Lawn mower and diesel?

[ashbury]

If one were to mistakenly put diesel fuel into a lawn mower that would normally require gasoline, what would be the result?

Ashby

[Stormin Mormon]

I presume you mean put it in the gasoline tank?

If the motor was already warm, it might continue to run. However, it wouldn't restart if cold. You'd have to drain out the diesel and replace with gasoline to get it running again.

No major damage.

[ashbury]

Yes. That is exactly my problem. Thank you sooooo much.

Ashby

[Joseph Meehan]

It will not hut it, it's just oil. However the mower is not going to run long on it.

[ashbury]

It doesn't appear to have hurt it (well, besides it quit running and flat out refused to restart), but it sure was belching smoke and generally complaining a bit. It took a couple of pumps on the button and restarts for it to run smoothly.

I am so relieved as I have a bit of a knack for making machines inoperable.

Ashby

[Lawrence Wasserman]

No permanent damage, and depending on the make/model of the engine, mayby an hour or so of cleanup & flushing time to restore to running condition.

[Nathan Gant]

[Ignoramus21310]

My FIL put kerosene into a gas lawnmower, by mistake. The funny thing is that, since it was hot when he did it, it ran just fine and he finished mowing the lawn. After that, it would not start. I had to take it apart and wash the carb parts in gasoline.

i

[maradcliff]

I accidentally poured about 3 gallons of diesel fuel in my gasoline car some years ago. The car only had at most 2 gallons of gas in it. It ran like crap, smoked a lot, but did get me to the nearest town (15 miles away). Then I filled the tank with gas and the car ran better but still smoked a little. I never drained the tank or anything. After a few fills of gas, the diesel was gone and the car ran fine. Nothing was damaged. The car was an old late 60's chevy with carb. I dont know what would happen with modern fuel injection.

I think I'd just drain the mower tank, and then fill it with gas. It might be a little sluggish for a few minutes from the diesel in the lines and carb, but sould be fine after that.

Mark

[Joseph Meehan]

It would be more of a problem to the converter, that might be damaged in a modern car.

[Kevin]

The title of this blog was replacing a gass motor with a diesel motor on a lawn mower let's talk about that

[Kevin]

Let's talk about replacing a gass motor with a diesel motor on a lawn mower is it possible and what would be the benefits

[Ed Pawlowski]

Don't see any benefits. Harder to start, possibly needs a glow plug that you'd have to run off electricity to start. Higher emissions. Higher compression ratios are needed making it tougher to pull start.

[Clare Snyder]

On a lawn TRACTOR a deisel can be viable.

[invalid unparseable]

I don?t either. And some real downsides for most.

Yes with small engines.

Never had that with any of the diesel generators I used extensively.

Not necessarily, particularly with small 2 stroke gas engines.

Longer life engines. That?s why we used diesel generators.

Damned nuisance to have to keep separate cans of more than one fuel and diesel is much more messy and stinks much worse in cans.

[rbowman]

The question is why? Most small diesel engines are horizontal so that rules out many of the rotary designs that use vertical shafts. Also, they are commonly 6 to 9 hp and up which might work for a lawn tractor setup. Pull start might be awkward in that application and the electric start models are more expensive.

[micky]

How about a lawn semi?