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I've put diesel into my riding mower gas tank. Any suggestions before my wife finds out?

Call me an idiot as I've been kicking myself all day. I know this is an auto group but I've gotten great advice on here before and I'm hoping some masterwrencher will know about mowers as well...

This morning I went to use my riding craftsman mower and put about a half gallon of diesel into a tank that already head about 1.5 gallons of unleaded. I grabbed the wrong can but at least I didn't fill it all the way up as I figured I didn't want it to sit all winter with a full tank.

Anyway, bone head me, jumped on. tried to start it up, sputter sputter sputter and a bit of white smoke and then I reaslised what I had done.

So, this is what I've done so far, hope a few mechanical genieses can tell me what else to do...

On outflow of the gas tank there is a small valve I've tuned to stop the flow. I figure I can disconnect the hose from the gas tank to the engine and connect a longer hose to drain the tank by gravity into an empty gas can, I assume that this will completely empty the tank. I've also empted the little clear plastic gas filter that was inline between the tank and engine.

What should I do next?

How do I get the diesel that has already gone into the engine out of there or do I need to worry about that?

If I fill the tank up with gas will it run or will I need to do something to the engine?

I hope I'm posting anonomously as I feel really stupid and know that if I can't get this running myself I'll have to call up a shop and get them to come out as I have no way to get the mower to them and if I do that the wife will find out and then the world will know of my stupidity...

Reply to
DOOH
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you've drained most of it out, just refill with fresh petrol , might splutter and cough for a bit, till the diesel has run through, but I doubt very much if any permant damage would have been done.

but the topic of miss-fuels does always raise a few arguments though.

Reply to
reg

Will it run, tho'? If it does, all well and good, but if not you'll have to empty the carburettor of diesel by taking the float chamber off. If you don't want to do this, you may find that squirting Easystart into the air intake while you're trying to start it may get it to run enough to pull the diesel out.

Rob Graham

Reply to
Rob graham

As the man said. IF it's reluctant to go then a little easy start down the carb inlet will probably persuade it to run until you have drawn enough petrol through to keep it happy. If you are mechanically adpet then take the float bowl off the carb and tip the diesel that's in there so you get a fresh fill of petrol.

Reply to
Chris Street

Plugs just might need drying off too. No permanent damage done. Just a bit of a fiddle to get it running normally.

Huw

Reply to
Huw

Hi Guys,

Orig Poster here, I know its been almost a week but I thought I'd let you know how I got on.

Thanks for all the advice. I drained the gas tank by connecting a hose to the fule line outlet on the tank. I then disconnected the fuel line from the engine and drained that.

I put a half gallon of unleaded in the tank and connected it all back up tried to start it up but it wouldn't turn over so I scratched my head, reread the posts and checked the spark plug. It was oily and blackall over so I took out the snadpaper and cleaned it up put it in and broom, strated first time. sweet.

I then ran it for a while and decied to clean it again, so I removed the plug again and cleaned it, this time it was a little less fouled, so re assembled and used the mower for about an hour and it ran beautifully.

So thanks for all the advice, now no one needs to know my dirty little secret that I put diesel in an unleaded tank, thanks...

Reply to
DOOH

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