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High Fuel Dilution in oil

SomeGuy

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Just going to start this thread to monitor and for anyone else who's checking this to chime in.

Out of curiosity, I wanted to run used oil analysis on my first few changes just to see what happens with the oil and how it's holding up. What I have found, is very high fuel dilution in the oil: >5%, maxing out their scale.

For reference, I got the truck in May - Lariat 4x4. I quickly got 1000 miles on it by using it full time for commuting, plus a freeway trip for about 90 miles total. Vehicle had about 220 miles when I took possession, had been moved from one dealer in Illinois over to Wisconsin and probably just Freeway driven for that mileage.

Now my typical usage is commuting 15 miles (one way, mostly country roads) about twice a week, plus we've gone camping a few times - Towing a pretty aerodynamic Teardrop camper that weighs about 1700 pounds loaded. Trailer has brakes, should be pretty low-stress towing, as towing goes. Approx 550 towing miles total. Overall my driving style is pretty lazy and not very aggressive. I do do the occasional short trip but generally I try to avoid it. I switched my gauge cluster around to show temps on coolant, transmission, and engine oil - and I'm noticing that even on my full commute in to work, in the summer, the oil is still not all the way up to temperature.

First change was at 600 miles, at which time I switched to Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 5w30, which meets Ford's specs for this truck. The filter used for both changes is an OEM FL-910S. Below is the report from the first and second samples. You can see the break-in wear metals drop off as expected, but this much dilution seems very concerning. At the first change, I wasn't overly concerned as I had allowed a cold-start idle for a while right before doing the oil change, due to a low battery from a door that was left open over night. Was loading the truck up and concerned it wouldn't re-start if I shut it off, after moving to the loading location. Nothing like that with the 2nd change though.

I'm using Oil Analyzers Inc which as far as I know is using gas chromatography for their fuel dilution testing, which should be highly accurate.

Ford Ranger High Fuel Dilution in oil Oil results August 2024.PNG
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Hootbro

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Wow! I pretty much mirrored that doing my first two oil changes at 600 and 2300 miles. Below is link to my Blackstone reports for both.

https://www.ranger6g.com/forum/threads/2024-ranger-xl-4x4-oil-analysis-2-3l.11384/#post-186638

My wear metals is pretty much the same for both samples as yours. Where it diverts from you is my fuel dilution for the 600 mile samples was <0.5% and the 2300 mile sample 1.3%

Something is definitely up with yours at those numbers of 4.7% and >5.0% fuel dilution numbers. Hopefully your dealership can look into it as many will not with customer brought in data. You might want to frame your inquiry with them that you are noticing excessive high oil levels over time and suspect the fuel dilution and present your data that way.
 
 







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