Ooops! put diesel in my riding lawn mower gas tank. Help before the 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...

On Mon, 5 Dec 2005 14:27:50 -0500, "DOOH" > wrote:

>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...
>

You did no harm. Follow the drain/refill protocol you outlined and
you will be fine when it restarts. If it doesn't want to restart,
your carb jet(s) could be clogged. No biggie. Put a =little= fuel
system cleaner in there to get it out, unless you like taking these
things apart.

Lg

DOOH wrote:
> 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...


If you have drained the gas tank and inline filter then all that is
left is the carb floatbowl.

Refilling the gas tank and starting (cranking) the engine should clear
that up.

If it blows smoke but does not start with a reasonable number of
attempts you might need to remove and clean the spark plug.

DOOH wrote:

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

Crank it till it starts and burns it out. If its easy to do, you could
drop the float bowl off the carb and dump the diesel that's already gone
in there, that would make it fire off sooner when you get gasoline in there.

On Mon, 5 Dec 2005, DOOH wrote:

> 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.

No big deal. Drain the tank and throw the contents into your car (half a
gallon out of 2 gallons' contents of the mower tank = 25%, while half a
gallon out of 20 gallons' contents of a car tank = a completely trivial
2-1/2 percent, and this way you don't have to worry about safe disposal).

Refill the mower tank with fresh gasoline plus some Sta-Bil fuel
stabilizer, run it until the engine's at operating temperature, shut it
down and you're all set.

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

Don't worry about it.

DS

DOOH wrote:
> 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?

Do as you suggest above, then refill the tank with gas and run it for
15 minutes or so with no load. Add some Sta-Bil if you are putting it
up for the winter. You are done.

nate

> half a gallon out of 20 gallons' contents of a car tank = a completely
> trivial 2-1/2 percent, and this way you don't have to worry about safe
> disposal.

I even see off-brand gas treatments at the discount-store end of the
market that look and smell as though they're mostly kerosene .

In the old days, some people would add this and other of your
middleweight petrochemicals to the gas tank as a "top head lubricant"
(for valves and so forth). I suspect that advances both in engine
design and gasoline formulation obviated that concern in four-stroke
engines long ago -- I'd take a SWAG that it got obsolete about the
same time as running boards, if it ever was substantive at all -- but
you still see such products.

Joe "Gasoline in a diesel -- THAT's time to run in circles, scream,
and shout" Chew

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...


"DOOH" > wrote in message
...
> 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...
>