Diesel In Petrol Tank?

[G54]

Well, a friend borrowed the car today and ran out of fuel. He got a m/c courier to go to the garage and got 5 litres of fuel in a can. He poured it in and now the engine is knocking like crazy.

The engine will start but max revs are at tickover level so the car cannot be driven.

The fuel vapour in the can smells suspiciously like diesel to me but I cannot be certain as there are no dregs left to check.

Possibilities are

1) blocked injection system?

2) It is diesel?

If 2 will adding several gallons of gasoline to the tank get the engine running or will it need to be drained and cleaned out, considering I can get it to tick over?

[goldfish]

A tad drunk to be replying, but hey, will try anyway. If diesel then drain and refill will petrol. Important to also change the oil as the diesel combusts under compression and not via spark and will therefore not combust but seep past the rings into the crankcase

[G54]

A tad drunk to be replying, but hey, will try anyway. If diesel then drain and refill will petrol. Important to also change the oil as the diesel combusts under compression and not via spark and will therefore not combust but seep past the rings into the crankcase

Ahh, OK. Thanks. will change the oil also.

What fun

Still accidents happen.

[Sisaketmike]

Well, a friend borrowed the car today and ran out of fuel. He got a m/c courier to go to the garage and got 5 litres of fuel in a can. He poured it in and now the engine is knocking like crazy.

The engine will start but max revs are at tickover level so the car cannot be driven.

The fuel vapour in the can smells suspiciously like diesel to me but I cannot be certain as there are no dregs left to check.

Possibilities are

1) blocked injection system?

2) It is diesel?

If 2 will adding several gallons of gasoline to the tank get the engine running or will it need to be drained and cleaned out, considering I can get it to tick over?

Hi from Sisaket. I guess you've got Diesel in your tank.....1. A Diesel engine hasn't got spark plugs, that's why the Diesel must be highly compressed to fire. Empty your tank, use the right Petrol and change the oil. Have fun, it's cheap. A Happy New Year......

[warfie]

many many years ago a friend got a tank full of diesel... in his 2-stroke motorbike!!! but he wasn't bright enough to figure out why his bike didn't run anymore at least it was easy for me to fix

Don't worry too much, it shouldn't cause any permanent damage, as others have already said drain the tank replace the oil... plus the fuel and oil filters... just to be sure, pull the fuel line off the carburettor / fuel injector and let the diesel drain from the line too... expect it to be a little rough for the next tank of petrol but it should be ok after that.

[BSJ]

Hi G54, it's not too serious. Put in some fresh fuel after draining the diesel, change the fuel filter & put some petrol in it to prime it, loosen the plastic hose from air cleaner where it meet the manifold, get a can of WD40 and fit the little tube to nozzle, stick tube in under plastic hose and spray WD40 whilst some one turns over the engine. It's OK if it idles. The spray particles are very fine and will enhance combustion with the last of the diesel and not effect the engine. Unless your using synthetic engine oil, the small amount of diesel will not harm the regular engine oil, but it wouldn't hurt to change it anyway!

[G54]

Thanks for the informative replies.

I discovered what had happened, eventually.

The can used for the fuel had previously had oil in it and all of the oil had not been emptied out. When the can was topped up with petrol, I have no idea how much oil was in the can but seems that might have been the cause with just 4 litres of petrol + plus the oil!!!!

Drained the petrol out and it looked disgusting!!! Flushed the tank a bit too.

After a few abortive starts the engine does seem OK now.