Gas in Diesel Tank

[C Bailey]

Team,
New to the forum. I hauled my Mahindra 2538 to a friends to do some work. It is on the trailer, and I noticed that the fuel level was low during start up. Yep, grabbed the wrong can, filled it up, started it in prep for unloading, and it ran until it stalled. "Thought bubble" - "You poured 93 octane into your diesel tractor!". I stopped all action, grabbed my auto siphon, and sucked all the gas out...of the tank. Even pulled the fuel line off the bottom of the tank and let the residual drain out...yep, I used a catch can.

At this point, I'm at a loss because there are differing opinions out there about next steps to bleed out any remaining gas fuel...before putting the right fuel in.

Is there a thread out there, or do any of you have recommendations on best ways to purge the fuel system so I can get'r back on the farm?

 

[oldnslo]

Fill with diesel, drain the fuel filter and the refill or bleed out of fuel filter and start it up. May have to crank a little to get new fuel to injectors but should start and run.

Some older diesels used to have option of mixing gas with diesel for winter use.

 

[Wagtail]

^^^^^^^

As oldnslo recommends BUT I would replace the fuel filter with a brand new one.

Remember to fill the new filter with fresh diesel prior to installing.

Don't forget to drain the fuel bowl.

Good luck and welcome to TBN from Downunder.

 

[duffer]

Actually I'd suggest draining BOTH fuel filters. (one on the right of the engine, and the Bosch filter on the left with the water separator) I'd replace the paper filter on the right, and let the Bosch "air out" for a day or 2 in the wind to evaporate any remaining gas.

The paper filter on the right is gravity fed from the tank. So it's likely you have gas in that. And since you started it, and it stalled, it's likely you have gas thru-out the entire fuel system.

I'd drain everything from the injectors back to the tank.

 

[Ckrueg]

If you ran until it stalled you may have toasted your fuel pump. Common rails don't do well with gas.

 

[newbury]

Drain all filters, slowly get fuel with extra lube into it. Try not to crank it so it fires for a bit. How much diesel/gas did you have?
I've been associated with VW's that had up to 30% diesel and ran.
/edit - meant to write VW TDI's that had up to 30% GAS in the diesel and ran.

 

[4570Man]

Drain the filters at the minimum. You could loosen the injection lines and crank it to bleed out the gas but those lines barely hold anything. It’s probably not worth the effort.

 

[5030]

All the above and add a pint of Dexron-Mercon ATF to the diesel to give the pump added lubrication.

 

[Wagtail]

Bugger. I do hope that the OP gets back to us with how he's getting on.

 

[5030]

Some do, some don't. Some heed our advice and some wing it. Experience is always the best teacher / instructor, but some folks would rather wing it on their own which is really too bad.

I hope so as well. I know of more than one person that did that. Why my diesel is either in the bulk tank, or in the bed tank in the pickup truck or in YELLOW plastic 5 gallon diesel cans for additional fueling in the field, if necessary. I never put diesel in a red fuel can. Usually, so long as the engine isn't run excessively, you can drain the tank, change the filters and bleed the pump and injection lines and skate.

One time a, on purpose, put diesel in my zero turn (Kawasaki) mower just to see what happens. It ran, sort of, but it ran. Not a lot, just a little so I could fill it with regular weasel pee and continue on.