Emptying/flushing fuel tank?!

[AndyW]

Yup, I put DIESEL in the bike!!!!!!!!!!!!............how the hell did I manage that?! Now that was stupid!
The only lame excuse I can come up with is that I've not been able to ride for 5 weeks and we have a diesel car.
Fortunately this was realised quickly and I haven't started the bike so at least I've not got to strip and clean fuel injectors and oiled plugs...

BUT how do I clean out the tank?! (7 litres of diesel + whatever petrol was left in there, computer was showing 10 miles to empty)
Easy to remove the whole tank but even tipping upside down will not empty it completely because of the way the fuel filler neck is inset. Too difficult to strip the tank (remove filler neck assembly or fuel pump panel etc) and I can't see me getting it anywhere near empty by syphoning.

So this is where I need advice/suggestions:
# Best way to empty the tank?
# Will the diesel and petrol have mixed or formed seperate layers (e.g. can I syphon out as much as possible, add a gallon of petrol to dilute what's left, syphon again and then be safe to fill the tank?)

Sensible replies appreciated but I'm thick........................skinned, so feel free to take the piss!

(Foot note - Of course I was stuck a 1/2 mile from home with the prospect of having to push the bike back there
Ordinarily that'd be ok (suitable punishment LOL) but walking any distance, especially in bike boots, is still not my strong point (recovering from leg injuries for those who don't know) and my foot is still really sore after more surgery a few weeks back (hence the not riding for 5 weeks).........step in AndyM, another GS rider, who above and beyond the call of duty helped me push my bike home. [lots of beer owed to AndyM])

 

[Pukmeister]

I'd be tempted to use one of those fuel syphon devices with the squeezable bulb (I think Hein Gericke sell them) to totally empty the 'wings' of the tank at their lowest points, then simply refill it with petrol and go for a ride. I doubt the tiny dregs of diesel will cause much harm when diluted with all that petrol, but you might get some smoke.

 

[haga lout]

hi the best thing to do is take the tank off and turn upside down till as mutch as poss has come out then put some petrol in and repeat 2/3 times then fill tank it may smoke a bit dont tell your bm dealer as it will be put on your bikes record ps. its the green pump you need not the black

 

[John Armstrong]

ps. its the green pump you need not the black

Best watch out at BP as IIRC they're different to the rest

 

[Slowdown]

Do the fuel tank mod (holes in the filler neck) and turn it upside down.

I'd just fill it up with fresh fuel after that, possibly with some fuel system cleaner like Redex....

 

[Dinger]

Hi, (long time since I posted on here)
I did this in Spain a couple of years ago. I put 8L of diesel on top of about the same amount of petrol. I cadged a tube and container and syphoned it out. Try to get the tube as far down the tank as possible (it's a long way). I filled the bike up with petrol and it ran perfectly, not a whiff of smoke.

 

[Nate]

just out of interest, but does diesel float on petrol (or the other way round) or do they mix???

 

[Wapping]

They do not mix very well. Diesel (an oil) is heavier than petrol (a spirit).

Getting it all out is a pain, at least it is on a GSA when (as I did) you have 32 odd litres of the stuff. But you can do it without removing the tank, by syphoning out as much as possible. Then pump.

You can make a very useful pump quite quickly by powering the fuel pump directly from a battery (see the fuel pump work around) and disconnecting the fuel line. The pump will pump the fuel directly into whatever container(s) you have large enough to take a lot of fuel.

Once it's empty ( or as close as you can manage) slosh in some unleaded and splosh it about. Diesel is oily so it coats the tank and may well get into the fuel filter. Pump that out, too.

Fill with a decent amount of clean petrol. Squirt some quickstart up the air intake. Push the starter button. Get ready for lots of smoke and possibly a bit of rough running. Ride it and make like a battleship making smoke.

It took 100 litres of prime unleaded to stop my GSA smoking. 30,000 miles on it's as good (or better) than it has ever been.

 

[(RIP) philgunn]

my solution

drain as much as you can by emptying or inverting the tank ,
now get a air spray gun and remove the bowl?
attach a rubber tube to the pick up tube in what was the inside of the bowl
now fish in through the filler cap and you can direct to the small pockets of fuel remaining .. works perfectly on the hP2
ps pick a suitable area to point the spray away

pg

 

[AndyW]

Thanks guys...........especially for not ribbing me!
Good to know I'm not the only one as well LOL

The fuel filler neck on the 1200 is a bugger to remove, couple of breather pipes attached internally.

One of the round 'access' panels front top left and front bottom right (fuel pump, aux fuel pump, various pipes) would be ideal for draining but require a special tool to remove and I'd be worried about disturbing seals.

Dinger, that's reassuring to know...

Not had time to do anything today but think I'll go the easy route, syphon out the tank as much as possible (raise front of bike, long syphon tube down to the bottom of each side of the rear of the tank), sacrifice a gallon of clean petrol to rinse, syphon again and fill.........I reckon the amount of diesel remaining will be so small/so diluted there'll be no problem.

 

[Dinger]

Dinger, that's reassuring to know....

Honestly, I was forced into the low-tech option because I was in the middle of a tour. I expected to ride away with the engine pinking and trailing a pall of smoke but not a bit of it. It was like nothing had happened. Providing, like me you didn't try to start the engine then syphoning and re-filling is fine - remember that you're putting about 20L of unleaded on top of an eggcupful of crap; the dilution is huge. No point in making a drama out of ...etc.

 

[Ali-bear]

Environmental question

How do you intend to dispose of the waste fuel mixture?

 

[TERRY RYAN]

How do you intend to dispose of the waste fuel mixture?

maybe use it as bonfire fuel or sell it to the local pikeys

 

[cocokid]

My son filled his Ducati 848 with derv,( mupppet) we drained the tank,filled with petrol and off he went, filling most of Putney with smoke, no ill effects to the bike.

 

[AndyW]

drain as much as you can by emptying or inverting the tank ,
now get a air spray gun and remove the bowl?
attach a rubber tube to the pick up tube in what was the inside of the bowl
now fish in through the filler cap and you can direct to the small pockets of fuel remaining .. works perfectly on the hP2
ps pick a suitable area to point the spray away
pg

Didn't see your post, you must have been posting as I was, good idea!.....never mind:

.....but think I'll go the easy route, syphon out the tank as much as possible (raise front of bike, long syphon tube down to the bottom of each side of the rear of the tank), sacrifice a gallon of clean petrol to rinse, syphon again and fill.........I reckon the amount of diesel remaining will be so small/so diluted there'll be no problem.

That's what I did in the end and all seems ok......even though there must have been traces of diesel left as after the second syphoning I could only squeeze 17 litres of clean petrol in (in theory 3 litres of fuel still in there somewhere?!) but the percentage would have been v small.

Thanks again for the advice everyone..........even though I didn't take some of it and still went the easy way :-s

How do you intend to dispose of the waste fuel mixture?

Good question!....................anyone want 15 litres of dietrol

 

[Ali-bear]

Your local council should be able to tell you what to do with it, unless someone wants it for bonfire night

 

[conncarr]

Waste petroil

As long as the percentage of petrol to diesel is not too high (i.e. more than 5 %) a diesel car should be able to run with it ok. I put 10 litres of unleaded into my 07 diesel volkswagon before I woke up. Spoke to the recovery company and they told me to fill up with diesel (another 70 litres) and it should be fine, which it was. I couldn't hear any pre-ignition or feel any ill effects. I did keep on filling with diesel every 50 miles or so just to make sure.

Disclaimer
I don't like my (company) volkswagon, so I wasn't that bothered if it blew up or not. I am not advising anyone to put petrol in a diesel car that they care about!

 

[Owen Snell]

As long as the percentage of petrol to diesel is not too high (i.e. more than 5 %) a diesel car should be able to run with it ok. I put 10 litres of unleaded into my 07 diesel volkswagon before I woke up. Spoke to the recovery company and they told me to fill up with diesel (another 70 litres) and it should be fine, which it was. I couldn't hear any pre-ignition or feel any ill effects. I did keep on filling with diesel every 50 miles or so just to make sure.

Disclaimer
I don't like my (company) volkswagon, so I wasn't that bothered if it blew up or not. I am not advising anyone to put petrol in a diesel car that they care about!

Is there any basis for the supposed 'it's OK at 5%petrol in diesel' statement?

You should not run a modern diesel engine with any petrol in the diesel. The high pressure fuel pumps in modern diesels work to very close tolerances and rely completely on the lubricity of the diesel to function. If they get a dose of petrol through, they could fail at a major cost (£1,500 for a VW PD pump, I think)

 

[roadkill]

Just stick a couple of litres of your Dietrol into an older diesel car, van etc WHILST AT THE PUMPS READY TO COMLETELY TOP-UP USING GOOD DIESEL. This happened to my 03 Astra ( Isuzu diesel engine ) when the girlfriend accidently put-in about 2 gallons petrol before remembering it's diesel - absolutely no probs whatsoever. You'll soon use those 7 litres up!

 

[conncarr]

Is there any basis for the supposed 'it's OK at 5%petrol in diesel' statement?

You should not run a modern diesel engine with any petrol in the diesel. The high pressure fuel pumps in modern diesels work to very close tolerances and rely completely on the lubricity of the diesel to function. If they get a dose of petrol through, they could fail at a major cost (£1,500 for a VW PD pump, I think)

As I said in my disclaimer, I don't advise anyone to do this in a car they like. I stated 5% based on a "safe-ish" estimate given the advice I received. This was that for 10 litres of unleaded in an empty tank, filling up with a further 70 litres (approx, please don't tell me my tank will only hold 78 litres) of diesel would be ok. It was ok, and I would use diesel with a small amount of petrol in my volkwagon again if I had too.

I did say that I didn't really like this car much, didn't I

Also, the petrol should float on top of the diesel (shouldn't it?) and will evaporate off in time, which is why I kept the tank topped up for a while after it happened. Therefore the chance of any appreciable amount of petrol going through the pump or injectors should be slim.