It's a 3/17 build with 1500 miles on it. Came home from work (about 20 miles with the last few being canyon bombing, pedal to the metal kind of thing) and the oil smelled strongly of gas. Since then I've driven 3 trips taking it easy and letting the car warm up before even driving and it's MUCH less strong, although it still smells a bit of gas. I know this is a fairly common thing in turboed BMWs, for example. Has anyone had it in an FS and did it indicate a problem? Should I only push the car hard after a REALLY long warm up?
Oil Smells Like Gasoline
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Hmm, perhaps I should have done some research BEFORE posting this 
Anyway, it turns out that GDI engines have a problem with unburnt fuel washing down the cylinder walls (which is much more likely the reason vs a bad high pressure fuel pump seal at 1500 miles), and perhaps Ecoboost engines more than others? The secondary injectors in the intakes of the new F150 2.7 are supposed to help address some of these problems, but I digress.
Anyway, apparently it's common for a fairly strong fuel odor when the engine is pushed hard, what I have to do is check for oil "growth", where fuel dilutes the oil enough to cause the level to rise.
My first experience with GDI engines was the Mazdaspeed6 and this wasn't a problem with that engine. For those a catch can was completely optional, and I know there's at least one guy with a 3.5l truck that put on 320,000 trouble free miles. Just wondering if a catch can is a necessity for a car that I'm going to push hard for 100k miles or more? If so, has anyone successfully had one installed yet?
Anyway, it turns out that GDI engines have a problem with unburnt fuel washing down the cylinder walls (which is much more likely the reason vs a bad high pressure fuel pump seal at 1500 miles), and perhaps Ecoboost engines more than others? The secondary injectors in the intakes of the new F150 2.7 are supposed to help address some of these problems, but I digress.Anyway, apparently it's common for a fairly strong fuel odor when the engine is pushed hard, what I have to do is check for oil "growth", where fuel dilutes the oil enough to cause the level to rise.
My first experience with GDI engines was the Mazdaspeed6 and this wasn't a problem with that engine. For those a catch can was completely optional, and I know there's at least one guy with a 3.5l truck that put on 320,000 trouble free miles. Just wondering if a catch can is a necessity for a car that I'm going to push hard for 100k miles or more? If so, has anyone successfully had one installed yet?
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There are two threads already existing about catch cans.
Yup, but no "I had X catch can installed by Y" posts I can see yet? If you found one, I'd love to see the link...
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yes, you are correct, because there aren't any that have been developed for our car, which is said in the other threads.
DI engines will always have a fuel smell to their oil, especially if pushed hard or driven short distances with minimal warmup of the oil. This is why using a quality oil and changing it on time is so important. I will follow a server service interval for changing my oils and other lubricating fluids. I consider it cheap insurance for a healthy vehicle.
I can not see how going the 10K miles when following the normal service interval could possibly work given how much fun it is to dive into the boost.
I can not see how going the 10K miles when following the normal service interval could possibly work given how much fun it is to dive into the boost.
I also noticed my oil smelling like fuel, how much did yours smell like fuel? There’s only 19,000km on thr car and no running issues. I’m slightly concerned as I sold my 2020 escape for that reason and replaced with my FFS… hopefully it’s nothing serious or normal operation. I’m going to be changing the oil more regularly too I guess. I can’t be the only person that got 2 ecoboost engines with this happening excessively.
![Wheel Tire Vehicle Car Hood]()
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Hey, @Cpjensen , this thread is from 2017, so you may not get many responses. GDI engines have been doing this for years, with no discernible issues.
My experience with dealing with it the past 5 years on a purchased-new 2017 Honda CR-V with the 1.5T is that it's extremely worrying to the layman mechanic, but the engineers in both the engine department and the lubrication industry have colluded to somehow make them reliable. Our CR-V oil literally constantly smelled strongly of gasoline, and when we'd change it, it would be thinner than the consistency of water between the 0W-20 oil and the amount of gas in the oil. Somehow, there has not been a significant failure rate due to oiling issues with any of these engines, as they're shared by several cars across the Honda lineup, and after losing a ton of sleep over it, griping to Honda of America, changing the oil ad nauseum... the car is still faultless at 65,000 miles. No lifter noise, no signs of issues in any of the oil analysis tests we paid for... It's honestly apparently nothing to worry about anymore. The lubrication engineers account for the extra gas and somehow it just works.
The only situation in which you should worry about this, and when you may experience oil growth, is under extremely short trip service, in which the engine doesn't get to temperature and allow for evaporation of the fuel building up in the oil.
My FFS's oil smells wayyyyy less like gas than the CR-V's did, so i'm hardly worried about it. I just change the oil with full synthetic every 5000m to keep the additives in the oil fresh and ready to do their job.
Good luck with your research, but even after months of digging, I don't see many engines that failed as a direct result of oiling issues caused by just gas in the oil. It's always a lack of maintenance, low oil pressure/starvation, or some defect from the manufacturing process.
Don't lose sleep over it like I did. This is one of those thing that seems REALLY bad to a person who understands engines, but it's just an expected result of our aggressive pursuit to save fuel, and the nerds did their jobs and made it work somehow.
Love that color by the way. Nice car man!
thanks a lot man!! If I’m not the onlyperson this is happening to then I’m not going to worry, I’lljust keep changing my oil at 5000kms and keep using my trusty royal purple, and hope for the best. So far I don’t think I’m having any oil growth as I do a lot of highway driving. This is the funniest car I’ve ever had so I was driving abnormally yesterday but won’t be a regular thing.
Thanks so much
How does one go about getting an oil analysis done
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These guys are the gold standard as far as I’m concerned. Each test they send you a nice personalized write up of everything going on and comparisons to similar cars they test to help you understand the results and plan for any future issues, if they are detected.
they mentioned all the CRVs they test are abnormally high in gas content but they have a few clients pushing 150k miles that are still heavily diluted and show no signs of wear damage. That was 3 years ago, and I haven’t heard about any turbo GDI engines dying en masse of these issues.
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@Cpjensen, the blow-by of the gas vapor in our turbo engines does thin out the oil. Some of us have installed catch cans to cut down on the fuel mixing with the oil. If you are not going to do a catch can, I advise changing your oil at minimum 5000 miles and 7500 miles a the max. I also advise that you use a full synthetic oil. The full synthetic holds up to the fuel intrusion better than the synthetic blend. The Catch Can will also assist in reducing carbon build up on the intake valves.
As @65dustin stated, Black Stone is the best at oil analysis. Like myself, there are several on here that send there oil to them for analysis.
As @65dustin stated, Black Stone is the best at oil analysis. Like myself, there are several on here that send there oil to them for analysis.
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