Diesel in the LC

[King55]

Well I had a brain fade in the shell garage today and filled her up with super diesel.
Mothering nozzle now seems to go in. My fault no excuses.
Rode off then cough splitter stop. Realized and got BMW recovery to home.
There supposed to pick it up tomorrow. Should I let them have it or do it myself.
Is it difficult on the LC. Worried about large bills when I could do it.
Any thoughts.

 

[Dahoum]

Thread with lots of suggestions HERE

The search facility is really useful you know

Edit - and ANOTHER - you're in good company it seems

 

[pistole]

and sometimes you wonder why manufacturers don't trust owners.

.

 

[Nick V]

I don't know about anyone else, but if it were me, I I'd be pretty tired of the constant piss-taking by now...

King, it's not that hard - all it needs is a methodical approach:

1. Cylinder-head covers off, spark plugs out. Disconnect the electrical connectors to both injectors and crank the engine for a few seconds to get rid of any diesel remaining in the cylinders.
2. Clean the spark plugs well with carb cleaner and re-install.
3. Seats and upper bodywork off (start at the lower sides and work your way up and in - all you need for 90% of the job is a T25 Torx). NB: Unlike the Hexhead bikes, you don't need to remove the fuel filler cap mounting screws to get the upper tank panel off.
4. Disconnect the fuel lines to the tank.
5. Remove the fuel pump assembly from the fuel tank, and empty the tank.
6. I don't know at this moment if a) the fuel pump still lives inside the tank, or b) if the fuel filter and pump are still an 'integrated' assembly. My bet is Yes on both counts. If so, I'd think seriously about disconnecting the output line from the fuel filter, and back-flushing the filter assembly with clean unleaded petrol. I'd use a cheap rubber enema bulb for the job - with that much exposure to petrol, you'll probably have to toss it afterward.
7. Finally, you'll need to disconnect the lines leading to the fuel injectors and flush out the lines from the pump end, once again with clean unleaded.

Once it's all back together and with a quantity of unleaded in the tank, it should fire up as normal within a few cranks.

Good luck! Let us know what course you take.

 

[jgp]

I had a "friend" who did exactly the same thing on a twin cam.the solution was to syphon off the diesel from the tank,refill with petrol,start the bike,look at all the smoke,then go out for a ride. Refill with petrol again and again and hey presto no problems.
The bike ran fine for another 30k miles until I traded it in for an lc.........oops.

 

[Davy F]

Or simply drain the diesel out of the tank, fill with petrol and fire her up...like I did once.
She'll smoke for a bit, but that'll soon burn off.

jpg, great minds.......

 

[King55]

All sorted, went for the methodical approach.

1. siphoned of my tank with my trusty Pela 6000 siphone (use to have a smart car, oil changes no sump plug etc) it gets right to the bottom of the tank.

2. filled with super unleaded 5L, sloshed about.

3. remove the spark plug and injector cover off one side. remove injector and flip off spring clip and take top off injector. (quite tight but a careful pry and it comes apart, keep rags handy for a small dump of diesel). Next put jug under fuel line and switch on ignition. you will get a 3 sec pump of fuel each time you switch ignition on and off. Keep going till lovely 4 star arrives.

4. Clean injector in fresh fuel. i just swished it about for a few seconds not much else you can do. Rebuild and repeat on the other side.

5. Remove bike from Garage and turn over, took a few cranks but she fired up in a large puff of white smoke but cleared after about 1 min tick over.

Celebrated with a full breakfast, now its fill up with fuel and then off to the opticians for a check up, or should i do that the other way round

Not a big deal. Just don't panic and take it to the dealers, come here for a read and calm down. Its a piece of cake 1 hour tops.

Hope this helps

Dave

 

[Nick V]

the solution was to syphon off the diesel from the tank,refill with petrol,start the bike,look at all the smoke,then go out for a ride. Refill with petrol again and again and hey presto no problems.

Or simply drain the diesel out of the tank, fill with petrol and fire her up...like I did once.
She'll smoke for a bit, but that'll soon burn off.

*Shrug*
You can if you want, but I'm concerned about possible medium- or long-term effects caused by diesel to a fuelling system designed for petrol.
It may be inconsequential, it may be disastrous. Or it may cause annoying niggles. But I know which course I'd take.

 

[Davy F]

*Shrug*
You can if you want, but I'm concerned about possible medium- or long-term effects caused by diesel to a fuelling system designed for petrol.
It may be inconsequential, it may be disastrous. Or it may cause annoying niggles. But I know which course I'd take.

That's why you have no hair, you worry too much.....

 

[Nice 'n' Fat]

3. remove the spark plug and injector cover off one side. remove injector and flip off spring clip and take top off injector. (quite tight but a careful pry and it comes apart, keep rags handy for a small dump of diesel). Next put jug under fuel line and switch on ignition. you will get a 3 sec pump of fuel each time you switch ignition on and off. Keep going till lovely 4 star arrives

You don't want to run it on 4 Star that'll bugger the Cat up

 

[Nick V]

3. remove the spark plug and injector cover off one side. remove injector and flip off spring clip and take top off injector. (quite tight but a careful pry and it comes apart, keep rags handy for a small dump of diesel). Next put jug under fuel line and switch on ignition. you will get a 3 sec pump of fuel each time you switch ignition on and off. Keep going till lovely 4 star arrives.

That will have used an awful lot of juice... it might be a good idea to hook the battery to an intelligent trickle charger overnight to recharge.

I once needed to get a full load of fuel out of a Hexhead GS Adventure. I chopped the blue two-pin connector off a dead fuel-pump controller, soldered it to two metres of household twin-core flex with a household light switch spliced into one wire, connected the free ends to the battery (making sure the pump polarity was correct) and the connector to the two-pin connector supplied by the FPC.
I boosted the battery power by hooking up my intelligent charger to the battery while this was being done - that pump draws a LOT of current.

I disconnected the fuel line from the left-hand injector and routed it into a total of six 5-litre containers, re-assembling everything at the end. With uninterrupted power available to the fuel pump, it took around 50 seconds to fill each container.

 

[Nice 'n' Fat]

Errr ....... I think you missed point 1:

All sorted, went for the methodical approach.

1. siphoned of my tank with my trusty Pela 6000 siphone (use to have a smart car, oil changes no sump plug etc) it gets right to the bottom of the tank.

 

[King55]

Just back from a 50 mile blast round the hills and a motorway stretch.
Ran lumpy on the 5 litre i put in to the garage but after fill up smoothed out quite quickly

Filled to brim with Shell V Power (treble checked, and all the hoses are black in my Shell garage with just the handles colored and V power diesel is Black handled Petrol is Green)

Glad to report all seems well, different modes all work, red lined it once or twice pulls like a steam train

Will never no if the cat is ok as it will go the dealers way by next year probably.

All's well that ends well.

Cheers

 

[Nice 'n' Fat]

I'm still intrigued to know where you obtained 4 Star from?

 

[Packer]

*Shrug*
You can if you want, but I'm concerned about possible medium- or long-term effects caused by diesel to a fuelling system designed for petrol.
It may be inconsequential, it may be disastrous. Or it may cause annoying niggles. But I know which course I'd take.

Why would it be a problem? Both distilled from the same crude and it's petrol that has the higher volatility and more aggressive solvent properties. The diesel may have helped lube the pump and injectors until it stalled though

If there was a possible issue, getting it flushed through as soon as possible and then used for a good run would be the best possible action.

 

[Gossy]

You don't want to run it on 4 Star that'll bugger the Cat up

But it might shut the Squirrels and Greater Spotted Woodpeckers up

 

[King55]

I'm still intrigued to know where you obtained 4 Star from?

Im old, to me unleaded is 4 star

 

[Deleted account 200123001]

I believe the problem only comes when its the other way, my understanding is that Petrol interferes with the combustion of the Diesel by lowering the point at which combustion occurs which results in damage due to detonation occurring.

When its diesel in a petrol vehicle your adding a fuel which burns at a higher temperature which will give poor combustion but it will still 'burn' as you have the spark plugs.
The unburnt fuel from the diesel may trash the cat..but I could be wrong on that so I'd remove it while doing the drain down and run through of petrol with the engine running.
A good helping of fuel with the addition of manual cleaning of the TB's with injector cleaner in the fuel and sprayed in will also help.

 

[DRAIN MAN]

Nice to know that I am not the only **** Just done the same thing in cornwall this weekend gone. Tired out after a long wet day I filled up with 27lt of diesel, I did notice when I put the nozzle back in the pump what I had done so did not start the bike. As I was 300 miles from home and not many tools with me I ended up using a firm called Fuel Doctor who at a cost came and removed the fuel from my tank.
Filled up with petrol and rode off. BMW recovery wanted to take bike to a local dealer but as it was after hours on satuday they would not do anything until tue as it was the bank holiday so ended up sorting it out myself which I suspose served me right as I was the **** who did it !!

 

[Deleted account 190920001]

*Shrug*
You can if you want, but I'm concerned about possible medium- or long-term effects caused by diesel to a fuelling system designed for petrol.
It may be inconsequential, it may be disastrous. Or it may cause annoying niggles. But I know which course I'd take.

Petrol in a diesel is bad news because the pump relies on the fuel for lubrication which petrol doesn't give. It can also fubar the engine if pure petrol gets though. Gives a big in properly timed bang that can cause havoc.
Diesel in a petrol though it just smokes and stops. Once the petrol cleans it's way though it will be fine and smoke free.