Oil & Fuel Gas in my Diesel Engine!!

dlockh4258 · Apr 22, 2003

I have a new Kubota B2910 with only 13 hours. About 3 gallons of gas was mistakenly put in my tank. I did not know about this until today. I was mowing when all of a sudden my tractor began loosing power and blowing out blueish smoke. I took the cap off and it smelled like gas. Sure enough I checked it out and it was. Has anyone had this happen to them? What do I need to do? Is there any possibility that it has damaged my tractor? I plan to drain the tank, flush the lines, and change the oil. Is there anything elese that I need to do? What are the chances that it has damaged my tractor?
Thanks,

manganos · Apr 22, 2003

Ouch sorry to hear about your situation. I know someon with more experience will chime in. All I know is I'd get all the fuel out pronto and bleed the lines/injectors etc. Don't forget to change your fuel filters too! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Anonymous Poster · Apr 22, 2003

Years ago a fellow that I worked with put gasoline in his VW diesel by mistake. He drove a mile or so before he discovered what he had done. He drained the gas tank and re-filled it with diesel. To my knowledge, no damage was done to the engine.

John

Anonymous Poster · Apr 23, 2003

Unless tractor engines are greatly different from auto engines - I know some folks who add some gas to their diesel auto engines in the winter - I would only drain the gas. No need to change the oil or drain/bleed the lines.

chrisjbell · Apr 23, 2003

Drain the tank and lines completely. It isn't hard to do - the easiest way would be to remove the fuel filter and open the fuel valve. Catching the fuel is probably the biggest trick (make sure the captain turns on the no smoking signs /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif). You should be able to clean out your fuel filter (use kerosene or clean diesel).

You probably didn't cause any damage. The only other thing you might consider (if you want to be really paraniod) would be to change the oil in case you got some blow-by, but that would be kind of extreme. Easy enough to do, though, and certainly won't hurt.

BTW, I would suggest that you try and fix this yourself and not get the dealer involved. This is the kind of thing that could potentially void your warranty.

RobertN · Apr 23, 2003

The shop my Dad works at gets Dodge/Cummins with ruined motors more often than you would think. Typically they are shot by the time the shop gets them.

To drain and dispose of 35 gallons of gas/diesel mix is about $650 with all the California hazmat disposal stuff.

Ifen I was you, I would to it back to the garage/barn. Then, drain that tank totally dry. Take it off and shake it out if you have to. Cahnge the fuel filter, letting anything in the lines drain. While the filter is off, blow the lines out. Check the injector bleeding procedure, and get everything out of those lines that you can.

Then, fire it up and see what you got. If it's ok, you're lucky!

Now, before you go and refuel, go down and get one of the yellow diesel fuel containers. Don't use you old red gas cans; that's how things get mixed up. I got one, since in addition to myslef, my wife and my Dad use my tractor. There's no confusing that yellow fuel container...

chrisjbell · Apr 24, 2003

get one of the yellow diesel fuel containers 

Yup. Good advice there. Sure, the red gas cans will hold diesel, but no matter how well you label 'em it is easy to mix them up. And gas is not a good thing in a diesel motor.

I think RobertN is right about blowing out all the lines, come to think of it. You really do want to remove all the gas you can from your system. And while I suggested cleaning the fuel filter earlier, for the few bucks it costs it is probably a good idea to replace it.

r0GuE · Apr 24, 2003

Perhaps someone could chime in here. My thoughts are that you could probably burn the mix in a weedwacker or some other 2 cycle. Maybe even in an old lawn mower. I'm guessing based on tractor size that you are talking about 4 to 65 gallons of gas and just a touch 1 to 2 gallons diesel. Mix in some more 2 cycle goo if it sounds too rough.
Hate to pay 650 to get rid of the stuff, I'd gamble an old $100 weedwacker on it.

theboman · Apr 24, 2003

The stuff you drain with gas and diesel, add some old dirty motor oil if you have it and find those yellow jackets nests, or any old stumps in the ground a few holes and a few days later they are ready to burn.
EPA... They folks have't even been attacked by a swarm of yellow jackets or hung a truck on a stump.

terpdog · Sep 7, 2003

Ok, hate to say it but I did it tonight, in a hurry picked up
the wrong can. I only did maybe 1/4 to 1/2 gallon in
my BX2200 but noticed it losing poiwer, went back to the
shed and yep, I used the wrong can, I even have a yellow one.

Now it's not much regular gas and it didn't run long, maybe 20
minutes and it had about 3 gallons of diesel in it. Would it be
ok if I ran it dry ??

Chris

Bird · Sep 7, 2003

( Would it be ok if I ran it dry ?? )

Maybe, but I sure wouldn't take that chance! I'd drain the tank, filter, lines, and start over with diesel, but that's just my personal opinion.

stvman · Sep 7, 2003

When I was in the military I worked on heavy equipment and constantly had newbies putting gas in diesels. 15,000 dollars later you are good as new. I've picked pieces of piston and twisted rod off a runway seen a hole the size of a coffee can in the oilpan of a 15,000 dollar engine. Draining out the contaminated fuel and replacing the filters is a bargain compaired to replacing a 3500.00 tractor engine. Steve...

chim · Sep 7, 2003

While it could be OK to run it, that's a big gamble to take to save $5 worth of fuel........................chim

terpdog · Sep 7, 2003

Looks like I'll need to get all the fuel out. I'm a newbie to
tractors, would a syphon do the trick?

Chris

bebster · Sep 7, 2003

Don't run it! I did the same in a boat's Yanmar diesel engine, and as the gas mixes with the diesel (or doesn't mix) the engine might get a straight shot of gas. The added compression of the gas ignition could seriously damage the engine components which aren't designed to handle it.

Make sure you change the fuel filter, since it too will be saturated with gas.

snowman · Sep 8, 2003

I did the same thing on my B7500 a few months after I had it. I didn't figure out what I had done until after I fixed it though.

I just drained the gas/diesel mix, changed the fuel filter, loaded it back up with diesel and it fired right back up - sweet sound! It's worked fine since then (happened at about 30 hours and I have over 300 hours now).

Biggest pain was draining it, as the B7500 doesn't have any type of drain mechanism. I didn't want to pull any hoses off, as I was having enough problems as it was and didn't want to have to worry about having to fix a busted hose. To drain it, I had to take the fuel filter off and press up on the filter housing to let the gas run out. It basically ran down my hand into an aluminum baking pan, which I then dumped into a gas can. Took about an hour and a half to drain an almost full tank.

I didn't figure out what I had done (put gas instead of diesel in) until a week or so later when I went to use the gas can and saw that it was almost empty - couldn't figure out what I had used the gas for and then it dawned on me what had happened!

terpdog · Sep 8, 2003

Well since I had 50 hours I decided to do the whole service.
I also talked to a guy at worked that used to work on a lot
of diesel engines.

His take, since I only put maybe 1/2 gallon in I might be ok
to just put more diesel in and run it but to be safe take off
the fuel filters and drain the tank. So that's what I did. It
was kind of a pain to get to the rear fuel filter but I drained it
and filled again with diesel and it took a few tries( I'll guess air in
the lines) but it fired and ran like a champ. Then since I was
feeling good about it, I did the oil and UDT. Never realized how
easy it was to do that on a tractor. Dealer wanted about 250 to
300 to do everything.

Figured it took about 1 1/2 hours, now that I've done it it will
probably only take 1/2 to an hour. Heck I just made about
$150 an hour /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif.

Thanks for all the help.

Chris

NewTexan · Sep 8, 2003

Congrats! I am glad to hear everything turned out ok. After reading your post I shuttered at the thought of one of my family or myself pouring gas into my new Kubota. I could not find a yellow can so I bought a blue kerosine can at
Wally World to put the fuel in.

I feel better now but I have asked everyone to leave the refueling to me.
/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

TresCrows · Sep 9, 2003

Gasoline in a diesel engine will prematurely ignite. The pressure rise will be dramatic and sudden and will occur with damaging force, an explosion rather than the controlled burn that normally occurs. Detonation of this type can quickly destroy an engine. I doubt the bluish smoke coming out was a good thing. Maybe you were lucky, I hope so. J

ejb · Sep 9, 2003

>>Maybe you were lucky

I guess it will depend on how much diesel versus gas you had in the engine, and how long you ran it for...but I do remember that when I was buying my JD5410 there was an almost new 5310 with about 15 hours on it in for service at the dealership...I asked the dealer why and he explained that the guy who had bought it did what you did and put gas in instead of diesel. The dealer told me it was going to cost about $4000-$5000 to fix it(not covered by warranty of course)...i.e. the engine was pretty much "blown". /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

You might want to have it checked over professionally if there is any doubt that everything is now a-ok. Hopefully you got lucky.