Argh Diesel into petrol ⛽️

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John S

Well-Known Member
Posts
3,288
Location
Kinross
So I've gone and done it. Tuesday night after work tired and didn't even notice. Got a mile down the road and huge plums of smoke and loss of power. I thought the engine had a catastrophic failure which it did I suppose. Mangaged to splutter the last mile home. Thank feck for my kayaking pump. Took the top access of where the gauge is and pumped out best part of 40 litres about half diesel. Some new petrol in, cleaned the plugs and hand primed the fuel pump a few times and got her started. Running fine now but could have been much worse. I think petrol into diesel is much worse.:)
 
Lucky ... good job it only drove a couple of miles .. ;)
 
Yep it is proven fact that petrol engines do not run well off diesel. Diesel engines on petrol are even worse. Specially if you have common rail one. That can be a really expensive error.
 
This reminds me of a dodgy car dealer chap I knew. He swore blind that a little bit of diesel in your petrol tank "quietened things down"...

...hmmm - I guess you can over do this though!
 
That's what I was assuming interesting but they still need a correct mix appears you can't simply chuck anything in .
 
Or as in the new Whiskey Galore film when the old Bedford truck loaded with the whiskey runs out of petrol they fill the tank with the whiskey and make escape. I'd breathe those exhaust fumes :D.
 
Ooops, I've managed to avoid doing that but a mate from Scotland was going home in the wee small hours and he stopped at his usual fuel stop and started to fill a very empty van. Just as he finished filling he went "oh cock" went in paid and then called the AA to drain the very full tank.
 
so why is the old wives tale that you add a gallon of petrol to the diesel in winter to stop it freezing
not saying its good practise just what was said back in the day -- late 70's
 
so why is the old wives tale that you add a gallon of petrol to the diesel in winter to stop it freezing
not saying its good practise just what was said back in the day -- late 70's
I've lived in Shetland back in the 70's and remember cars with frozen diesel and do remember that trick. But was it into diesels I think? Petrol has a much lower freezing point.
 
It's really good for cleaning out the fuel system too, well according to another mate that filled his van up and drove off. He had to drag it home but when he drained the petrol out it had cleaned up the fuel system or it had started to eat all the seals lol. My mum went through a stage of doing this on her cars, she hasn't done it for a few years so probably due lol. Watch me do this when I go back to work after a week off using a petrol car!
 
so why is the old wives tale that you add a gallon of petrol to the diesel in winter to stop it freezing
not saying its good practise just what was said back in the day -- late 70's
they did but injection pumps produced 135 bar now its over a 1000 bar ,lube in the diesel really stars to matter then
 
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