Oil & Fuel Gas in my Diesel Engine!!

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Would it be ok if I ran it dry ?? )</font>

Maybe, but I sure wouldn't take that chance! I'd drain the tank, filter, lines, and start over with diesel, but that's just my personal opinion.

 

[stvman]

When I was in the military I worked on heavy equipment and constantly had newbies putting gas in diesels. 15,000 dollars later you are good as new. I've picked pieces of piston and twisted rod off a runway seen a hole the size of a coffee can in the oilpan of a 15,000 dollar engine. Draining out the contaminated fuel and replacing the filters is a bargain compaired to replacing a 3500.00 tractor engine. Steve...

 

[chim]

While it could be OK to run it, that's a big gamble to take to save $5 worth of fuel........................chim

 

[terpdog]

Looks like I'll need to get all the fuel out. I'm a newbie to
tractors, would a syphon do the trick?

Chris

 

[bebster]

Don't run it! I did the same in a boat's Yanmar diesel engine, and as the gas mixes with the diesel (or doesn't mix) the engine might get a straight shot of gas. The added compression of the gas ignition could seriously damage the engine components which aren't designed to handle it.

Make sure you change the fuel filter, since it too will be saturated with gas.

 

[snowman]

I did the same thing on my B7500 a few months after I had it. I didn't figure out what I had done until after I fixed it though.

I just drained the gas/diesel mix, changed the fuel filter, loaded it back up with diesel and it fired right back up - sweet sound! It's worked fine since then (happened at about 30 hours and I have over 300 hours now).

Biggest pain was draining it, as the B7500 doesn't have any type of drain mechanism. I didn't want to pull any hoses off, as I was having enough problems as it was and didn't want to have to worry about having to fix a busted hose. To drain it, I had to take the fuel filter off and press up on the filter housing to let the gas run out. It basically ran down my hand into an aluminum baking pan, which I then dumped into a gas can. Took about an hour and a half to drain an almost full tank.

I didn't figure out what I had done (put gas instead of diesel in) until a week or so later when I went to use the gas can and saw that it was almost empty - couldn't figure out what I had used the gas for and then it dawned on me what had happened!

 

[terpdog]

Well since I had 50 hours I decided to do the whole service.
I also talked to a guy at worked that used to work on a lot
of diesel engines.

His take, since I only put maybe 1/2 gallon in I might be ok
to just put more diesel in and run it but to be safe take off
the fuel filters and drain the tank. So that's what I did. It
was kind of a pain to get to the rear fuel filter but I drained it
and filled again with diesel and it took a few tries( I'll guess air in
the lines) but it fired and ran like a champ. Then since I was
feeling good about it, I did the oil and UDT. Never realized how
easy it was to do that on a tractor. Dealer wanted about 250 to
300 to do everything.

Figured it took about 1 1/2 hours, now that I've done it it will
probably only take 1/2 to an hour. Heck I just made about
$150 an hour /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif.

Thanks for all the help.

Chris

 

[NewTexan]

Congrats! I am glad to hear everything turned out ok. After reading your post I shuttered at the thought of one of my family or myself pouring gas into my new Kubota. I could not find a yellow can so I bought a blue kerosine can at
Wally World to put the fuel in.

I feel better now but I have asked everyone to leave the refueling to me.
/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[TresCrows]

Gasoline in a diesel engine will prematurely ignite. The pressure rise will be dramatic and sudden and will occur with damaging force, an explosion rather than the controlled burn that normally occurs. Detonation of this type can quickly destroy an engine. I doubt the bluish smoke coming out was a good thing. Maybe you were lucky, I hope so. J

 

[ejb]

>>Maybe you were lucky

I guess it will depend on how much diesel versus gas you had in the engine, and how long you ran it for...but I do remember that when I was buying my JD5410 there was an almost new 5310 with about 15 hours on it in for service at the dealership...I asked the dealer why and he explained that the guy who had bought it did what you did and put gas in instead of diesel. The dealer told me it was going to cost about $4000-$5000 to fix it(not covered by warranty of course)...i.e. the engine was pretty much "blown". /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

You might want to have it checked over professionally if there is any doubt that everything is now a-ok. Hopefully you got lucky.