ULP in diesel
Submitted: Monday, Mar 28, 2011 at 20:15
ThreadID:
85276
Views:
4121
Replies:
12
FollowUps:
4
This Thread has been Archived
John259
Well, according to my mechanic I'm not the only one who hasn't been entirely focussed during the regular trip to the bowser. I argue that the TV on top of the multi-hose bowser showing footy highlights of Round 1 distracted me, coupled with the hour of the Sunday morning, but the fact remains that I picked up the yellow nozzle instead of the black one to fill my almost empty '08 D4D Prado. Fortunately, the fact that the diesel meter on the bowser wasn't ticking over when I eventually checked alerted me to something being wrong - 36 litres too late though. The bloke who owns the workshop next to the servo was in sweeping up and was good enough to come over and
check what I had found, that there was no visible drain plug for the fuel tank. His suggestion was to fill the whole tank up to its 180l capacity with diesel which would give me a 20% ULP content, and which he said would not be a problem by the time all of the fuel mixed together. I did this and then crawled the 2km
home at barely above idle, then started checking ExploreOz for similar problems. The
feedback I found from other contributors confirmed what I really thought, which was to dump the tankload of fuel. Luckily, my mechanic is only just down the road and was happy to have the car in this morning. He said if the engine was running rough to turn it off and he would come and get it, but all seemed ok so I drove it there. Picked it up this afternoon to be told that he really only needed to drain the rear section of the tank which was accessible after removing the underguard, as the ULP went in first and sat at the bottom of the rear tank. He drained the whole rear section and then pulled out seats and carpet to
check the front section via the strategically placed opening for the fuel pump to confirm that none of the ULP had made it over the reservoir wall, so the engine had only drunk diesel. Changed the fuel filter, filled it up with distillate and a gave a full seal of approval. Lucky I didn't follow all of the advice from the Sunday morning workshop owner as my mechanic explained that as soon as the front tank was used up, the engine would have started sucking from the bottom of the rear tank, which was almost pure ULP when emptied, but at best would have been about 40% ULP content. A $300 lesson, but wont be repeated and better than a $7,500 repair job.
Reply By: Holiday Maker - Tuesday, Mar 29, 2011 at 07:25
Tuesday, Mar 29, 2011 at 07:25
Last
Easter we where getting ready to cast off our yacht from the marina, engine had been running for about 10 minutes.
I was talking to another boat owner when my wife yelled out "Don't forget to fill the water tanks."
Dutuful, I grabbed a hose and proceeded to fill the "
water tank on the port side" while coninuing to talk to the other person.
When the water started to verflow after about 5 minutes, I thought "Gee that was quick to fill 250 litres of water. Then I noticed the colour of the water overflowing. I had just topped up the diesel tank with water.
Moving faster than "Speed Gordon" I jumped up and turned the motor off. Checking the engine compartment, I had just managed to turn the engine off when the water had reached the first filter unit. Took us the rest of the day and night to empty the tank of the 200 litres of fuel/water as there is no drain on the tank. Had to suck it our 6 litres at a time thru the fuel line.
Lesson
well and truly learnt.
Dusty
AnswerID:
449544
Follow Up By: Member - Troll 81 (QLD) - Tuesday, Mar 29, 2011 at 11:23
Tuesday, Mar 29, 2011 at 11:23
ouch
FollowupID:
721914
Reply By: Alloy c/t - Tuesday, Mar 29, 2011 at 11:41
Tuesday, Mar 29, 2011 at 11:41
Said it before and will say it again , Its time that so called sevice stations [ where is the actual service ?] and bowser companies and oil companies got their act together and used the U.N. colour coding system for their products and delivery systems , ,,,,,, RED = ULP ,,, YELLOW = DIESEL ,, GREEN = 2 STROKE ,, BLUE = WATER ,,, how hard is /would that be to follow ,, no mistakes be it at the bowser or from a jerry can ,
AnswerID:
449559
Follow Up By: Hilux fan - Wednesday, Mar 30, 2011 at 16:20
Wednesday, Mar 30, 2011 at 16:20
It would be hard to follow for the nearly 10% of males with some sort of colour vision problem. My son couldn't tell the diference between blue and green. I've known people who can't distinguish between red and blue or red and green. You'll still need to put names on things, even with the colour coding.
FollowupID:
722123