rich and can leave deposits. The Water injection which is a very simple DIY setup keeps everything clean and I can get away with what I would have no chance of otherwise.

I also add 50% Methanol when I want to give the old girl a boost and at the injection rate I run, that equates to a little over 20Hp worth of additional fuel. Not a lot of power but on something that has less than 150 Hp to start with, you notice it well and truly. makes a Huge difference pulling up hills and the big bonus is it keeps the engine temps well down as well as the EGT's so the pistons are not in danger of melting.

The high performance guys run water in copious amount when they are rolling coal in tractor pulls or drag races for the same reason, stops the pistons melting into the bottom of the sump. Also if you inject further up the inlet either before or after the turbo, it lower the intake temps dramatically. Mate Injected after his inter cooler and saw an 80o C temp drop on a std motor. The inlet could easily get below ambient temps.

I would not run a Diesel ( on diesel or anything else) without WI. With all the EGR and PCV systems they have now, it's common to block up manifolds with the recirculated junk. A repeated application of water prevents that and keeps the engine clean. BMW have brought it out a couple of years ago on one of their vehicles to keep inlet temps down and smooth spikes in combustion pressures. Lowering the burn temp in the cylinder is also great for emissions which is another thing they use it for.

You can do a lot with WI but saving fuel is not one of those things.

[LeroyPatrol]

Water injection stops detonation.

[Tom Mix]

Had ex-prsuit 5.8l XD falcon.Rebuilt motor cc headds 11:1 comp , would ping on Accel. I had lever in cab to retad ign, &a water inj into top of air cleaner. Both worked in stopping ping on Accel.

[Tom Mix]

What does expert George 65 think of adding head gasket repair additives? Trawli
Ng web seems only repair lasts in replace gasket etc.Some ardditives can do harm.Thanks.

[george65]

Pretty much that.
They may be OK for a temp repair ( and they may not depending on the severity of the problem) But they cannot replace physical damage.

Head gaskets are subject to a lot of heat and pressure as well as some movement which is why they frequently fail.
Miracles in a can are OK if you are stuck in the never never and want to get back home or you are a dodgy car dealer and want to get the thing out the door without a stem cloud but if you are going to hold onto the car, best thing is to have the head skimmed and the gasket replaced before you do any more damage and stuff the engine completely. That said, a replacement engine may be cheaper than getting the head done anyway and you might be able to get one with lower KM than what is in the thing.

What a lot of people don't realise ( or deny) is that aluminum heads go soft when over heated. They are treated/ tempered some way and if they get too hot, they loose their structural integrity. A simple way to test is turn them over and drop a ball bearing on the face. If it bounces like if you drop it on steel or concrete, the head is OK. If it just sits like when you drop it in your hand, it's stuffed.
Good re-conditioners have a proper hardness tester they use before they do anything to the heads to know if they are viable or not.

If they are soft, they warp when you torque them down and will fail in short order due to not holding correct pressure across the gasket face.
Only cure for a soft head is a good replacement.