Petrol and Kerosene

[Fredxxx]

Its an expression concerning low compression. In principle I agree with you. Symptom even sounds like a broken cam belt!

[The Natural Philosopher]

I dint buy it. Its ain't a F1 engine

A small quantity of diesel in petrol isn't gonna harm anything.

In fact the more I think about it, the more I think the whole diesel thing may be a red herring.

He's probably run it with no water and blown a head gasket

[The Natural Philosopher]

nah. car wont run at all with cambelt gone .

If a piston had gone there would be oil pouring out of the exhaust

Its still running and that sounds like head gasket to me. Had one go on an old landy and limped it 60 miles to get it fixed

[Johny B Good]

The OP made no mention of diesel at all.

The "diesel" is indeed a red herring, but it's not of the OP's making.

Granted that that could be one possibility, but the OP, who is recieving the details secondhand, didn't mention any associated symptoms for this possible cause.

[Johny B Good]

That was me. Holed pistons are a classic failure mode due to detonation at high revs and engine output.

[The Natural Philosopher]

not generally caused by a few spoons of diesel in a petrol tank..

[Fredxxx]

There are a few things that don't add up, but the garage presumption is perhaps from the OP's S-I-L putting heating fuel in his tank.

I suspect more than a spoonful or 2, and if he has as much empathy with what fuel to use, he might well have not recognised pinking or pre-detonation either. We have no idea how many miles have been done.

As said elsewhere, if the piston is holed, the exhaust might be a give-away! Otherwise an overheating cylinder can burn valves.

[Dave Liquorice]

Where did "OP's S-I-L putting heating fuel in his tank" come from? The OP only suggests a petrol/kero mix and loosely fingers one particular filling station for possibly being the source.

[Fredxxx]

Because I have never heard of kerosene and petrol being inadvertently mixed in at a petrol filling station.

Even if you have, I doubt anyone else here has heard of such an event.

I will go further and say I have never seen kerosene being sold at a filling station, except in its own plastic container in the form of paraffin.

[Bob Eager]

Pretty common years ago. I used to serve kerosene from a pump at the place I worked on the outskirts of Brighton.

[Tim+]

They do funny things in NI. I believe insurance companies won't pay out for engine damage due to contaminated fuel such is (maybe "was") the level of the problem.

Tim

[Tim+]

Would this be in Northern Ireland I wonder? High level of fuel jiggery-pokery there.

Tim

[JimK]

Good advice

Rubbish. Modern common-rail diesel pumps rely on the lubricity of diesel to prevent devastating damage. /q

Mmm good advice if it were a diesel.....ahh....

Jim K

[Adrian]

Given that probably 90%+ of misfuelling is putting petrol in common rail diesels, it's no wonder.

[Tim+]

Not really. Most insurance companies *will* pay up for that. What they don't like is people filling up with suspiciously cheap diesel that's been "home brewed" in NI.

Tim

[newshound]

There are viscosity testers for lubricating oils which work like that, but Fred's description of the original fuel testers is correct.

[fred]

No not N.I. I suspect the kerosene was heating oil and not paraffin. I don't know who would be using paraffin these days. In the days of Esso Blue we had a local filling station who sold it from a slot machine.

I don't know the mechanical knowledge or sympathy of the son in law concerned but imagine it is not great. Lord knows how far he drove it, I suspect the truth will never be known

[Tim Streater]

And it had four bums.

[Mark]

Paraffin and Red diesel (Gas oil) pumps 5 and 6

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[Dave Liquorice]

Who said anything about it being mixed at the filling station? Around here the fuel tankers are used for various fuels, the last two digits on the otherise permenantly fixed hazchem plate are changeable depending on what they are carrying. TBH I don't know which fuels they use the tankers for, probably only heating oil and red diesel.

There is plenty of scope for a c*ck up at the depot as well.

The old filling station down in twon had both paraffin and red on pumps. The new "Spar" one still sells red(*) but I'm not sure if it's still on a pump or just 25l drums.

(*) 95p/l last time I looked, that strikes me as about 30p/l over priced, given that heating oil is about 50p/l ATM.