petrol in diesel, contaminated fuel

[Big D]

Father in law has just suffered a prankster :mad: who switched the fuel hoses. End result 6Lt ULP in a 60 Lt tank of diesel.

His quandary is does he loose a tank of diesel (and where) or is it OK to run the 10% mix through? The vehicle in question is a 1990 Maverick naturally aspirated, mechanical injection.


Gut feel is that it should be OK, but it could be expensive if its wrong.

All thoughts welcome.

Thanks in advance
Derek

[Sprint]

the ULP should be diluted enough to burn happily in the TD42..... they are kinda bulletproof

[Blknight.aus]

which engine?


a series or TDIx00 styled engine will barely notice it but it would pay to drive gently and top up with proper diesel often. (they'll start really well tho)

the other solution is to vac the tank down on a hot day and that will evaporate the petrol nicely.

[Big D]

The engine is the non-turbo 4.2 Lt (probably a higher compression than the later turbo model.

Interesting thought about boiling the vapours off, although not sure of the electrical rating of the vacuum.

[ade]

i wouldnt worry to much, did the same thing in my 300 tdi, just diluted it with diesel and it was fine

[Michael2]

Alpine Diesel is 20% ULP. I thought they put kerosene in, but a phone call to the fuel companies said it was ULP. So 10% should be fine in any diesel.

[Big D]

Thanks all.

A slight compromise, drop 20 lt into a jerry and take it from there.

Cheers

[Ratel10mm]

I was told more than once by mechanics in the UK (usually when cleaning out petrol from a diesel tank - don't ask!) that up to 25% petrol was fine in a diesel, it has the effect of improving the octane so a faster vehicle results. And an old supervisor claimed he regularly did this in his company van although I wouldn't trust that too much.
However, my wife did once drive my Golf TDi from Reading to Surbiton (roughly Nerang to Springwood I think) having filled it with ULP! She then rang me to say the car was acting up, running very badly the last few miles. Once I worked out what she'd done we got it into the local VW garage expecting a very large bill. However after a clean out they found nothing wrong, not even a bent valve!
So while I'm not qualified to offer advice, if it were me I'd just run it.

[Blknight.aus]

The engine is the non-turbo 4.2 Lt (probably a higher compression than the later turbo model.

Interesting thought about boiling the vapours off, although not sure of the electrical rating of the vacuum.

I dont normally do it with a vacuum cleaner...

I either use one of those aquarioum water areators and plug the tank vent line onto that then run it on 40L of water in a bucket OR I just hook the vac port of a small engine to it. on a hot day the petrol will fraction out fairly quickly.

If youve got enough jerries its easiest to just drain the tank and then add the contaminated jerries one at a time each time you fill it.

[Bigbjorn]

Just throw 4 litres of K-mart lube oil in. This will restore any lost lubricity.

[Dougal]

It'll be fine.
Last winter I threw 5 litres of petrol into my rangie's diesel tank to winterise the summer diesel that was still in there. I know of a 100 series cruiser which happily drank a tank of 50/50 petrol and diesel. Fuel economy was down about 10% for that tank.