wrong fuel

[grin]

I have put 2litres of petrol into my diesel van, by mistake.It was then filled up with the correct diesel fuel.

Would this small amount of petrol mixed with diesel do any harm.

[sddsddean]

As long as your tank capacity is about 50 litres or more you should be OK. When you get down to about 1/2 to 3/4 of a tank, refill just to dilute the petrol some more. From then on, refill as usual.

[MORELLO]

Doh!

[hattster]

You should be ok, it would have been worse if it was the opposite way round, ie, diesel into petrol

[KebabMeister]

Actually it's worse putting petrol into a diesel car than diesel into a petrol car.

 

Diesel engines have a higher compression ratio than petrol engines.  Compression ratio on a petrol engine is around 10:1 or just below.  Diesel are 20:1 and below. 

 

What does this mean?   The petrol is more refined than diesel which means because of the higher compression ratio it will detonate before diesel does.  In a petrol engine this is described as pre-detonation or 'pinking'.  It basically means that it is exploding.

 

Now, the engine will run but it might damage your engine in the long term.  Since it is only 2 litres I would say it should be okay, but make sure you fill the entire tank up with diesel.  Also avoid too many short cold journeys since the diesel injection pump is advanced to increase power (and increase timing/detonation).