DIESEL SMELL IN CAB

[ibapaine]

My exhaust is cracked at the Y and all I smell is diesel. Smells really strong with the A/C on. Turn truck off smell is instantly gone. Well at least that one is. The burnt front axle that had no oil in it sense I bought it 5 months ago (probably longer) smell still lingers.

 

[reelfishin]

With fuel prices where they are, mine is in hibernation till things get better.

Before all the issues with fuel smell on mine, the norm for me was to refill the tank when it hit 1/4 tank, mine is a short bed so the tank is 29 gallons.
I would get between 425 and 450 miles of highway driving out of a tank this way. It would usually take about 20 gallons to refill the tank at the 1/4 tank mark each time.
Towing didn't affects the mileage nearly as much as I would have expected. I'd use more fuel but not enough to really notice it much. When I used the truck to haul the two larger tractors here to sell, I used a three axle trailer rated at 14,000 lbs. One trip had a Case 580CK and a spare bucket, the next trip had two skid steer loaders, and one trip had a small JD crawler and a load of well drilling pipe. Even fully loaded it was getting over 15 mpg.
I got in the habit of tracking fuel usage pretty close because I had a tank in the yard that I was trying to deplete and remove. Knowing how much I used helped me know how much was left in the big tank without having to take a stick measurement. Back when the farm was still operating there we had a half dozen trucks running road diesel, and 22 tractors running red fuel. I got rid of those tanks before we sold the place. They had to be empty to move.

 

[94idiman]

Thanks for the heads up. I will inspect them. Something I hadn't thought about, especially like your experience, I have no exhaust smell either.

Again, appreciate the reply!

Yep I’m a heavy equipment mechanic and had the same problems with one of my trucks, “stainless steel flex”pipes on the up pipes were both leaking…pulled cab …good luck

 

[CaptTom]

UPDATE!!

Felt like I was leaving everyone hanging. It took awhile to get it figured out. I went to a local diesel only guy after all of my other sources dried up several years ago when covid shut everything down. People just moved on.

Anyway, it was the return lines leaking under the plenum, or should I say plenum cover. The Exhaust Y is in good shape, no loose clamps either.

The downsides is, we also found a coolant leak from the head gaskets, very small, small enough to be of no concern to me not having to fill up the expansion bottle. Since we were already torn down, pulled heads...they were both pretty darned cracked too and replaced heads with the new-fangled thicker heads and got ARP studs. Upgraded the FICM to 53V by Bulletproof, but there's now a FICM issue where there was none before. BP is being great about it, but we're trying a rebuilt factory 48V version to see if it's the BP or something occurred during tear down. The mechanic is donating it at his cost as a tester for future 6-O client work. He'll have a good one to use as a tool. Harness appears in perfect shape, no open circuits or shorts in the harness.

I got lucky, caught all of this before getting myself stuck somewhere with my trailer. Also, with the heads off, the mechanic tells me the factory crosshatching on the cylinder walls is as good as new... that is a testament to my frequent oil changes and use of synthetics exclusively since I did my first oil change.

The cost of 2 new heads, new FICM, and all the miscellaneous parts, fuel lines repair, etc will be about $7500, to include some steering linkage work. I'm not happy about it but am happy that the truck will be better than factory refreshed when it's complete. I couldn't buy a new truck for close to this. We love this truck, so it is worth it for us to do this work.

Lastly, the mechanic did mention to me he hasn't seen one of these 6.0 is such good shape. My backside was smoking a little bit, but on the other hand, it isn't in poor condition.

Thanks for your time everyone. Appreciate the tips.