What would happen if

[MyMopar]

someone put diesel fuel into an empty GASOLINE tank and tried to start the vehicle?

I don't know what is going on with my dad lately, but he put diesel fuel into our boat (gasoline mercury motors) but only  2 gallons so I told him to pump it out, which he gripped about but did.

Now I find his truck sitting in a parking lot blocking the roadway and ask him whats up?  He tells me don't ask but their is diesel fuel in the gas tank - gas F-250.  I think he tried to start it but is not owning up to it. 
Can he dilute the diesel with gas - the tank was empty and he said he added about 1.5 gallons of diesel.  So 15-17 gallons of regular gas will it dilute the diesel fuel enough?  Like I need more problems.

[Jacksboys]

 

[6packCuda]

I think you'll be ok just filling it up the rest of the way with gas. It might smoke a bit, but it's not gonna hurt anything.

[71bigblock]

You CAN put Diesel in a Gas engine, but you CANNOT  put Gas in a Diesel one.  A big no-no.

So to answer your question, yes, it should work. 

[MyMopar]

Thanks for the encouragement, I told him get some cans and get some GAS! 

[JayBee]

I really hate to own up to this , but what the heck. Once in the '80's I put about 3/4 of a tank of diesel in my Cuda and was 3 hours from home. After the gas in the line was spent boy did she smoke. White smoke like nobodies business especially during acceleration and decceleration. Got home, tore down the top end thinking intake gaskets and anti-freeze getting in the cylinders. Put it back together and still smoked. Drove it like that until it needed gas again then it finally went away and no harm to the engine. I remember being really hung over at the pumps, that's probably why the mistake was made. Thank God those days are behind me.

[Jacksboys]

I can see how diesel may not hurt a carburatored engine, but would it hurt the sensors in a modern engine?

[highspeeddirt]

Hey, instead of a powerstroke F-250, that would be like a 2 stroke F-250!  Cylinders would get a little extra lube anyway. 

[MEK-Dangerfield]

This is REALLY mixing apples with oranges. NOT a good idea.    They are totally different types of fuel. 


   Mike

[Srobinson4]

My wife did this to her Toyota 4Runner.  Don't ask me how she did it but the truck ran extremely rough and I was forced to pay in excess of $1000.00 to get it fixed.  Maybe it had something to do with the fuel injection system.

SRR

[whitesatinmopar]

As said, from my understanding, diesel will not "damage" a gasoline engine. Of course that would be limitied ratio and short term, otherwise I'm guessing your looking at a complete valve job. But as has been exampled above, you get a little smoke, or a lot of smoke, people are ltao at ya, and you just did your neighborhood a community service by smoking out the mosquito's (sp ?). Just tell them you need a new air cleaner. 

[4Cruizn]

I would probably try to get as much of that out of my tank as I could and then fill it to the brim.