Kids & morals, diesel & petrol

[Didge]

Hi guys, it's nice to know your kids listen to your advice occasionally. I told my son the other day that when you borrow someone's car you should at least always leave more fuel in it than when you took it to pay for the wear and tear, etc. Well he borrowed the old Def (95 Tdi) and put fuel in it - VORTEX 91 diesel he says to me 10 minutes or so ago. ALARM! ALARM! ALARM! I'd been driving it today and it's going like a slug, I'm changing down to 1st to get up any halfway decent hill and I've just drained out about 15 litres of unleaded out of the tank and drained the fuel filter and am wondering what damage unleaded would cause and whether I should try to blow out all the fuel lines. Any suggestions? I only thought about the fuel cos I was testing the turbo with the hose off and the smoke out of the exhaust was blue - ha 2 stroke Defender, eh? Thanking you in advance
cheers Gerald

[Blknight.aus]

drain everything you can blow out the lines that you can then fill up with fresh diesel , crack the injector pump bleed line and hand prime (or crank on the startermotor with the the fuel solenoid lead off) the fuel system untill fresh diesel is coming out of the bleed. Then crack all 4 injector lines, put the fuel solenoid lead back on crank the engine for 20 revolutions or so with the throttle wide open. Nip up the injector lines and crank it up at Idle and leave it to run for a few minutes then drive tentatively till everything is warmed up and your not getting diesel knock.

if he filled it up and the mix is less that about 25% petrol you can get away with a drain and fill and that will be enough to keep you out of trouble. If youve done that and have the ability to put in more than 1/2 a tank of fuel and feel like risking it you can just top it up and drive it gently till the petrols gone. some people have been known to leave the tank to vent to atmosphere while they drive to help the fuel evaporate off.

Id drain it and replace it personally.

[Didge]

Thanks Dave, I was hoping you'd be the one to reply. Tank is completely empty now but I reckon the lines have pure petrol in them so I'll follow your advice and try to clean out everything. I'll have to refer to the manual but will let you know how I go. Firstly, I thought it was the turbo, then the intercooler but the blue smoke made me wonder. Thanks again for your help and whenever I'm up that way again or you're in Sydney, I'm definitely gonna buy you a drink or two.
cheers Gerald

[Blknight.aus]

if the tank is nearly empty you can try (depending on your patients) putting in 15-20l of diesel and priming the hand pump (this is an ideal time to cut the line somewhere and install a facet lift pump) to purge the line then drain the diesel and do it again.


but the best answer is to purge everything you can, its what the dealers charge you to do.

[Didge]

I'm getting old (so the kids tell me) now - 51, so my patience with these things is slowly increasing. If a facet lift pump is not too expensive I'll go with it, but would that mean I need to bypass the existing lift pump or just install it in the line between the tank and existing pump?
cheers Gerald

[scott oz]

Ok second time I've seen a facet mentioned what are they?

[Blknight.aus]

its an exceptionally reliable low volume low pressure electric fuel pump, I occasionally refer to them as rattler pumps.

if you are going to use it as a priming pump you can just cut the line coming out of the fuel water seperator down near the tank and install it there. (make up a bypass hose for the lift pump just incase you need to bypass the pump later on in life)

if you are going to replace the existing lift pump mount it up near where the existing lift pump is and bypass the pump. I make up a shorting loop to go from the inlet to the outlet of the mechanical pump to seal it up to prevent it from drawing crud in, or pumping oil out.

[mike_ie]

Ok second time I've seen a facet mentioned what are they?

You tend to see them used a lot in small boats and such - very reliable piece of kit.

Sounds like your kid may be smarter than you think By the looks of it, no-one will be asking him to fill up the Defender for a loooooong time...

[Michael2]

Alpine Diesel is often 20% petrol, so as already stated, if the petrol mix is dilute you should be fine. I hope it doesn't end up costing you anything more than a tank of fuel.

[steveG]

Alpine Diesel is often 20% petrol, so as already stated, if the petrol mix is dilute you should be fine. I hope it doesn't end up costing you anything more than a tank of fuel.

Are you sure about that?
I know they use heating oil in Alpine Diesel, but pretty sure they don't use petrol.

Steve