Fuel in oil, high pressure fuel pump?

[reeeng]

My family got a 2015 nox like 4 years ago actually dependable up until now, 55k miles with the 2.4 and it has oil consumption issues, it now has 114k miles. For probably the last 30-40 k miles we haven't really went past 3k miles on the oil change, we realized 6k mile oil changes were not a good idea. All full synthetic dexos oil used. The oil recently started smelling like you could almost light it on fire. It can make it around 800 ish miles before you need to top up the oil, we recently started putting 5w40 in it and it seems to have slowed the oil burning with it. I read and found some people saying it could be the high pressure fuel pump if you have fuel in the oil, that a seal on it can fail and leak fuel into the crankcase. Im wondering if excessive blowby would cause fuel in the oil, because it seems to have a decent amount of blowby. It seems to run, drive and accelerate ok. It's also worth noting that on the last oil change the oil was like water and had some metal in it and in the oil filter housing, there was no big chunks of metal it was just fine gold like shavings. It does have a check engine light but it's just for a small EVAP leak, sometimes misfires briefly on hot restart but no codes for it or anything else. Sometimes seems "angry" on cold start, doesn't idle down for a like 2 minutes if you let it just idle. I'm wondering if the high pressure fuel pump is failing. I digress. Anybody else have anything similar?
Any advice?

 

[Hey Vern!]

Hey Reeeng!

I am not familiar with the 2.4, but I am assuming it is like most chevy engines I know. Yes, blow by can cause fuel to mix with your oil. It is not uncommon to find those fine metal shavings. That is often normal wear. What code is your evap leak? P0442?

 

[NOX4ME]

Fuel in the oilcan be traced to a clogged PCV. You have two options: remove the intake manifold then clean out the orifice for the PCV then increase diameter to 1/8". Of course you run the risk of repeating this operation periodically. I did come up with a repair that eliminates excess crankcase pressure, removing oil consumption and seal damage due to a pressurized crankcase. I've include a link to my You Tube video.
And due to the piston ring clearance and high pressure direct injection you will always find soot in the crankcase and the presence of fuel.

 

[57chevythunder]

FWIT, there have been plenty of seal failures on the High Pressure Pumps used on these Direct Injection engines. And the way it is discovered is excessive fuel in the oil. My gosh, if you can actually smell the gasoline, then I'd say you had better check that pump immediately !! -and hope its not too late to save your engine.

Sure, it is fairly normal to have a very small amount of fuel present in the oil at oil change time, often due to short-trip and cold weather driving. -And the only way that is actually proven is to have it analyzed by a laboratory, such as "Blackstone." But at safe levels, you will certainly not detect any thinning of the motor oil.

 

[reeeng]

Fuel in the oilcan be traced to a clogged PCV. You have two options: remove the intake manifold then clean out the orifice for the PCV then increase diameter to 1/8". Of course you run the risk of repeating this operation periodically. I did come up with a repair that eliminates excess crankcase pressure, removing oil consumption and seal damage due to a pressurized crankcase. I've include a link to my You Tube video.
And due to the piston ring clearance and high pressure direct injection you will always find soot in the crankcase and the presence of fuel.

Thank you for the reply I'm a little bit late but that does seem like an interesting repair, I'll have to try it at some point. I was inclined to believe it was the high pressure fuel pump, but I will definitely be trying this first before i load the parts cannon. Thank you for the video too!

 

[reeeng]

FWIT, there have been plenty of seal failures on the High Pressure Pumps used on these Direct Injection engines. And the way it is discovered is excessive fuel in the oil. My gosh, if you can actually smell the gasoline, then I'd say you had better check that pump immediately !! -and hope its not too late to save your engine.

Sure, it is fairly normal to have a very small amount of fuel present in the oil at oil change time, often due to short-trip and cold weather driving. -And the only way that is actually proven is to have it analyzed by a laboratory, such as "Blackstone." But at safe levels, you will certainly not detect any thinning of the motor oil.

Thanks for the reply, I'm not sure it's quite that bad but I will get the oil analyzed to find out what's wearing and how much fuel is in it. Btw the oil did have vapor coming off it last oil change, the engine was hot but I've never noticed that before ( I usually change it hot). I'm not sure what to think at this point. I'll be keeping a close eye on it and making an extra vent on the oil cap to the intake manifold( thanks nox4me) before I put a fuel pump in it or.... I might just do both for extra insurance.

 

[reeeng]

Hey Reeeng!

I am not familiar with the 2.4, but I am assuming it is like most chevy engines I know. Yes, blow by can cause fuel to mix with your oil. It is not uncommon to find those fine metal shavings. That is often normal wear. What code is your evap leak? P0442?

Thanks for the reply, it was a P0442. I've never found shavings in the oil like that before, I did flush the oil pan with some fresh oil and there was some in my drain pan too! Aaargh Chevy!

 

[big mike]

Fuel in the oilcan be traced to a clogged PCV. You have two options: remove the intake manifold then clean out the orifice for the PCV then increase diameter to 1/8". Of course you run the risk of repeating this operation periodically. I did come up with a repair that eliminates excess crankcase pressure, removing oil consumption and seal damage due to a pressurized crankcase. I've include a link to my You Tube video.
And due to the piston ring clearance and high pressure direct injection you will always find soot in the crankcase and the presence of fuel.

Hello I was interested in your solution concerning the equinox and your repair. I checked out my 2017 Equinox and quite a bit of air pressure coming out when I remove the oil fill cap. I am also getting gas in my oil and I recently replaced the pump but not the high pressure fuel line. I still seem to be getting gas in my oil after replacing the pump. As an immediate solution I drilled about a 3/16 inch hole in the cap and I'm running it like that. Will that have the same effect as your repair? I guess the drawback would be is I'm polluting more

 

[kermit72]

My family got a 2015 nox like 4 years ago actually dependable up until now, 55k miles with the 2.4 and it has oil consumption issues, it now has 114k miles. For probably the last 30-40 k miles we haven't really went past 3k miles on the oil change, we realized 6k mile oil changes were not a good idea. All full synthetic dexos oil used. The oil recently started smelling like you could almost light it on fire. It can make it around 800 ish miles before you need to top up the oil, we recently started putting 5w40 in it and it seems to have slowed the oil burning with it. I read and found some people saying it could be the high pressure fuel pump if you have fuel in the oil, that a seal on it can fail and leak fuel into the crankcase. Im wondering if excessive blowby would cause fuel in the oil, because it seems to have a decent amount of blowby. It seems to run, drive and accelerate ok. It's also worth noting that on the last oil change the oil was like water and had some metal in it and in the oil filter housing, there was no big chunks of metal it was just fine gold like shavings. It does have a check engine light but it's just for a small EVAP leak, sometimes misfires briefly on hot restart but no codes for it or anything else. Sometimes seems "angry" on cold start, doesn't idle down for a like 2 minutes if you let it just idle. I'm wondering if the high pressure fuel pump is failing. I digress. Anybody else have anything similar?
Any advice?

I have a 2013 nox with 178000 miles. Uses a quart of oil in about 2000 miles. Chev says this is normal. i've learned a lot about this 2.4 ecotec engine. When i bought it 2 years ago. I inspected all the sensors. Replace the oxygen sensor and cleaned the MAF sensor. In about a month I started having a problem with it shutting off while driving. I smelled gas in the oil. It was also having the 3 second timing chain noise. I put some carbon cleaner in the oil and the chain noise stopped but did not fix the issue with shutting off. I replaced the high pressure fuel pump and the injectors. Still had the shut off issue with gas smell. No codes. I started unplugging one sensor at a time and running it. Turned out to be the new oxygen sensor causing the problem. Conclusing: take it to someone who has the tools to diagnose the real issue. This will save you some money. Also these engines create a lot of carbon in the engine, change the oil regularly.