A little gasoline in the diesel

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by chasfgr

On more modern diesels, with no chamber (unlikely to be found in marine diesels)

There are many, many direct injected diesels in boats. You're more likely to find indirect injection (pre combustion chamber) engines in small sizes, but a 75hp engine is most likely direct injected if it was made in the last 20 - 30 years.

[CORALSEA TRAMP]

please take note of those who advise of the risk of detonation--An injector
burns like a blowtorch over several degrees of engine rotation--diesel is formulated to ignite instantly and burn progressively--Hi octane gasoline is

formulated to eliminate pre-ignition.-- excess gas in diesel results in delayed ignition and a large proportion of the charge is detonated approaching TDC
Result is holes in pistons-bent conrods -ventilated crankcases-

[CORALSEA TRAMP]

Further-white spirit has very low octane rating- closer to diesel--therefore little effect--
100/120 octane dramatic effect-- In this backward country we run tropical diesel or winter diesel-- changed seasonally and not even advertised and antarctic diesel is available if you need it--

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Aguabago

Thanks for all of the responses. What I am going to do is mix in 120 liters (30 gallons) of jerry cans, which will get the ratio down to 4% petrol to diesel. Then throw in some diesel additive that I have on hand. Then give it a go. The engine uses about 2 liters per hour, so its going to take awhile before I'll be able to get it down far enough to add enough additional diesel to reduce the percentage significantly.

well start a new thread and update this one at end of next year

[carrboyd]

Never seen holes in diesel pistons from detonation,seen them melted from overheating,overfueling and overboost.
Never seen holes in diesel blocks from detonation,usually from overhours,overspeed ,lack of oil or wrong oil.
Never seen bent rods in a diesel due to detonation,usually from people trying to compress water.
part of the reason older diesels are so noisy at idle(and your single and twin stationary and boat motors)is fixed advance ,so if its 16 degrees at full tilt ,its also 16 degrees at idle,part of the noise is fuel detonation and the rest is the piston slamming from one side of the liner to the other as the con rod angle changed due to crank rotation,thats why they cost more built a lot stronger.
the above is not applicable to electronically managed common rail diesel engines

[aeronautic1]

You will not have any internal problems. At most, you may experience a decrease in performance numbers bit this too shall pass.

[boatpoker]

Is your fuel tank grounded ?
Do you have non-ignition protected equipment in the tank compartment ?
Do you have a ventilation systems to exhaust gasoline fumes ?

[donpjr]

I did this by accident at about the same ratio you mention. No problems with my Yanmar engine at all. I ran for a couple of days and topped off the tank with diesel at next opportunity, but I didn't notice any difference in the engine running on the mixture. And the boat was running great when I sold it 8 years later.

[upstateny]

The real question for the folks that say you will be fine don’t worry about it is this.

Will they want to dock their boat next to yours down wind?

[BonesD]

I had a 1979 Massey Ferguson tractor with a Perkins 4108. Only a 20 gallon tank that I stupidly added five gallons of gasoline to. It ran fine, but I did drain the tank after I discovered my mistake.
Several of the seals in the injector pump failed shortly after which I thought may have been due to the gasoline. I don’t know that was the cause or not.

[sailorladd]

I'm the kind of guy that would leave things be if the engine is running as well as before, (Don't fix if it ain't broke) diesel engines can run on used cooking oil...and God knows what else.... you may have stumbled onto something great!

If, on the other hand you notice a negative change in the engine's performance, then perhaps you should drain your tank... Next time you will be a lot more careful....

[donradcliffe]

Originally Posted by upstateny

The real question for the folks that say you will be fine don’t worry about it is this.

Will they want to dock their boat next to yours down wind?

I dock all the time downwind of boats which have 6 gallons of gas in their dinghy tank and one or two more jerry cans in reserve.

[jeepers]

Up in the Great White North. There are many auto/mechanical shops that heat with used engine oil. I know one personally that cuts 200 gallons of used oil with 40 gallons of gas. He blew up 2 furnaces because of fluid separation. He over came this by adding 40 gallons of heating oil or dyed diesel. No more separation. No more problem.
NB. It was also suggested to add 2% cheapest 2 stroke oil in diesel older that 2005. Add 5% cheap 2stroke oil in older that 2000 model year engines. The cheapest 2 stroke oil here is synthetic..

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Aguabago

5 gallons of petrol (gasoline) were added to my almost full 90 gallon diesel tank. So now there is a mixture with roughly 6% gasoline (petrol) and 94% diesel, and its full.

The engine is an older (2002) Ford 75 HP; no turbo charge and nothing fancy; just a basic diesel engine.

What to do ....

I've done some research. Conservative approaches are stop everything and pump everything out. Risks of lower lubrication; improper combustion timing, stuffing up the fuel pump, etc. But there is some info that if the mixture is a low enough percent of petrol that they were able to burn it off.

I am interested to hear if anyone has been in this situation and has successfully simply run through the fuel, perhaps frequently topping up the diesel to get the diesel percentage higher. And to hear if there were any longer term issues that came up from running the fuel through the engine.

After reading the posts, And yes I'm the one that said he has seen a rod through a block. I would guess a 6% you are OK. You may consider ambient temp. as a factor?

[cottonsail]

Way back when before diesel was winterized the standard was to mix 10% gas. This prevented the diesel from jelling.