Fuel Dilution - FAQ

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Goes on a bit.

(fuel dilution) "is why the service interval has a time limit as well as a mileage limit" (probably not an exact quote but close enough) doesn't appear to make sense.
 
Excessive idling / stop-go traffic. Low miles but high fuel dilution because of lots of injection cycles and/or low temps not heating the oil enough to evaporate some of the fuel.
 
Originally Posted By: StevieC
Excessive idling / stop-go traffic. Low miles but high fuel dilution because of lots of injection cycles and/or low temps not heating the oil enough to evaporate some of the fuel.


I dunno. Are low miles necessarily, or even generally, slow miles?

I was thinking of my own situation, where the car is mostly recreational use so infrequent but gets up to temperature when it is used.
 
It really depends on what temperature the oil reaches and for how long to help evaporate the contaminants. Then if it spends more time idling than actually moving then that is a factor as well as my first point.
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That guy's a bit "snotty" ...
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Guess he thinks that gets subscribers.
 
I could not even finish ~ don’t think I’d send him a question and then sit and hear it mocked like a school boy …
 
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I would like to see some REAL data that plots % fuel vs wear. Based on 5 or so UOAs I've seen showing fuel dilution of 1 to 3% I've observed no real increase in wear. I think some of us get paranoid over the idea of fuel dilution. Ed
 
In the norm, from reading UOAs, fuel < 1%. Fuel dilution was a major deal with carbs and chokes. In a modern car, its a non-problem.
 
Originally Posted By: andyd
In the norm, from reading UOAs, fuel < 1%. Fuel dilution was a major deal with carbs and chokes. In a modern car, its a non-problem.


I think lubricants have improved in this regard as well since then as well.
 
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Originally Posted By: andyd
In the norm, from reading UOAs, fuel < 1%. Fuel dilution was a major deal with carbs and chokes. In a modern car, its a non-problem.


You're likely reading UOAs from Blackstone, which are not reliable for gauging fuel dilution. Look at Oil Analyzers/Polaris UOAs instead, which uses gas chromotography for this purpose. On Blackstone UOAs ignore fuel dilution and look at viscosity instead: you'll see lots of samples below or nearly below grade.

Fuel dilution is an issue withnDI/TGDI engines; the question is how harmful it is. But when you hear reports of increasing sump levels it can't be a non-problem.
 
Originally Posted By: Danh
Originally Posted By: andyd
In the norm, from reading UOAs, fuel < 1%. Fuel dilution was a major deal with carbs and chokes. In a modern car, its a non-problem.


You're likely reading UOAs from Blackstone, which are not reliable for gauging fuel dilution. Look at Oil Analyzers/Polaris UOAs instead, which uses gas chromotography for this purpose. On Blackstone UOAs ignore fuel dilution and look at viscosity instead: you'll see lots of samples below or nearly below grade.

Fuel dilution is an issue withnDI/TGDI engines; the question is how harmful it is. But when you hear reports of increasing sump levels it can't be a non-problem.


Why not? Increasing to what level? Slight increases aren’t any cause for concern-just like normal slight overfills aren’t, but I’ve yet to see any pictures of major increases in overall sump volume reported here.
 
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