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Joker7997's avatar
Joker7997
Explorer
May 17, 2017

1997 cummins 8.3 fuel in oil and exhaust

Hello all, I have a persistent issue with my 1997 cummins 8.3 diesel pusher where after running a hundred miles or So the rear of the vehicle has a large amount of diesel fuel that has been blown out of the exhaust, and additionally fuel is getting into the oil, it smells of diesel when I check the dipstick. All of the injectors have been replaced. My mechanic recommended throwing several quarts of atf in the fuel to free any stuck injector. This seemed to stop the problem , but the next fill up when I didn't add more atf the problem returned. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated :)

5 Replies

  • thanks for the replies! Vehicle timeline:

    1) engine rebuilt, ran great
    2) turbo blew a hole in the hose two months later, had to drive 80 miles on the freeway with no power to get home
    3) turbo hose repaired, only had 80 percent of the power it had before the hose blew at this point. The fuel began showing up in exhaust and oil at this time
    4) replaced all injectors. Went back up to about 95 percent of power, but still had the fuel problem. Also, after idling for a few minutes there seemed to be a backlog of fuel or something, I would press the accelerator and it was as if it was still idling, I'm talking having about 15 percent of normal power, then after 5-30 seconds typically a HUGE plume of black smoke would go out of the smokestack and power would return to normal. Once when it idled for 45 minutes it took nearly a 1/4 mile before the black plume belched out and restoration of power.
    5) mechanic increased the idle speed, this took care of the problem with low power after idling but not the fuel in exhaust and oil.

    And that's where I am at with this beast
  • If you have a stuck injector your egts would be through the roof and you would likely have blown a turbo by now. I haven't worked on the 8.3, but many diesels have tubes that deliver the fuel to the I jectors. In the Cummins 6.7 when you change injectors if you don't correctly install the pass through fuel tubes which are in the head they will leak and end up in your oil. I don't know how that would end up in your exhaust. I would find a different mechanic. Atf in fuel won't hurt much in an older diesel but it rarely if ever will fix a stuck Injector. I would check your fuel lines, crank case breather, use an infared thermometer on exhaust header to check for stuck injectors just in case.
  • It sounds to me like you have a fuel line leaking. Don't add any ATF to the fuel.