Unleaded Fuel in a Diesel ?

Never happened to me but a new guy here at work did it to one of our trucks, What can be done besides drain it out?

 

nothing.....drain it.

 

happen to me with my dump truck. I used a battery pump to take as much fuel I could and then filled it with #2. I put a couple gallions of the gas/diesel mix back in the tanks when I need fuel. No problems. You can also add a pint of oil to the fuel if you want to be safe.

 

Did it run with the gasoline in it?
If so....the pump may need gone through....

 

Thanks guys, I know it can be a really hot mix if you put diesel in a gas eng. Just never thought what the consequenses would be if it were the opposite.

 

Yea, The driver called and sait it was real sluggish, no power.

 

Imagine how a 20:1+ compression ratio would run with cheap gasoline.

 

Really hard on pumps/injectors. Tow it in and drain.

 

i was told in a pinch on older diesels you can put 1 qt of motor oil in the tank for every gallon of gas that was put in....i have never tried this..nor do i suggest it.just wondering if anyone else had heard this.

 

Yea, We're towin it in. If it is runnin w/no power, that can't be good all together. Hopefully not too late. This poor truck (Box truck) has had the converter stolen out of it (3) times since new. and every new driver (fillin in for the reg driver) does something stupid to it in between.

 

I've seen a the gas in a Diesel dump truck once.It was driven for about 1/2 hour,ruined the injectors and pump.And the engine never ran well after that,needed rings.

 

The pump & injectors rely on the "lubricity" of the diesel fuel to keep all the slidin' parts slidin' smoothly.....gasoline is a really lousy lubricant....REALLY lousy.

 

I'm certainly not well versed in diesel but it would seem to me that the engine should have never been started after the wrong fuel was pumped and the vehicle towed, the tank drained and filters changed before firing it up.

Frank

 

I agree, but unfortunately the phone call came in after the driver was having running trouble. Then when asked when he fueled up last, he remembered to ask if unleaded fuel would do this!! Hindsight is always 20/20.

 

As an old mechanic's trick, my dad would run a gallon or 2 of gas through a diesel when some idiot ran it out of fuel. Rather than having to reprime every line, the gasoline would make the diesel spin faster and help it self prime.

I've only seen this done once, and the motor clattered like all get out, but it did work.

 

I work at the ford plant here in louisville, was a repairman. When they get a diesel with gas in it they do run but not well and not long. Hope the best for you but we always had to change engines and flush all lines, drain ALL fuel in tank, Change all fuel filters.

 

A guy at my dads work has a older dodge diesel truck that runs transmission fluid in the tank. He takes the used ****** fluid out of the recycle drums, filters then runs it in his tank for fuel.. just an idea out there for you dealership mechanics to check into

 

We have had probably 4-5 trucks a year come into the dealership that I recenctly worked. All we ever did was pump out as much as we could and change the filters. Never had any come back with problems.

 

So, is the idiot fired yet? Did you send him after a 5/8" drywall stretcher?

 

Got stranded in Jersey one night on our way to Tennessee because the attendant put gas in a diesel powered Jetta. We drove like two miles down to a Wendy's and when we came out it wouldn't start.

They towed it back to the gas station/garage, drained the tank, put it diesel and it was fine.

 

Sounds to me like something is already messed up. I've seen it happen in cars twice.

They both ran. Like scalded dogs for a few moments and then blew the head gaskets.

 

they run ****py and blow blue smoke with gasoline, drain as much as you can, change the filters. I have only seen one grenade after the customer drove it with gasoline.

 

as everyone elase has said on here..drain it all out..change the filters..re prime the system with good clean new fuel..Diesel this time.

Hey..isnt there a tag or sticker on the tank near the filler that says "diesel fuel only"..that might really help out your bone head issue in the future. //just a thought

 

Having worked at a Mercedes Benz dealership for a number of years,I used to see a lot of diesels towed in that someone had inadvertantly put in gasoline.Usually the cars would run for a minute or two with the residual fuel and then quit.They usually would not re-start.
A drain and flush and a new set of fuel filters usually cured the problem.I don't recall ever losing one.Bear in mind these were p***enger car diesels.

A lot of our customers didn't put much mileage on their cars and as a result we used to get a lot of them in with partially clogged injectors.Before the advent of good injector cleaners such as Red Line and Chevron Techron,the best fix was to dump a quart of ATF into the tank and run the car hard for a few miles.Cleaned the nozzles right out!

I hesitate to even mention this but:A lot of our customers operated their cars in very cold winter weather(can you say northern Maine?)and even with block heaters the cars would sometimes fail to run;usually due to a bit of moisture in the fuel system or algae clogging the filters.Cold weather causes algae to gel.A great many of our customers would when filling their tanks(a minimum of 15 gallons)would add a gallon of gasoline to the tank to aid in starting.I never heard of any of them losing an engine on account of doing this.Again these were all p***enger car engines.

I have seen what a load of gasoline will do to a large truck engine and it isn't pretty.

 

I have been running drain ATF in my '99 super duty. Can't tell the difference at all.

 

I thought the diesel nozzle on the pump was twice the size of the regular gasoline pumps? Maybe the gas station companies (or the pump suppliers) need to make them the other way around... Oh, wait, they already made money off the sale...never mind.

People just need to get a clue...

 

Alot depends on the diluted ratio. In cold areas it is not uncommon to add a little unleaded to keep the diesel fuel from jelling. If it was near empty then filled with unleaded it should be drained.

 

I was in Portugal this spring and the little rental car we had was diesel, I had filled it up once or twice on the trip. It was the second to last day of our trip and had taken the kids to the beach for the day to relax since we had been driving all over the place all week. I had been in the sun all day and wasn't paying much attention stopped at the station and automatically grabbed the Green nozzel and put about 7-8 liters of regular in before I realized it.
I quickly stopped and finish filling it with diesel and paid and drove off. I was crossing my fingers the entire way back to the hotel and it ran just fine that night and all the following day.
However the morning we were to fly home (early) it didn't want to start (was kind of chilly out) finally started in a huge cloud of smoke and ran rough all the way too the airport, it stalled a couple times at first going down some steep hills, I though my wife was going to kill me if we missed our flight!

I dont think the nozzles are different sizes in Portugal? and in my defense I dont know portugese and the other gas stations I had been to had green nozzels on the deisel, so I dont know why this station had green on regular?????

oh the rental was our second car that week the first one had some fuel delivery problem, it all of a sudden wouldn't start- it had some fuel priming bulb which a local pointed out to me and after he pumped it about 40 times it started up but ran really rough? some French cars I guess! A fun trip though!
Later
Josh

 

Must be someone close because I heard the exact same story. They said it hard to start some times but he has been doing it for a long time.