Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Diesel into Gasoline engine car

Yes, it sounds utterly silly. Let me convince you that many people have done it. So, do not feel that you are the silliest one. Cheer up!!

Here is my little story:
I  had about 1.5 Gallon of gas in the tank and wanted to add some gas. Pulled into a gas station. Without realizing anything else, just pulled (what turns out to be) diesel dispenser and attempted to push in to the gas tank. It did not fit. Felt weird. Even weirder, I dispensed the diesel anyway (by brute force, by target practice) into the tank hole. Since I did not plan to make it full tank (Lucky!), I just ended up adding two Gallons of diesel into my tank.
Once I was done with it, I took the receipt (until that moment I did not realize that I had put diesel in there!) to find that I was charged slightly higher. I compared the price to the display board: I then realized what I had done!!!
2 Gallon of diesel into my gas tank!!!

The first thing came into my mind was to add more gasoline to diffuse it. Then, I added about 6.5 Gallons of high octane gasoline. Googled into the problem and called friends for advise.

Since I had about 1.5 Gallons of gas already into the tank, I thought it would be OK to drive to home a mile away.
The next day, I went into a garage to ask if I destroyed my car engine. They said that since it is only 2 gallon out of 10 (say), it might not do any harm. However, they did say that I need to keep doing full tank until next few tanks to diffuse it out. They even said that they put a gallon just to "clean" it.

Update: I just ended up changing the oil filter (about 25 dollar).  The diesel went through OK.

Search shows wide variety of results. Some saying just to pull up, tow the car and get everything double cleansed: probably true for full tank case as the burning mechanism for diesel and petrol engines are entirely different.
However, There is not a definite answers to what to do when you put diesel into a gas car.
  1. Admit it, this is silly!
  2. Do not panik!
  3. If diesel into gas is low ratio, it might be OK. It will just give you less mileage. The reverse cases are also seen and that is regarded dangerous. 
  4. Good Luck!
Written in Summar 2011.

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