6.0 Diesel Engine Damage

[Tantrum]

Couple weeks ago I stop in the gas station at 3:00am :rolleyes: to fill my Excursion up so I didnt have to deal with it in the morning. I walked away from the truck on my cell and the attendant comes over to me and says "I think there is a problem". I knew what happend just by the look on his face and said "dont tell me you just filled my truck with gasoline!" Yep...35 gallons of it. The truck was running while being filled and I shut it off immediately when he told me what he did. I then restarted it to move it into a parking space 40 feet away.
The stations shop changed both fuel filters and emptied the tank. Refilled with diesel and a diesel additive. The truck seemed fine and I topped it off for the first 4-5 times as soon as it hit 3/4's tank to dilute any remaining gas.
Usually I get right around 15 miles to the gallon and I drive it pretty hard. My wife used it for a week and put about 500 highway miles on it and only got 12 mpg. It also stinks (exhaust) like diesel which seems way worse than before.

Thats the story heres the question.
Is there any kind of sensors, O2 or otherwise that I could have burned up that wouldnt trigger the service engine light?
There arent any visable leaks so gaskets seem to be ok and it runs pretty smooth so I dont thing I scorched any pumps.
What do you think?

Im going to change filters again (make sure they were done) this week and take it to the dealer to hook it up to the computer and see if they can see anything. Obviously Im not going to tell them it had gas in it.

[Chris]

Shouldn't be a problem. The diesel doesn't use much idling and the system has quite a bit in it after the tank (pump, filter chambers, separator, lines)

Most likely thing that will happen with a diesel that's idling and starts to see gas is that it'll just quit and not restart. The gas will basically cause it to buck back- firing from compression before the stroke makes it to tdc.

[Tantrum]

Thats what I was thinking however millage has gone to sh!t and it stinks. It never stalled on me but when I moved it to the parking spot it was not happy so I believe the motor did see gas for a very short time.

[Chris]

It could have broken some ring lands. I would start documenting things with the service station. Ford has gotten really smart on stuff like this, Nobody is sneaking anything past them anymore. If you have a big-dollar repair, the dealer doesn't make the call, the Ford field rep does.

[macjazzy]

Gasoline is very hard on Diesel fuel injectors. Gas is very dry compared to diesel and has little or no lubrication properties which the injectors need. If the injectors were damaged due to insufficient lubrication it could cause the issues you are talking about. If the spray is not fine enough it will not be as efficient in its burn and will have more unburned fuel coming out the exhaust.

I wouldn't think it could have done that much damage as little as it ran, but if your experiencing these problems obviously it did. Although I have had trucks that got towed in because they filled up with gas and didn't know til they got down the block and the engine stalled and wouldn't restart. And usually I could do a drain and refill, flush the fuel system and it would be ok.

[Scott]

I filled up at a station that had gas in the diesel. All new injectors do to the above statements and an EGR valve along with the usual flushing and filter changes. 6.0L Ford 2004

Gas Station (Murphy Oil) denied all claims even though I had 100% documented proof. I finally let my insurance cover it and had them fight with the Risk Management over at Murphy.