What Happens When You Put Diesel in Gasoline?

I read an article recently about a fueling station in California that had accidentally put diesel into their gasoline tanks. Several vehicle owners had to have their vehicles repaired as a result of this mix up.

In this video I talk about what happens to your engine and fuel system when you put diesel where gas should go. I also talk about what happens when you put gasoline in your Diesel engine.

If you’re curious about this topic, watch the video and find out what happens.

Thanks for watching!

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[mwheels]

Glad to see the vids and knowledge keep coming. Thanks for keeping me up to date on Hondas, Acuras, and cars in general. I do still refer to your videos from time to time for side work. Hope all is well in your world!!

[EarlSinclair]

How long would a gasoline engine run if diesel was added? Sounds like a suggestion for Project Farm.

[gasperajdnik]

I'm a heavy equipment and farm equipment mechanic and I like your videos, keep Up The good work 👍

[knowledgeseekerr]

Wonderful and informative video Eric, Also Your Work bench! Looks so Clean! :)

[zackn]

Hey Eric. I'm a Chrysler tech in Canada. Our Diesel nozzles are yellow or green, it depends in which gas station you go to.
Back to the Chrysler tech thing.. we have both diesel and gasoline powered vehicles as you would know. So we do get both sides of the equation a lot more frequently than we probably should.
Gas in Diesel vehicles doesn't seem to bother them much. We have been very lucky and only ever had to flush the fuel system out.
Diesel in gas vehicles usually goes the same way but on 2 instances.. we have actually seen 2 engines that began to Crack the crown of the pistons as a result of trying to burn the Diesel fuel.

Keep up the good work pal

[workingguy]

For non-catalytic engines it's been a practice of some - ever since leaded fuel went away from normal pumps I'd guess - to put a little diesel in with the gasoline fill-up as an upper-cylinder / valve lubricant. I've done this with motorcycles, older carburetor vehicles, and a fuel-injected Jeep Wrangler (inline six) that someone took the catalytic off of. They all ran great with that little bit of lube in there.

[enlightenedrenegade]

Diesel fuel as well as gasoline are both great solvents. I've noticed at my shop when we do a diesel oil change and then do fuel filters the pan will clean itself out using the diesel fuel.

[danielcevello]

Great video man! I've seen this happen a few times at my job both ways around - gas in a diesel and diesel in a gas. It's always a pain when they put gas in a diesel because in addition to removing all the bad fuel we need to change all the filters. And they take forever to get started again. I've never seen engine damage result from this, but that's not to say it can't happen. I have seen catalytic converters go bad on gas vehicles not long after something like this though.

[jasonklow]

Great video. Very informative. One interesting thing I found out is even before refined peanut oil, Rudolf Diesel's very first attempt used coal dust as a fuel. It nearly killed him several times when the engine block exploded.

[ganeshnarayan]

great video Eric thanks for the information.

[vijayantgovender]

Thank you for sharing Eric always enjoy your videos I am from South Africa

[johnmadden]

Honda enthusiast here..right or wrong on occasion i put .5 l of diesel in a full tank in my 20yr oldl RSX
and it runs like high test..pulls strong..been doing it for 10 yrs and over 150, 000 k-
inspection camera on intakes- clean asa whistle-zero emission issues-runs like a top-and
drive the shit out of it..260k+ and i figure shes just gittin broke in..LMFAO
Eric, love your content, been subed for years, keep up the good work!

[mr.niceguy]

Wow this was awesome. Thanks for the info!

[Chuckools]

What would happen if I put Diesel in my electric car? Asking for a friend... Lol

[mpowerness]

But what Im really wondering is what happens when you put decaf in regular???

[nathanlowe]

I always knew not to mix them but never why. Thanks for the explanation

[SteveStoltz]

I remember when I was a kid my dad experimented with adding diesel to the gasoline in his f350 with a carbed 460. He came up with 1gallon of diesel to 10 gallons of gasoline and it actually increased the fuel economy a little and left a white coating in the pipes. Any more than that he got soot. All bets are off on a fuel injected vehicle though.

[louf]

Awesome topic coverage, and kudos for calling it gasoline.

[kevinshea]

Curious to see if the mason jar you mixed separates over time? if that is the case, you can decanter from the top (or bottom in a conical tank to separate back!)

[timothycrane]

Thanks for getting to the point and telling us what we came to hear. Other YouTubers could take a lesson from you.