Ichabod Farquar wrote:Got another one in today. This one is gasoline in the diesel tank. Ran over 50 miles then "stopped" - will have to see next week how many thousands of dollars damage has been done.
Anyone seen a destroyed engine because of this?
Much of my experience dates back to the late 70's and early 80's with old school diesels, the 5.7 disasters, 6.2 and a handful of 4.3 diesels that would continue to run with incorrect fuel until they exploded.
Well, I learned something yesterday. The diesel (in this instance a GMC Canyon) that was towed in with a tank of gasoline mixed with whatever diesel was left stopped after roughly 30 miles. The mechanic pulled both fuel filters and ran the pump to drain the tank. The system only allows the pump to run for 30 seconds, pause for 30 seconds, pump again etc. It took more than an hour to completely drain the tank.
Added some fresh diesel, ran the pump again to help purge, installed fresh fuel filters, start vehicle, let it choke/puke, it shuts off on it's own, start again eventually it smooths out.
Mechanic has his laptop checking codes, parameters etc. Clearing them out, pressures look good, etc etc. I was looking for a paper clip to have it flash codes and count the number of flashes but that is another story.
I asked him, how does the vehicle know it has the incorrect fuel and shuts off? In a nutshell, diesel fuel and gasoline have different viscosities, in this case, the pressure sensor on the rail detects fuel that is too thin. It could have destroyed the injector pump, leading to a fuel system rebuild.