I saw this post at the SuperDuty forum in Yahoo Groups. What do you guys think?
Subject: Accidentially put 7gal. unleaded in tank.

I drove up to a station with diesel gas and pulled up to the pump with the green handle cover. After pumping 7.2 gallons of gas I relaized I was pumping unleaded fuel in the 2004 F250 deisel truck. Once I relaized it I mixed unleaded with deisel fuel in the tanks. I moved over to the diesel pump and topped off with another 8+ gallons of deisel fuel.

Note: I have about 29gal tank, the tank was half full at the time I pumped the 7 gals. of unleaded fuel in. Has anyone else ever done this? Has anyone ever had an issue since they did? I consulted a buddy who used to run/work with deisel engines and he said they would get a couple calls a day regarding this same issue. Some one else putting in unleaded gas into their tank. He claims that it will not do any harm, may smell a little different when it burns, but recommended adding more deisel fuel when ever possible.

Any comments would be appreciated.

 

I have read other people doing this and have had no problems. I think the key will be to keep adding fresh deisel.
You might want to do a search too. Good luck.

 

Geez. Bad luck. How far have you driven so far? AFAIK, this is _not_ a good thing. 7 gallons is quite a bit.

There are several problems this may cause. First and foremost, if it was me, I would have the tank pumped and not drive the vehicle. Probably cost you a few hundred $'s.

Gasoline will ruin the lubrication properties of the Diesel fuel and can cause permanent damage to your hp fuel pump and your injectors. Older diesel engines had some tolerance for this, but newer ones are much more pickey about their fuel.

_If_ you've already decided to run it out, I would certainly clear out the local auto parts store stock of diesel additive and dump it in. Get one with lots of lubrication.

 

Pump out the tank and flush the fuel lines. This might- I repeat might - void the warranty on the engine. Any warranty people out there?

 

Yeah... I can't believe other people didn't say that up front. That's definately what I would do. I've "heard" that even a small amount of gasoline can be very harmful.

 

Let me guess, was this a BP station?

I've never done this before, but I can see how someone could easily do this if not paying attention. I can't stand how BP's have green handles for gas and black handles for diesel. It's the only station that does this here.

Good luck.

 

Notice that this was someone else, not me. I found that post on the Yahoo SuperDuty group. Believe it or not, most of the responses told him "No problem". I don't think those guys are very bright on that group - FTE rules!

 

My appologies, I missed that part that it wasn't you.

It is definately, NOT "not a problem."
A gallon mixed with 29, maybe not so bad...but 7!!! That's going to do some damage, just like ZBeeble said.

 

Even if 7 gals was not ok, but OK, I hope he drives alot you cannot let it sit or the two will seperate and if you get a slug of gas, god help you. Plust I would not run it empty but fill up at every 1/2 tank to keep it mixed good.

 

i'm a retired dealer tech. so here is what we did. pump out as much of the fuel as you can from the fuel tank.. remove the fuel filter blow out the lines. install a fresh filter and prime if possible. fill the tank with pure fresh diesel. add a bottle of fuel cleaner. and run it. chances are very high to your favor that it will be ok. best of luck.

 

I posted a synopsis of everyone's answers on the Yahoo site. This is the latest response of the fellow who put the unleaded fuel in his diesel truck:

"I have been driving it over 50 miles a day and after 2 days I topped off with more 7 gals. diesel fuel. I also added some Redline additive for fuel lubrication. A buddy of mine who used to work on diesel engines told me that he does not believe it will be an issue. When he had his business they would get a couple calls a day regarding the same problem someone putting in unleaded in a diesel. I found on another web site that truckers add some unleaded fuel to keep the fuel from gelling up.

So far nothing appears to be different while driving the vehicle performance wise. The exhaust smells a little funny but truck still runs great. "

 

I'd have to say that someone was extremely lucky

 

o-yah as the mixture of gas and diesel can go off with static electric..keep pumping pure fuel into it and pray .

 

Yes years ago we used that mixture to start tree stumps on fire. They went up quick.

 

A little is OK they do it way up North to keep it from freezing but that was a lot.