Traction Incredible - No damage resulting from putting gas into my Kioti Diesel Engine

[rademamj1]

Last Thursday, in a moment of significant lost focus, I grabbed the yellow gas can instead of the red diesel can sitting right next to it, and proceeded to fill up my Kioti CK4010 tractor with gas. I started up the tractor and got only about 20 seconds down the gravel road when tractor started losing power. Moving the throttle lever had no effect on loss of power. Worse yet, the engine started pinging and popping, and with strong sulphur smell, i turned tractor off and tried to figure out what was going on. That's when I remember all this started problem started with a fuel up, and realized that I foolishly filled up with gas. First time I ever did this, and it will be the last. Looks like I was running on mix of 10% diesel/90% gas for about a minute.

I disconnected the fuel line from fuel filter, and totally drained the entire fuel tank of all gas into a bucket. I then got a new fuel filter, and fully primed the new filter with diesel prior to replacement. I then reattached the fuel line and filled the tank with diesel. Up startup, tractor blew white smoke and sounded horrible for 10 seconds, before the diesel fuel hit the injectors, and everything seemed back to normal. I let it run at 1600rpm idle for 15 minutes, then worked 1 hour with the tractor at higher RPM's. So far no problems. Even injectors appear to be ok. Nothing on the dash is showing any issues.

Has anyone heard of this happenin before, and can I expect any long term problems with the tractor in the future?

 

[cjoffutt]

They make yellow cans marked for gas and red ones marked for diesel?

I've always thought yellow was exclusively for diesel, red for gas, blue for kerosene.....?

 

[fried1765]

They make yellow cans marked for gas and red ones marked for diesel?

I've always thought yellow was exclusively for diesel, red for gas, blue for kerosene.....?

Yellow is ALWAYS for diesel, red is ALWAYS for gasoline!
NO EXCEPTIONS!

 

[4570Man]

Yellow is ALWAYS for diesel, red is ALWAYS for gasoline!
NO EXCEPTIONS!

I’ve always put whatever fuel I want in whatever can I have. Apparently some people can’t see and smell the difference in gas and diesel.

 

[JimR]

Yellow is for diesel, red for gas and blue for kerosene. If you are going to pick and choose you need to make sure what is in them before you fill your tank.

 

[cjoffutt]

Yellow is ALWAYS for diesel, red is ALWAYS for gasoline!
NO EXCEPTIONS!

Exactly.

Well....one exception, we commonly use old hydraulic oil 5 gallon buckets for diesel. But they're HEAVILY labeled as such.

But never have we (wife and myself) put diesel/gas in the incorrect color coded cans. That's just asking for issues.

Luckily for the OP it was gas into a diesel and not the other way around. The higher burn temp required for gas saved his butt massively.

 

[ritcheyvs]

Mechanical-injection Diesels run OK on 20% gasoline and some manufacturers recommend this as a winter fix when only summer Diesel is available. On the other hand, these engines won't run on 100% gasoline, at least not at idle; I think the viscosity is too low for the injection system. But there is a danger zone in the middle where the engine will run too hot and damage the engine, maybe destroy the pre-chamber, injector, and eventfully the pistons and valves.

 

[Hilbilly]

The yellow cans I have are stamped "Diesel" on them the red cans are stamped "Gasoline". That is the way they come from the manufacturer and that is what I use them for. Why take chances.

 

[rademamj1]

Mechanical-injection Diesels run OK on 20% gasoline and some manufacturers recommend this as a winter fix when only summer Diesel is available. On the other hand, these engines won't run on 100% gasoline, at least not at idle; I think the viscosity is too low for the injection system. But there is a danger zone in the middle where the engine will run too hot and damage the engine, maybe destroy the pre-chamber, injector, and eventfully the pistons and valves.

The tractor engine on 100% diesel appears to be running fine for now. I know gas fuel acts as a solvent, and is not expected to do diesel engines any good. I did talk to a diesel mechanic at our local Kubota dealer, and he recommended to monitor the tractor gauges and diesel engine sounds for the next 5 hours of usage. This because the brief fuel mishap, could have affected timing, sensors and especially the tier-4 emission system.

 

[mrmikey]

I don't go thru that much diesel and can't find a 10L yellow can so I painted a red one, that's how **** I am about the color representing fuel type. For my mixed gas I wrote in blue paint marker 'MIXED FUEL 50:1' on every surface. Person doesn't have to be stupid to grab the wrong one, just a moment of inattention........Mike