Petrol contaminated with diesel

Is there any use for petrol contaminated with diesel?

For instance could I run my petrol lawnmower or petrol strimmer on it?

The problem arose after my neighbour came back with what he said was 10 gallons of road diesel after the garage said it was out of red diesel. I filled both his and my tractor tanks with the stuff without noticing it was petrol rather than diesel. If I hadn't had a stuffed up nose I would have smelt the difference but as it was I didn't notice.

Diesel tractors don't run very well on petrol. :-( (The wonder is that they will run at all).

We will have two jerry cans full of the stuff. I estimate one will be about 90% petrol and the other about 60%.

If it is not suitable for running petrol engines how on earth can we dispose of it?

I once burnt less than half a pint of petrol that had been lurking in a meths bottle and there is no way I am going to burn a larger quantity.

Reply to
Roger
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shouldn't be too much of a bother for a 2-stroke.

Or, diluted enough, a 4 stroke.

Yiu would be surprised what they WILL run on.

No, don't do that. Just top up tanks of petrol with it. I would not use it in a cat equipped fuel injected modern car, but in an old briggs and stratton its a fair additive. Just hope it doesn't go into diesel mode and you cant stop it!!

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

a diesel will run on high amounts of petrol I have tried it and it seem to make little difference but dont tell my fleet management :-) , Vauxhall use to to tell you to add petrol in cold conditions to prevent waxing up to 25% IIRC

add a little each time you fill up

Reply to
Kevin

You used to add petrol to diesel to stop it waxing. I would imagine adding about 5% would undetectable to the engine. However make sure its unleaded as some engines don't like leaded.

Reply to
dennis

I doubt the tractor would care :-)

Reply to
Kevin

No - but add it to a diesel about 1 part in three.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I ran my 4 cyl. motorbike on diesel tainted petrol a few years ago. A van driver had inadvertently filled his diesel van with petrol. Maybe

2 gallons of diesel, 13 petrol in a 15 gallon tank. I grabbed the drained off drums to use as everyone else was on diesel at this place.

The bike ran fine for most of the time. There would occasionally be a splutter, but otherwise there wasnt a great deal of difference. Think of it as extra upper cylinder lubricant. One warning though, it may be best to avoid using it on an engine with a catalyser, as unburnt fuel/oil can damage the cats internals.

Alan.

Reply to
A.Lee

Roger gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

How modern a diesel tractor? Is it common rail? If not, just dilute it with diesel, and run it through. It'll be fine. If it is, somebody else's bargepole (or ancient Landy or spaceheater...)

Reply to
Adrian

They run fine on a mix of 1 petrol : 10 diesel, or up to 1 petrol : 3 diesel if pushed. In cold weather this is even standard practice against waxing.

Diesels will also run on a mixture of old unleaded petrol, whilst petrol cars are getting fussy about the poor storage qualities of unleaded.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

I'd dilute the 90% one with more petrol and run it in a 2t engine or a simple four stroke like a B&S lawnmower, the small amount of diesel will probably still cause pinking in a high compression engine. The

40% diesel one can be added about 15% by volume to a diesel tractor without much worry because up to 10% petrol was often added before winterized diesel became available, to dissolve waxy particles. I'd be less keen on doing this with a common rail diesel for fear of damaging the higher pressure pump.

The alternative is to give them to a military vehicle enthusiast with a multifuel engine.

AJH

Reply to
AJH

The message from Adrian contains these words:

Depends how you define modern. The Zetor is a D reg (1985?) and the Kubota could easily be the same age. I wouldn't know a common rail if it leapt up and bit me but I suspect that they are not that modern.

Reply to
Roger

Roger gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

No, that kind of age, you'll be safe. Common rail is the modern high-tech high-pressure computerised injection that started to come out around 2000.

Reply to
Adrian

My mate runs his diesel car on vegetable oil. He reckons you should thin it with white spirit in the winter.

He also maintains that the diesel engine was designed to run on vegetable oil in the first place as diesel fuel wasn't commonly available in the late

1800's. Is that right?
Reply to
The Medway Handyman

his first engines ran on peanut oil and he even thought about coal dust?

Reply to
Kevin

I wouldn't have thought it would have been freely available considering Rudolf Diesel didn't patent his engine until 1893.

Don.

Reply to
Cerberus .

In message , Roger writes

Leave it and decant the diesel off. It separates out after a while and a little petrol in the diesel won't do any harm unless it's used in a common rail diesel engine.

A little diesel in the petrol won't do any harm to a strimmer or other petrol powered thing although I don't know what it will do to a cat equipped vehicle (I suspect not a lot but....).

Reply to
Clint Sharp

I wonder when diesel fuel first became available then?

Bit like the tin opener not being invented for several years after tinned food became available.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

In message , The Medway Handyman writes

Nope, it was designed to run on mineral oil but peanut oil was suggested by a Frenchman as an alternative so the engines could be used in Africa on locally produced fuel. Diesels will run on pretty much any old rough rubbish but as they got more refined the fuel needed to run them needed to be.

>
Reply to
Clint Sharp

As I understand it, it was intended to use pulverised coal.

Reply to
<me9

Or ...

Pondering in my morning shower in Braunschwaig a couple of weeks ago

a letter in german is a "buchstabe"

so what did they call them before they had books ?

Reply to
geoff

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