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Gasoline in diesel tank

jansen

Contributing Member
We just put 7 gallons of gas in a 75 gallon diesel tank that had 70 gallons of diesel in it. We were told by someone that it would probable be ok but to add a half gallon of Marvel Mystery Oil to the tank. We idled back to our marina a mile away. Anyone else have experience with making this mistake?
 
I guess diesel is heavier than gas (?) so you maybe haven't picked up much gas yet (pick up at bottom of tank). Personally I wouldn't risk my engine and would get the fuel removed even though it is an expensive pain. Gas won't lubricate the injector pump on your engine, so even if it doesn't cause damage by firing prematurely it may do some damage to the pump. Whether adding the oil will help with that would depend on how the three different products (oil, gas, diesel) mix or stratify and you would want to be pretty confident that they were well mixed if you were going to run like that I expect.
 
You have diesel that's 7% gas. It will burn a little hotter. I would avoid full hp, but would use the fuel. As you use fuel get more diesel. You should keep your tanks full anyway to keep out moisture. I've seen people make this mistake many times and at small quantities caused no damage.
 
You have diesel that's 7% gas. It will burn a little hotter. I would avoid full hp, but would use the fuel. As you use fuel get more diesel. You should keep your tanks full anyway to keep out moisture. I've seen people make this mistake many times and at small quantities caused no damage.
Thanks for the replies. I have decided to do as you suggest and run it but add diesel after running 1/4 tank or so down. If it had been like 25-5-% gas I would have sucked it all out.
 
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