Put gas in diesel truck by accident. At work now, need a quick answer.

[JSUnlimited]

On the way to work I stopped real quick to get fill up my 03 powerstroke (7.3l) f350. In a hurry and with a lot on my mind, I accidentally put 11.83 gallons of gas in the tank. As soon as I realized what happened, I immediately finished filling with diesel. I ended up with 19.08 gallons of diesel to finish filling.

The tank is a 38 gallon capacity so with a little math I estimated that there was already 7.09 gallons of diesel in the tank to begin with. So I have 26.17 gallons of diesel with 11.83 gallons of gas in it.

I work at a fire department and get off at 0800 tommorrow morning. I have about a 35 mile drive home. Would I be okay driving home? Should I go ahead and drain/flush everything or just keep topping of with diesel?

I feel like a complete idiot!

 

[Egon]

Considering the cost of a replacement engine maybe change out the diesel just to be on the safe side.

 

[atgreene]

I've done this before with several different vehicles (not myself, but been involved as they were fire dept vehicles and DPW vehicles).

The diesel mechanic told us to dump a heavy treatment of Power Service into the tank to add lube and run it. It won't hurt anything. There are people who will spin right off the planet about how bad you are hurting your engine, but having seen several trucks go through this scenerio, all you need to do is add lube to the fuel.

It won't blow up, it won't self-destruct. As you can, add diesel and flush it through the system.

Once saw it done the other way around, though. Diesel in a 460 gas engine makes it run a little rough.

BTW, just arrived for a 24 at my firehouse. Did a 12 hour ot last night.

 

[luscsmith]

disconnect the fuel line, connect a longer line to the fuel line and place that in a large container. now find the fuel pump relay and bypass it and drain the tank. refill with diesel.

 

[sandman2234]

One third gasoline is a little much, I would seriously consider removing a large quanity of the mix and replacing it with the correct fluid. Sypon hose into 5 gallon jugs if nothing else, to a point where you have no more than 20 percent or less gasoline.
The ignition point of the mix is a lot lower than your normal fillup, which causes pre-ignition, a condition not favorable in diesel (or other) engines. Blowing the tops out of pistons can be a problem.
Should you decide to drive it, give it very little throttle, and don't pull and loads till you have lowered the mix and replaced it with clean fuel.
David from jax

 

[tom4018]

If you decide not to drain it I would add several quarts of ATF to the tank for lube, if you don't have that add motor oil to it. People will scream about running the oil in it but it is done all the time, hyd. oil will work too.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I would drain the tank. That motor will cost you 8K to replace. Not worth it for a $100 of fuel. If it was only a few gallons I would have not worried about it but 1/3 is a stout mix.

Chris

 

[Reg]

Mercedes USED TO suggest up to 30% gasoline for winter use if you were stuck with summer blend - or no blend at all, just waxed up fuel oil.
Not saying that it is GOOD or that you are close enough to that guideline, but according to where you are, where you need to move it to before working on it, etc I would consider, in order of preference.

a) Pump it out, but save it. Add it back a gallon or two at a time at less than 10%.
b) Add oil, but I think that will only help the lubricity question and not the volatility.
c) Drive it very gently and top off the tank every 15 or 20 miles to keep diluting it. Keep doing the arithmetic, forget all about it once you are down to 10%

If you have driven it more than 5 miles already maybe the volatility isn't an issue.

BTW, this is a_NOTHER good reason to only fill up at truck pumps - where the big boys buy their fuel.
You get more used to the fat nozzle and are more likely to notice that what is in your hand is in some way unusual.
Don't rely on color coded handles either; yellow, green and black do not necessarily mean that diesel fuel will come out.
Unfortunately PRICE is still a pretty good clue; if it seems about a dollar too cheap - it probably is.

 

[WilliamBos]

Mercedes USED TO suggest up to 30% gasoline for winter use if you were stuck with summer blend - or no blend at all, just waxed up fuel oil.
Not saying that it is GOOD or that you are close enough to that guideline, but according to where you are, where you need to move it to before working on it, etc I would consider, in order of preference.

a) Pump it out, but save it. Add it back a gallon or two at a time at less than 10%.
b) Add oil, but I think that will only help the lubricity question and not the volatility.
c) Drive it very gently and top off the tank every 15 or 20 miles to keep diluting it. Keep doing the arithmetic, forget all about it once you are down to 10%

If you have driven it more than 5 miles already maybe the volatility isn't an issue.

BTW, this is a_NOTHER good reason to only fill up at truck pumps - where the big boys buy their fuel.
You get more used to the fat nozzle and are more likely to notice that what is in your hand is in some way unusual.
Don't rely on color coded handles either; yellow, green and black do not necessarily mean that diesel fuel will come out.
Unfortunately PRICE is still a pretty good clue; if it seems about a dollar too cheap - it probably is.

VW suggested the same with their diesels, 70's and 80's.

Cheapest safe bet, drain as much as you can , add a boat load of lube and conditioner, and refill with diesel.

Keep us posted.

 

[Renze]

My brother used to own a Volvo 244 Diesel, with bad piston rings.
adding two liter of gas to a tank full of diesel helped a great deal in getting the engine back to its original power output and smoke levels because of the better self-ignition of the added gas, with the decreased compression of this engine...

However i suggest drain as much as you can. Some farmers around here, thought they could drive their Volkswagen and Mercedes common rail engines on agricultural dyed diesel, but they got damage to the common rail system.

Putting gas in it will be just as harmful because it doesnt lube the internals of the high pressure pump and nozzles.