How Bad Is It?

[GrtArtiste]

I encountered a man at a gas station calling someone for help. He had just put diesel into his tank by mistake and traveled only a short distance before the engine quit. Not knowing the bike...the size of the tank...the quantity of the purchase...just how screwed is he likely to be? He seemed to think that adding more gasoline would be beneficial but I'm inclined to disagree.

 

[wpod]

Probably drain the tank and refill it with gasoline.

 

[eljefino]

Won't be bad at all. Easy as anything to dump a bike tank. I am assuming it got filled to the brim with diesel. Worst problem will be disposing of the mix, though he could probably dump a quart into every tank of gas in his car until it's gone.

 

[KrisZ]

Putting diesel fuel in a gas engine will not cause damage, the engine will just stop firing. The gas tank needs to be drained though, diluting diesel with gas will not help, unless the amount of diesel is small.

Now putting gas in a diesel, that usually doesn't end well.

 

[AZjeff]

Now putting gas in a diesel, that usually doesn't end well.

5 years ago my old boss put in16 gallons of gas to fill up a 26 gallon tank on an 07 Duramax then drove it 60 miles back to the plant. It was running like crap and smelled funny and it was then driven 15 more miles to the Chevy dealer where they discovered the gas. Drained the tank and whatever else and gave it back and it's still running fine today and had no repairs because of it. Kinda changed my mind about the horror stories but I still wouldn't want to do it.

Putting diesel in a bike seems like a hard thing to do but it should be fine.

 

[ZeeOSix]

The guy must have been color blind and had no sense of smell.

 

[troop]

Been there/done that years ago with my Buell M2. Used the yellow handle versus the gold handle. Mixed about 2.5 gallons into my 5 gallon tank. Drove about a mile to my house and as soon as I shut the bike off, I could smell it. Syphoned out as much as I could and filled with premium. All was well...

 

[RaymondP]

Closest I know of is a certain member of my family, noticing the fuel gauge was indicating empty, grabbed the nearest fuel tank and added about two gallons of gasoline plus two-stroke I had mixed for the lawnmower. 40:1 ratio. Drove it to the station for a complete fill. No after-effects far as I know. And this was a Mercedes.

Could this error have inadvertently lubricated the fuel pump - a good thing, while potentially gumming the fuel injector - a bad thing?

 

[ZeeOSix]

Closest I know of is a certain member of my family, noticing the fuel gauge was indicating empty, grabbed the nearest fuel tank and added about two gallons of gasoline plus two-stroke I had mixed for the lawnmower. 40:1 ratio. Drove it to the station for a complete fill. No after-effects far as I know. And this was a Mercedes.

Could this error have inadvertently lubricated the fuel pump - a good thing, while potentially gumming the fuel injector - a bad thing?

Any vehicle designed to burn gasoline will burn it with some 2-stroke oil mixed in the gas ... even a fuel injected engine. Yeah, the 2-stroke oil probably lubed up some fuel system components.