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

[DieselPower]

Being a newer electronic injection system (HUEI) system I would highly recommend draining as much out as possible and refilling with diesel. It is true there have been some engines over the years that "could" use a mild diesel gasoline mix, this ain't one of them. You seriously run the risk of tourching a hole through a piston crown. Adding oil for lubricity is not going to do much to the flash point of the fuel. Do the old PowerSmoke a favor and do a drain and refill. I have had to overhaul to many engines over the years with tourched piston crowns. Don't be the next one.

 

[RalphVa]

Your engine will run fine, as pointed out by several posters. In the old days, I put gasoline in my Mercedes's diesel tank in the winter when they recommended it.

HOWEVER, MERCEDES QUIT RECOMMENDING THIS PRACTICE WHEN THEY FOUND OUT ABOUT THE SAFETY ISSUES.

Diesel tank vapor space is normally not inflammable. Even gasoline tank vapor space is not flammable, because it's too rich. However, mix diesel and gasoline, and you can have a flammable mixture.

You're running the risk of having your fuel tank blow up, but probably a low probability. Need a source of ignition.

I don't know what to do with all that fuel though. I'd be inclined to throw in a quart or two of ATF to provide some added lubrication. ATF is zero grade oil that is often diverted to the diesel pool in refineries. Burn it out. I didn't blow up my old Benz. You shouldn't blow up your monster truck.

Ralph

 

[Reg]

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.

My memory on this was from Merc owner manuals that Hertz used to leave in the glove boxes of their airport fleet, something to read on a trip.
That would have been early 70s.
These were NOT an extravagant rental car in Europe, maybe one step up from the Opels and Fords also a novelty for visitors (-:

I would still like to hear from the O/P, hopefully not stranded with a blown engine - or worse.

 

[nmu98]

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.

Ag Dyed Diesel is LSD, and mroe has more Lubricosity than ULSD. That makes zero sense.

Being a newer electronic injection system (HUEI) system I would highly recommend draining as much out as possible and refilling with diesel. It is true there have been some engines over the years that "could" use a mild diesel gasoline mix, this ain't one of them. You seriously run the risk of tourching a hole through a piston crown. Adding oil for lubricity is not going to do much to the flash point of the fuel. Do the old PowerSmoke a favor and do a drain and refill. I have had to overhaul to many engines over the years with tourched piston crowns. Don't be the next one.

Amen. Don't drive it. Don't risk it. This is not a 70's or 80's diesel.

 

[jsborn]

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!

OK Mega what did you do ???? Please don't leave us woundering !!!!

 

[JSUnlimited]

OK Mega what did you do ???? Please don't leave us woundering !!!!

Well while still at work, I called the fire dept. mechanic. He is a pretty well known guy when it comes to diesels. He said that I would be okay to drive it and to keep topping off with fresh diesel as I go. He also told me to add 1 gallon of vegetable oil before heading home. So when I got off shift, I went to the grocery and got the veggie oil and put in the truck. As a made to 35 mile trek home everything seemed fine, however there was an occaisional miss with some white smoke when going uphills/starting from a stop. No changes were noted to any temps. I stopped close to home, I topped the tank off with 4-5 more gallons of diesel.

A drove it a while yesterday and ended up topping it off again with about 11 gallons of diesel. I also added a stiff dose of diesel fuel treatment and changed the fuel filter.

So far it is running great!

Got lucky!

 

[Redneck in training]

When I was in military we were mixing gasoline with diesel during cold winter to prevent gelling of the fuel. It was before modern diesel fuel was available. Most military vehicles are multi-fuel, read diesels able to run on gasoline. The problem is starting. Believe it or not but gasoline has higher ignition temperature than diesel fuel (410 versus 470 F). Therefore most diesel engines will have trouble starting on gasoline especially during cold weather. Once the engine is hot it will run on gasoline. To add lubricant to the gasoline (when used in diesel engine) is probably very good idea.

 

[WilliamBos]

Well while still at work, I called the fire dept. mechanic. He is a pretty well known guy when it comes to diesels. He said that I would be okay to drive it and to keep topping off with fresh diesel as I go. He also told me to add 1 gallon of vegetable oil before heading home. So when I got off shift, I went to the grocery and got the veggie oil and put in the truck. As a made to 35 mile trek home everything seemed fine, however there was an occaisional miss with some white smoke when going uphills/starting from a stop. No changes were noted to any temps. I stopped close to home, I topped the tank off with 4-5 more gallons of diesel.

A drove it a while yesterday and ended up topping it off again with about 11 gallons of diesel. I also added a stiff dose of diesel fuel treatment and changed the fuel filter.

So far it is running great!

Got lucky!

That's great, glad to hear it!! Will keep that veggie oil in mind, a real cheap SUMMER conditioner.

 

[john_bud]

That's great, glad to hear it!! Will keep that veggie oil in mind, a real cheap SUMMER conditioner.

I would 100X rather add a gallon of 2 cycle oil. It's designed to burn, veg oil not so much.



Mega - you drove 35 miles home and added 4-5 more gallons to a just been filled tank? That's somewhere between 5 and 8.75 miles per gallon Is that your normal consumption or what?
jb

 

[Reg]

Well while still at work, I called the fire dept. mechanic. He is a pretty well known guy when it comes to diesels. He said that I would be okay to drive it and to keep topping off with fresh diesel as I go. He also told me to add 1 gallon of vegetable oil before heading home. So when I got off shift, I went to the grocery and got the veggie oil and put in the truck. As a made to 35 mile trek home everything seemed fine, however there was an occaisional miss with some white smoke when going uphills/starting from a stop. No changes were noted to any temps. I stopped close to home, I topped the tank off with 4-5 more gallons of diesel.

A drove it a while yesterday and ended up topping it off again with about 11 gallons of diesel. I also added a stiff dose of diesel fuel treatment and changed the fuel filter.

So far it is running great!

Got lucky!

That was why I had said in pref c) to drive it very gently and to keep topping it off.
By that I meant to just let it slow down on hills and creep away from stop lights with very little foot weight on the pedal.
I wouldn't have bothered with the filter change, in fact the gas might well have washed the old one clean, it is a pretty good solvent (-:
By now you're OK, 35 miles each way, 70 miles a day,,, Yeah, it is now so dilute as to not be a problem.