When Diesel Engines Filled with Petrol then What Will Be Result?

Just Filled or started and run on it?

As long as you can drain the fuel off and dilute what tiny ammount remains before its started by refilling with diesel...then nothing bad will happen....if it is started and run on a petrol rich mixture, you can expect major engine damage if its operated long that way.

You probably trashed the fuel pump, some injectors and maybe cracked a piston or two.

Other than that, not too much.

Well, if you fill the engine with petrol, I am not sure anything would happen, what with petrol being incompressible and all.

Do you mean 'What happens if the fuel reservoir (fuel tank) of a vehicle with a diesel powerplant is inadvertently filled with petrol'?

[edit] We sure jumped on this one in a hurry! I wonder why...

Wow, you are right, as usual.

In that case, I'd say you would blow the oil pan right out the bottom when the first piston started its down stroke.

Any way you slice it, not pretty.

Yeah... As Marvin the depressed robot said:

What will be the result, probably nothing.

Give it a try and and get back to us, let us know what happens.

_{Disclaimer: DON'T FILL A DIESEL ENGINE OR DIESEL ENGINE FUEL TANK WITH GASOLINE. IF YOU DO AND YOU RUN THE DIESEL ENGINE IT WILL GO BOOM!}

diesel fuel ignites from the heat generated when the diesel/ air mixture is compressed. petrol is more volatile than diesel fuel, thus it ignites at at a lower temerature and lower compression. petrol will cause pre-ignition that "MAY" cause damage to the engine while it cranks but i doubt that it would start or damage the engine.

It will, and because of the fast burning nature, as was mentioned by someone else, will cause excessive cylinder pressures, most diesel engines are between 18 and 23 to one compression, Most gasoline engines are less than 1/2 that and the lack of lubricity of the fuel. The higher the percentage the more likely the damage will be. And we are talking percentages as low as maybe 10%. A gallon of gasoline mixed with 19 gallons of diesel won't harm it, but 10 or 15 gallons in a 20 gallon take most certainly will.

I've know too many people who have seen this actually occur when someone used the wrong pump at the gas station. Or had to repair the damage that resulted.

And yes, it will start. The engine will both be hot, and will have diesel in the lines and system to fire off. You won't have 100% gasoline and a cold engine. On glow plug equipped engines (which are not all of them), it will be in contact with gasoline which will ignite the fuel at startup. The only way damage would be avoided is shutting it off immediately (it will most definately sound horrific) or not start it until the tank is pumped free of contaminated fuel.

The longer its run like that the more likely permanent damage will result. I have and maintain 3 diesel vehicles, and am VERY familiar with two different diesel engines. The gutless wonder, 6.2 Detroit Diesel used by GM in the past, and the 5 cylinder turbo diesel Mercedes used in the past thru 1985..

Bang!.. New engine please!

Thank you friends for your valuable answers.... I have faced this question so many times. Every one asks that when a diesel engine is pumped with petrol and is there any symptoms to recognise the damage they asked... Thank you for ur feed back...... I didn't know much about it. So I am just an spectator to know the answers from you.

I did that once with my 1964 Mercedes 190D. I don't remember if it didn't run very good or not at all. It didn't seem to hurt it but it was so worn out it wouldn't have mattered. Maybe that's what saved it. What it seemed to run best on was ag diesel that I would get from the farm where I worked or farm supplies in small towns.

I often had to resort stove oil or kerosene because in 1973 there weren't that many diesel stations around. This was right at the height of the energy crisis. While everyone else was waiting in long lines at the gas pumps I was going to the truck stop and filling my tank.

Diesel used to be cheaper than gasoline. Then everbody started selling diesel cars and the demand drove the price up.

That's actually a fallacy. In Europe diesel is much cheaper then gasoline yet MOST cars on the road are diesel. I've been intimately attuned to the price of fuel in Europe the last 25 years as I once worked there for a number of years, and I spend a lot of time there every year. If demand was responsible, Gas would be far cheaper over there, and diesel far cheaper over here. Diesel cars and even pickups are still very rare in real percentages here in the USA.

I bet being worn out saved yours. They make a horrible sound when you get much in the way of gasoline in them (percentage wise)

People going the dangerous for the car (due to polymerization issues) Unheated, Single tank WVO route frequently cut the filtered fry oil with up to 10% gasoline to reduce viscosity....but that's fodder for a different thread.