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Ugh...Stupid Mistake...Gas vs. Diesel

I

in-too-deep

Well-known Member
Well, I out-did myself today. Filled the diesel fuel tank on the New Holland 8360 tractor with gasoline. I've filled that stupid tractor up a couple dozen times since I've known it. Good thing is, the tank has a leak around the sending unit/line opening so we only fill it about 5/8 full...but about all of the 5/8 ended up being gas. : ( It was idling as it was filling, so I did get some gas into the engine. I noticed it was idling slower than usual and suddenly I realized what I had done and shut the engine down as quick as I could. I siphoned as much gas out of the tank as I could, added some Howe's lubricant additive, and about a quart of fresh motor oil 'cause I figured the gas left in the tank wouldn't have the lubricity. I took the fuel filters off and filled them with diesel, too. Cranked the engine over and it started and sputtered for a little while and now it runs fine. Don't think I did any damage to the tractor...I sure feel dumb though. I'd sure like to hear some similar stories...
 
I got you beat. Did same thing at least twice on my 830 an did about same thing as you to fix it (mixed oil in diesel after draining gas. You might apreciate 830 is still running an has never had pump off.German Bosch pump. Best one i did was put some Eptan insectide in Wheel Horse.That ran about as long as830 on gas an sure smoked an stunk. Just told wife yesterday to not let me put wrong fuel in Dodge diesel. Might not be as easy to remedy.
 
Yeah that injector pump had me real nervous. I could imagine the dollar signs start piling up. I used the tractor for another couple hours hauling hay and everything went fine so I'm not concerned.
 
Almost is the word. Wish all stations would use different color nozzles. Mine is Ford and I keep getting letters from lawyers. They tell me 85 percent of fords problems are diesels that only make up 10 percent of trucks. 17K miles, cross your fingers.
 
I did that once with my f250, I drove about 5 miles before it hit me what I had done. I switched to the other tank that was all diesel. I never had a problem.
 
Got you all beat. Filled my Gold Wing with diesel once. Didn't run very good. Before anyone says anything, it was a small nozzle. Bernie Steffen
 

My boss borrowed my Dads Dodge V10 (gasser) and filled it up with diesel. Wouldn't be bad but it was off-road diesel.
 
Back when I was in the Air Force we were filling up a truck one night to go on a 200 mile dispatch hauling some parts to a missile silo. The regular pumps were down so we were using pump trucks. It was about 20 below zero and we didn't get more than a few gallons in before I realized what was happening. Trust me your nose doesn't work that well at that temperature. It didn't hurt anything. That old Dodge ran fine all night.
 
It can happen. Years back while was in school and working a part-time job pumping gas before self-serve ever existed, I filled up an idling Cat on a trailer with diesel, no problem. But the other kid that I was working with fueled the diesel tractor, and that was a problem. There was only one diesel pump on that island of pumps, and I was using it up on the Cat. When he came over and told me to add the price of 75 gallons on the other pump to mine, I asked "What other pump?". He pointed to the unleaded pump, for which we only had one of them back in the early 70's. Good thing the EPA didn't exist back then is all that I'm going to say. On top of it we filled the tank for free in good faith as to any damage that we might've caused.

Things happen.

Mark
 
I did that in my slip tank but noticed right away and drained it before I used it. A couple of months ago, I went to get gas for my truck on the way home from my land. There was a big fancy NEW diesel pusher motorhome sitting at the pumps. I could hear someone talking rather loudly on a cell phone inside it. I asked the station attendant if what I suspected was correct. Yup, 160 litres worth of gas in the diesel tank. What I heard the guy repeat in the motorhome, was not to even start the engine and to get the gas out. I left. I had to go there a couple days later and asked the guy what happened with the motorhome. He said they came back and told him it was OK. All they did was add some diesel conditioner without draining the gas. I would think that they're going to run into some expensive problems sooner than later. Another mishap happened at a golf course I was working at. A contractor was putting in new irrigation lines and one of his workers filled/topped up the hydraulic tank with diesel on their skid steer. They ended up draining the tank and replacing the hyd. fluid. It happens. Dave
 
When on the Farm I had two Overhead tanks for fuel side by side.One red and one aluminum colored. The Aluminum colored one had plainly stenciled on the front by the outlet "DIESEL" . The wife needed Gasoline for the Car so she could go to Town but instead of filling the Car with Gas she put Diesel in it. She made it to Town about 12 miles away just barely. Went to the Standard Station we traded at and they finally figured out what was wrong. They all had a good laugh about it,I never.
 
I havent, YET, But I did get a call one morning from a Exon fuel station down the road from me from a employee that worked there, she told me that someone had put gas into a diesel truck and the driver needed to see me( I had a mech. shop at the time). I went there and it was a U-HAUL van, he was moving from south Texas to Illinois. Of course I couldnt work on it,(because it was co. owned) and he did not want to call U-HAUL, so he asked what would I do. I told him that if I was him, call U-HAUL! OR drive it from here to the next big town and fill it up with DIESEL, and repeat several times, well, he called me 2 days later and said that he had made it with no problems,.. I asked him how many times he stoped to top off the tank he said 5 times and he was sure he had gotten all the gas out. I am glad he made it with out failure!! D.G.
 
I've got a bit of an Air Force story as well. I worked in air movments for a while. This is a special duty, looking after any visiting aircraft. Late one afternoon I took a tow tractor and generator over to the vehicle section for re-fueling. The operator filled both at the same time with two pumps, which I thought was very efficent and professional (but they probably just wanted to close up and go home). Anyway, later that night, we used the generator to launch a C-130. Every now and then, a bunch of red sparks would issue forth from the generator exhaust. This in turn caused some panic type body language to issue forth from the loadmaster, and I detected a bit of a flurry of movement on the flight deck as well. We just gave them the old thumbs up 'she's right mate, happens all the time' attitude. It was the quickest C-130 launch I ever saw. We took the generator up to the machanics the next day and (you guessed it), petrol in the diesel.
 
Local firm employee was filling diesel dump truck with gas by mistake. Not realizing he was doing it.

At the same time he decided to grab the shop vac to clean out the cab while filling the truck. He had done it before.

But cause of the gas fumes the shop vac ignited the fumes. The truck and gas pump went KABOOM.

No one was hurt but there was no need to drain the gas out of the diesel truck. The fire took care of that for them.

The employee quit his job right then.

Gary
 
At least You caught it in time ,, We put 5 gallons gas in 830 CASE And Caught it in time,,, Here is Sad STORY ... Neighbor Did that to his Semi tractor Some 15 Yrs Back ,,Stressed And Worried ,, harvest Time ,, Topped off Tank , nearly half with Gas ,, Took a load to town ,,,,, Wasnt runnin right,, But Made it ,On return tip commin up I64 out of louisville ,, Hill Was Just TOO MUCH , And He sbhut her down ,,, Still not Knowing What Caused it ,, Ran it some 60 Miles another Neighbor Got the truck And I was there When We checked Fuel and realized He Had Put gas in There, Ruined that MOTOR , Now the tanks are on seperate sides of the barn lot.. Best one I ever heard was a FFA kid told His sister to fuel up the DC he was discing with while He did the milkin ,, She put Gas in radiator and he only got a hundred ft before it sputteredb out of gas ,, NO HARM
 
The other dya while filing up my truck, with diesel, I noticed this lady pulled over to the other diesel pump in one of those new VW bugs. I assumed it was a diesel, and asked her what kind of mileage she got with it, since my wife is isnterested in a VW Rabbit thats a diesel for work. She stated she had just traded a diesel rabbit, for the Bug, and hadnt filled it up yet, so she wasnt sure yet what her lieage was going to be. With the first click of the pump, she realized her Bug wasnt diesel!
 
Just bought a new pair of Miller trailblazer welders, 225's, for a jobsite to weld on Halfen (dove tail slotted structural steel channel used for curtainwall strucural connections.

This was a busy site for me, had 25 ironworkers, half a dozen glaziers and (2) 50 ton RT type cranes (cherry picker type), one on each side of the building. We had recently fired a hired out installer and went completely in-house, to save the job, previous arrangement would have ended up a disaster. We also had 3 80'-0" JLG articulated lifts, 2 platform lifts to add to the line up as well.

With all the activity, 2 sides of a $200 million dollar courthouse building to watch, you had to be on your toes to keep all these guys rolling, the least little thing causing down time will cost big dollars in no time.

Jerry, a full ironworker journeyman filled one of the welding machines with diesel, I come around the corner in time to see the black smoke pouring out, and shut that one down, well was a friday, hooked er onto the crane, set er in my truck took er home and drained, flushed the tank, he earned the nickname "diesel" after that, then got himself fired by me for refusing to tie off when in the basket, after I recieved a nice @ss chewing from the CM/GC's super and safety guy, good welder, told him, maybe I'll bring you back on the next one, but they wanted soemone fired over this safety violation today on this job by you, (he did it right in front of them) and I said, "You're it!" With all the chaos, we're lucky that nothing else happened on that site.


Now I've filled the bar oil reservoir with gas and fuel reservoir with bar oil on my stihl ms 390 saw, but caught same prior to attempting to start it, just tip it over, flush both tanks and start over, only done this once so far though.
 
Been lucky enough that I haven't done that, yet. I have put farm diesel in the truck once. Ran in fear of DOT trooper stopping me.
 
We had a 5.7 diesel in the family station wagon. Daughter borrowed it one weekend to take to college. Somehow she filled it with gasoline. Didn't run well! Stalled at every stop! Filled it up with diesel, and drove it, frequently filling up with diesel several times, and never a problem.

Long before that we had a 55 gallon drum of #1 heating oil. Kept adding a gallon or so to the family car with every fillup of gasoline. Had to cut back when it started smoking! Finally did use up that drum of oil, though.
 
Father-in-law had two adjacent bulk tanks, one diesel other for gasoline, near the barn, out of view of the house. Seemed like gasoline tank kept getting low awfully fast. Next time he had a delivery he had the driver switch the tanks - diesel in gas tank, gas in diesel tank. Next morning there was a car parked down the road about 200 yards from the driveway. Smelled awful lot like diesel. Sheriff refused to take action. But Dad had his revenge!
 
I haven't done that, but I poured a quart of fresh oil into my engine during an oil change before I realized I forgot to put the drain plug back in.
 
Sent one of my soldiers out on the motorpool line with a 5 gallon can of oil and told him to recheck the oil in his truck and make sure it was full. Didn't think anything else about him because I was inspecting a few more guys. About 30 minutes later, I saw him slipping by the door with a bag of absorbant. Went outside to see what was up and he gave me that look that I'll never forget and said it got full quicker than he thought it would. He'd took it literal and filled the engine until oil ran out the filler hole and all over the engine and ground.


Dave
 
(quoted from post at 10:13:01 10/27/08) I haven't done that, but I poured a quart of fresh oil into my engine during an oil change before I realized I forgot to put the drain plug back in.
Click to expand...

I've done that one!
 
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