Diesel

[grahame walker]

I have just filled my Spitfire 1500 up with Shell V-Power fuel, only to find out it was V-Power Diesel, same red gun as 97 octane unleaded at the pump.

Any sugestions as to the best way to drain the tank and clean the fuel lines, pump and carbs?

Many thanks, Grahame

 

[Pete Lewis]

you can drain the tank from the bottom supply union,  how you catch it is the challenge

there some cheap 12v pumps about that  suck it out the filler till theres little left  or you could syphon a good amount out .

as for carbs   remove the su float cover and suck it out  when the tank is refilled just hand prime or crank to purge the supply pipe and refill the floats 

pete

 

[Graham C]

Try disconnecting the rubber pipe at the fuel pump in the engine bay. 

Just need to have a container to catch it, when full you can put the pipe back while you empty the container.

Mole grips on pipe will also clamp the pipe shut.

Once empty put some petrol in and turn the engine over, once started run the car.

Did the same with an Astra, just kept filling the tank every time, except that was petrol into diesel.

Good luck.

Graham

 

[rogerguzzi]

Hello Grahame

                        If it was me I would syphon as much out as you can the fill it completey  up with petrol .

Then maybe disconnect pipe to cabs and spin it over until you smell petrol reconnect  then run it it may smoke a bit but not damage it

[Graham C]

Can't editted it, I mean the pipe that goes before the pump, fuel will come out under gravity

Graham

[NonMember]

14 minutes ago, Graham C said:

I mean the pipe that goes before the pump, fuel will come out under gravity

Maybe if you're lucky. It would on a Mk3 Spitfire or earlier, where the feed emerges from the centre bottom of the tank, but the squaretail ones have a top pick-up, which will only syphon if you can get enough drop without letting any air in. Not impossible but potentially challenging. Have two containers so you don't need to stop the flow while emptying the first one.

The electric pump option is easier.

[Badwolf]

Lidl are doing an oil pump on Thursday says ok for diesel. May be useful

https://www.lidl.co.uk/en/online-leaflets/24-09-30-09-lidl-weekly-3/view/flyer/page/22?ar=7

[grahame walker]

Thanks for all your sugestions, but I called the RAC this morning and they have special equiped vans and machanics who sort missfuleing. They came and pumped out the tank, fule lines and flote chambers on the carbs and then flushed them through before putting in £10 worth of unleaded. The car then splutted into life and run ok if a bit smokey. And all I had to do was give them £225 before they would come!

An expensive leson learned.

Grahame

[Pete Lewis]

well it saved you having to dispose of the diesel unless your other car is a diesel  , ( providing there was little petrol in it or it naffs the cat and sensors (they say ) 

 

[Colin Lindsay]

On 21/09/2020 at 21:25, Badwolf said:

Lidl are doing an oil pump on Thursday says ok for diesel. May be useful

https://www.lidl.co.uk/en/online-leaflets/24-09-30-09-lidl-weekly-3/view/flyer/page/22?ar=7

That's £2 cheaper than I paid but they're handy for a range of things.

[daverclasper]

20 hours ago, grahame walker said:

And all I had to do was give them £225 before they would come!

I assume that's because you weren't a member?.

Did the same thing myself. What a pain to sort it. Was telling a mate and he said he just phoned his breakdown and they sorted it. Dohh.   

[grahame walker]

Yes I am a member through my travel insurance cover via Barclays Bank. I asker the RAC patrol man about the costs and he said the charge is the same unless you specified additional membership cover for this.

[ahebron]

Luckily your car is an old fashioned Triumph.
It really should be as simple as getting as much diesel out of the tank and fuel lines then brimming with petrol and sucking it through to the carbs. Replace the filter of you have one. 
It will run smokey and smell for a while but will clear and the diesel might do some good in cleaning the combustion chamber.
Do it on a modern car and its is ridiculous what it costs to fix especially adding petrol to a diesel

Many years ago I started to fill a diesel truck with petrol (dont ask) I realised my error when the price was clicking up way to fast. All the service station did was get me to drive the truck over the station diesel tank fill point and we drained the tank into the diesel supply. 

 

Adrian

[Peter Truman]

You were watching a pretty girl in hot pants bending over filling her sports car up and not concentrating on your work!

Thats what one of my staff did eons ago filling up a govt car we still don’t let him forget it and we’re over 75 now, imagine what I had to write on the accident report to cover the balls up!
We did tell his wife and she just roared with laughter!

[Mjit]

Could be worse.  I mean it's not like you had a friend in the car who you confessed to having miss-fueled your diesel car with petrol a few weeks previously...before pulling in to a pterol station to fill up and putting another tank of petrol in your diesel car.

I was the friend and no, I've not let the driver forget it

[NonMember]

40 minutes ago, Mjit said:

Could be worse.  I mean it's not like you had a friend in the car who you confessed to having miss-fueled your diesel car with petrol a few weeks previously...before pulling in to a pterol station to fill up and putting another tank of petrol in your diesel car.

There was a local press report, back when I was in the midlands, of a police constable who took a diesel patrol car to the fuel station and filled it with petrol. Having been rescued, he was then given a petrol engined squad car... which he promptly filled with diesel.

[Nick Jones]

Some friend 😀

Many years ago I filled my Vitesse with E85 from virtually empty. It was when Morrison’s were selling it on their forecourts and it turns out that pale green and pale blue look quite similar when you’re wearing you darkest shades.......

It did run, but very badly. Behaving as extremely lean. Drove it 2 miles back to work popping, farting and kangarooing and hooked it up to a laptop and turned the fuelling up 20%. That was better, though it was still pretty sick. Made it 10 miles home then drained the tank, refilled with the proper stuff and put the fuelling back to original. It was fine.

Took my ancient Honda mower two seasons to drink the E85. It ran pretty much as usual without adjustment, though it was very hard to start from cold without a shot of carb cleaner.  It’s still running 12 years on.

Nick

[Steve P]

I put petrol in my other halfs 2007 2.2 diesel Honda CR-V twice,once got it pumped out at a cost of £185,second time in Great Yarmouth, i realised after about 15 quid,i thought sod it and topped up to full with Diesel.Ran like it was pinking for a while,but fine after another top up.

I asked Honda and they said it would need a new pump for 2K!.No thanks.

Sold it three years ago with only 60k miles on it but running fine.

Steve

 

[johny]

Ive just been lucky enough to run a Sandero 1.5 diesel on petrol. Yes thats not a typo - the car had various alarms coming up relating to emissions although was still driveable but then mistakenly got filled with petrol and driven. It started to run very rough within a mile or so and realising what had happened I stopped straight away. The tank had to be pumped out and fuel filter changed but the car has run perfectly with no alarms since, great result although its not a repair method I would recommend🤪

[poppyman]

1 hour ago, johny said:

Ive just been lucky enough to run a Sandero 1.5 diesel on petrol. Yes thats not a typo - the car had various alarms coming up relating to emissions although was still driveable but then mistakenly got filled with petrol and driven. It started to run very rough within a mile or so and realising what had happened I stopped straight away. The tank had to be pumped out and fuel filter changed but the car has run perfectly with no alarms since, great result although its not a repair method I would recommend🤪

I have heard of that before Johny, in fact some people i know will put in a gallon or so of petrol to cure dpf faults and it seem's to work. I am not saying "do it" as i have not tried it myself......

Tony.

[JohnD]

I put about 10 litres of diesel in my Vitesse's 40 litre tank.    My excuse was it was VERY early in the morning, dashing back to the ferry after CLM.

Topped up with 99-octane (French is more like 89) and carried on.   Jon in the escort barge said I was making seven colours of smoke, and it was rather difficult to start again to leave the ferry.    Two more fillups (with petrol) and it was still missing, so out with the plugs, to find them still full of thick diesel, but wiping them clean restored normel service.   Diesel doesn't damage petrol units.

But unlike Steve, johnny, I'd flog your Sandero ASAP.     Honda's advice was valid - diesel pumps rely in the fuel natural lubrication, and rapidly wear if exposed to petrol.   The usual advice is that if the petrol is not pumped through the system, then all may be well, but that it gets expensive if it gets through.

John

[Pete Lewis]

before the days of cats and sensors if a truck was down on power a  1/2 gallon of engine oil in the tank and geromino happy driver put some guts in the fuel 

you would do it now,  the problem of pump lubrication is very valid  the HP pump runs at a rediculous pressure and  relies on   diesel fuel as its lubricant

Pete

[PeteH]

Been there, done that, T-Shirt almost worn out!. My First American R-V, 6.5L V8 Diesel. Started to fill on a French Service Area, in a rush to catch Ferry, well my excuse anyway!. Several Hundred Fanc`s worth of Petrol= Big Oooop`s. Shut down paid for Petrol, And filled with Diesel, Fortunately those tanks,2 of them, where Huge, a Full Fill was circa £200 at 1997 prices. so the effect was really lost. But I did notice it appeared to run better. Old Time Truckers used to deliberately put some Petrol in the Diesel in winter as a regular habit, helped starting and (allegedly) prevented "Waxing". Virtually ALL diesels rely on the fuel as Injector pump lubricant.

[DanMi]

well i put petrol in my x type jag diesel about 30000 miles ago, drove on to work and it started miss firing, called RAC emptied tank and refilled, It's still running 30000 miles later with no issues ( Oh dear it will fail now)

[dougbgt6]

I bought a nearly new Peugeot diesel, it ran very well until I filled up with “special offer” diesel at Tesco. The engine died several days later, so off to the garage who said “the pump’s had it, you’ve got contaminated fuel”

Along with several dozen others I sued Tesco and eventually got the price of repair and tank of fuel. Needless to say I didn’t fill up at Tesco again. 

The contaminant in my diesel was water, don’t know if that’s worse than petrol. But I remember the Top Gear where they deliberately filled the wrong engine with the wrong fuel to see what happened. The petrol engine protested, but ran. The diesel coughed and died.

Doug