The unthinkable has happened

ttisdale · Sep 4, 2004

Well, I bought my son a 96 3.8 Mustang. I thought I have been teaching him how to take care of a car with some success. That is until yesterday, when I found out he had put diesel into the car instead of gas. He put about 1 to 2 gallons of diesel in a tank that was nearly empty. He called from work and had to be followed home because the car was running so poorly. Today, I need to figure out the best way to get the diesel out of the fuel system. Does anyone have any ideas?

Thank everybody,

Buford T Pusser...

rvlyssup · Sep 4, 2004

Yikes & Ouch, sorry to hear about that.

How far did he drive it home? How contaminated the whole system is going to depend on that. I also don't think the fuel injectors are going to be any good. Your going to have to purge the fuel system, drop that tank, and clean it out and hope for the best.

Expensive mistake but I'm sure it will leave an impression.

O/T and if it's any consolation, I totaled my parents brand new car when I was 12. I made sure my 18 y.o. learned to drive on a car he bought and insured with his own money. My 12 y.o. wants to drive my parents brand new Escape and that memory comes to mind. He's going to have to wait and buy his own car and insurance. Good Luck to ya! I'm sure it will be okay.

SpectorV · Sep 4, 2004

you can clean the fuel system you can access it on the fuel rail and just turn the pump on and suck it right though I belive.

iluv95stangs · Sep 4, 2004

You should be able to drain the tank and fill it up with gas and run it through. The only difference with the diesiel is the oil in it. You may have to put new plugs in it but it should just burn out.

PonyJoe · Sep 4, 2004

Just one question comes to mind...why would he put diesel in? Does he know absolutely nothing about reading? I mean, most cars have a label near the gas cap that says 'UNLEADED FUEL ONLY'. Even when I first filled the gas tank up, I knew better than to put diesel in. Not flaming, just wondering what led him to put diesel in? Price? I know here the diesel is usually like 5-10 cents cheaper.

5-SpeedStallion · Sep 4, 2004

Well, my mom almost put diesel in my stang once, but the nozzle is too big to go in my tank. I woulda thought that thats how all of them are. Guess not.

ryanrule · Sep 4, 2004

sounds like u need to work the basics a bit more

Ghostalker · Sep 4, 2004

yeah, i was lucky (and still am, lol) to have a dad that is a mechanic, i knew a considerable amount about cars for long time... although my pops feals bad that he has been doing this all his life and has barely taught us anything at all, (i know everything i need to know about cars, really, i could basically hook up anypart i needed, know how to go about putting new plugs in, the poil blah blah blah... more recently we redid my dad's brakes on his van, wut a job that was, (BRUTAL heat!)

DanM · Sep 5, 2004

Go buy a big gas can full of regular gas.

Open up the fuel rail somewhere, and position a catch can of some kind near it so you don't spill diesel everywhere.

With the rail open, turn the key to RUN, but don't crank it. The fuel pump will start to pump and try to achieve good fuel pressure in the rail. Since you have the rail open, pressure won't build up, and the pump should keep cycling.

It might have an auto-cutoff of some kind (ie, after 30 seconds). If it does, repeat the process until the tank is drained.

Do NOT let it pump dry for very long. You'll damage the pump.

As soon as the tank is empty, toss in a couple gallons of the regular gas, and run that through.

Add more regular gas, and close off the fuel rail.

Change your spark plugs, and pray that your injectors are okay. When you fill the tank all the way up, add a bottle of injector cleaner.

I'd have the fuel filter changed ASAP as well.

I would consider that to be the absolute bare minumum that you'll need, if you're lucky. You may be looking at replacing a fuel pump and injectors as well.

On a related note - and I say this with complete seriousness, and without any intention of being rude or disrespectful - your son needs some further education before he gets back on the road. If he doesn't know not to put diesel in his car, then I'm guessing that he has little to no hope of changing a spare tire if he needs it, or how to jump-start his car if he ever got stuck, etc.. Consider that operating a vehicle is really a very serious task, and that it's unsafe for people who don't know what they're doing to be on the road.

Mustang5L5 · Sep 5, 2004

I always thought deisel pumps had different shape nozzles on them that wouldn't fit into gas car spouts??

I almost put deisel in my car once. It had been a long night and i was tired. I pulled up to a pump that had both gas and deisel and two different nozzles for each. I paid first and then hit the button for 87 octane and picked up the deisel nozzle. When i tried ot put it in, it wouldn't fit. I tried for a good minute before i realized my stupidity. Of course since i pushed the 87 button, nothing would have come out

Rol224 · Sep 5, 2004

If my knowledge is correct....diesel cars dont use spark plugs because the fuel ignites without a spark (?)

What exactly happens when diesel runs through an gasoline engine?

From the looks of what you guys are saying....its real bad

Mustang5L5 · Sep 5, 2004

Rol224 said:
If my knowledge is correct....diesel cars dont use spark plugs because the fuel ignites without a spark (?)

What exactly happens when diesel runs through an gasoline engine?

From the looks of what you guys are saying....its real bad

Diesel uses glow plugs which remain warm enough from igntion to fire subsequent power strokes. Before starting a deisel engine, you just need to wait 10 seconds or so for the glow plugs to warm.

Diesel will barely ignite in a gas engine. I beleive it needs to be compressed a lot more to reach a point where it will ignite easily.

DanM · Sep 6, 2004

Mustang5L5 said:
Diesel uses glow plugs which remain warm enough from igntion to fire subsequent power strokes. Before starting a deisel engine, you just need to wait 10 seconds or so for the glow plugs to warm.

Diesel will barely ignite in a gas engine. I beleive it needs to be compressed a lot more to reach a point where it will ignite easily.

Yes. Diesel does not burn well at all at only ~9:1 compression that it sees in a gasoline engine. Diesel engines typically use compression at least twice that to achieve ignition.

Diesel is very thick, oily fuel. Because it's so thick and oily, it can badly contaminate the fuel system of a gasoline vehicle. It can gum up fuel pumps, filters, and injectors pretty badly.

94 3.8l stang · Sep 6, 2004

Deisel won't hurt anything. Its much less harsh then gasoline. Drain it, then just run regular gas through it until it runs descent. You might have to change the plugs, but its no biggie. Car will run like crap for awhile though. Like a two cycle engine. LOL. I've seen this happen before. All it will do is lubricate your system alittle, no major harm.

Deisel engines run on compression. The heat from the compressed fuel causes the ignition. Glow plug just assist and don't actually ignite anything.

Deisel is a solute of gas. Gas dissolves deiesel so it will come out of your system no problem. Hope this helps. Good luck

Ghostalker · Sep 6, 2004

we can only hope 94 3.8 stang's explanation is correct for you! as always i would recomend running things like injector cleaners blah blah blah through your system like everyone else did...

dastang2 · Sep 7, 2004

DanM said:
Go buy a big gas can full of regular gas.

Open up the fuel rail somewhere, and position a catch can of some kind near it so you don't spill diesel everywhere.

With the rail open, turn the key to RUN, but don't crank it. The fuel pump will start to pump and try to achieve good fuel pressure in the rail. Since you have the rail open, pressure won't build up, and the pump should keep cycling.

It might have an auto-cutoff of some kind (ie, after 30 seconds). If it does, repeat the process until the tank is drained.

Do NOT let it pump dry for very long. You'll damage the pump.

As soon as the tank is empty, toss in a couple gallons of the regular gas, and run that through.

Add more regular gas, and close off the fuel rail.

Change your spark plugs, and pray that your injectors are okay. When you fill the tank all the way up, add a bottle of injector cleaner.

I'd have the fuel filter changed ASAP as well.

I would consider that to be the absolute bare minumum that you'll need, if you're lucky. You may be looking at replacing a fuel pump and injectors as well.

On a related note - and I say this with complete seriousness, and without any intention of being rude or disrespectful - your son needs some further education before he gets back on the road. If he doesn't know not to put diesel in his car, then I'm guessing that he has little to no hope of changing a spare tire if he needs it, or how to jump-start his car if he ever got stuck, etc.. Consider that operating a vehicle is really a very serious task, and that it's unsafe for people who don't know what they're doing to be on the road.

this doesn't work, i tried it after my wife drove the 95 into a bayou remember, it just sprays and stops like normal. what i did to get the water out of the tank was get some rubber hose and a cheap electric fuel pump and stuck the hose into the tank and pumped it all out. it worked and did not take too long. then i put new super gas in it and crank it for about 10 minutes until it finally fired up and ran like total dog poo for about 30 minutes and thenm it kept getting better and better. i don't think that diesel will hurt the injectors or pump any more than the sand and water mine had in it if even that

merkur87 · Sep 7, 2004

Diesel Problem

I have had to repair several cars for other people who did this. Your best bet is to drain as much as possible out and fill the tank up with fresh gas. It WILL run bad for a while, but should clear out. The diesel may actually even clean things in the fuel system. The biggest worry would be that the diesel would kill the O2 sensors and semi-clog the catalytic converter, but I don't think it has been driven enough to do that yet from what I read here. The poster is right about the compression ratio not being high enough to ignite the diesel. Most diesel engines are in the 22 to 1 ratio with cylinder pressures of 500 and up psi. My gut feeling is that you will be fine, but I'm also guessing here a bit. I'm a mechanic/parts replacer depending on how you want to look at it and for what it's worth anyway.

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